Search - Penny Serenade - Cary Grant & Irene Dunne on DVD

Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1941 DVD Release: 01/01/2003 Format: DVD - Black and White Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 0 mins Studio: Diamond Entertainment Corp. Members Wishing: 0 Genres: Drama, Melodrama, Marriage Drama See Also: Penny Serenade, Penny Serenade [Special Edition], Penny Serenade, Penny Serenade, Penny Serenade

While listening to a recording of "Penny Serenade," Julie Gardiner Adams (Irene Dunne) begins reflecting on her past. She recalls her near-impulsive marriage to newspaper reporter Roger Adams (Cary Grant), which begins on a deliriously happy note but turns out to be fraught with tragedy. While honeymooning in Japan, Julie and Roger are trapped in the 1923 earthquake, which results in her miscarriage and subsequent incapability to bear children. Upon their return to America, Roger becomes editor of a small-town newspaper, just scraping by financially. Despite their depleted resources, Julie and Roger want desperately to adopt a child. It seems hopeless until kindly adoption agency head Miss Oliver (Beulah Bondi) helps smooth their path. Alas, their happiness is once more short-lived: their new daughter, Trina (Eva Lee Kuney), succumbs to a sudden illness at the age of six. Reduced to hopelessness, Julie and Roger decide to dissolve their marriage, but Miss Oliver once more comes to the rescue. Sentimental in the extreme, Penny Serenade is also enormously effective, balancing moments of heartbreaking pathos with uproarious laughter. Only director George Stevens could have handled a scene with a copiously weeping Cary Grant without inducing discomfort or embarrassment in the audience. Since lapsing into the public domain in 1968 (though released by Columbia, the film was owned by Stevens' production firm), Penny Serenade has become almost as ubiquitous a cable-TV presence as It's a Wonderful Life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Irene Dunne - Julie Gardiner Adams
Cary Grant - Roger Adams
Beulah Bondi - Miss Oliver
Edgar Buchanan - Applejack
Ann Doran - Dotty

This vintage melodrama starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne has been given a simple presentation for this budget-priced DVD release. Penny Serenade has been transferred to disc in its original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Mono; the dialogue is in English with no multiple language options. Bonus materials include biographies of the stars, background information and trivia facts about the movie, and a collection of still photos. Penny Serenade is no longer protected under copyright laws, and this is one of several DVD releases of this title currently available. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide