Search - Penny Serenade [Special Edition] on DVD

Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1941 DVD Release: 06/26/2000 Format: DVD - Black and White Edition: Special Collection Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 57 mins Studio: Delta Total Copies: 2 Genres: Drama, Melodrama, Marriage Drama See Also: Penny Serenade, Penny Serenade, Penny Serenade - Cary Grant & Irene Dunne, 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

George Stevens' Penny Serenade comes to DVD from LaserLight. Presented in black-and-white with a standard full frame transfer and an introduction by actor Tony Curtis. The only special feature includes an original theatrical trailer for The Philadelphia Story, starring Cary Grant. This is a fairly average disc for a classic film that has received several DVD releases. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide