Irene Dunne recalls her marriage to Cary Grant in “Penny Serenade”

Penny Serenade (1941) is an American melodrama directed by George Stevens and starring Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. The film is based on a story by Martha Cheavens that appeared in McCall’s magazine.

Dunne and Grant at the beach in Penny Serenade

Dunne and Grant star as a couple on the brink of divorce after a tragic event in their lives. While preparing to leave her husband, Julie Adams (Dunne) listens to old records that take her back to the early days of her relationship with Roger (Grant). Balancing laughter with tragedy, director Stevens (A Place in the Sun, Giant, Shane) strikes all the right notes with this sentimental classic. 

The excellent supporting cast includes Beulah Bondi and Edgar Buchanan. Grant earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a truly moving performance.

P.S. You may need tissues while watching!

George Stevens (1904 – 1975) was an American film director and producer. He was nominated for five Best Director Academy Awards, winning one for Giant (1956). Stevens got his start in the movies as a cameraman working on many Laurel and Hardy films. Stevens directed many of the top stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, including Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn, Ronald Colman, Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Carole Lombard, Fred Astaire, Joel McCrea, Alan Ladd, Spencer Tracy, and Elizabeth Taylor. Other popular films directed by Stevens include Annie Oakley (1935), Gunga Din (1939), Woman of the Year (1942), The More the Merrier (1943), I Remember Mama (1948), Shane (1953), and The Diary of Anne Frank (1959).

Irene Dunne (1898 –1990) was an American actress and singer who was one of the most popular movie stars during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She is probably best remembered for her comedic roles, though she first became famous playing in melodramas like Back Street (1932) and Magnificent Obsession (1935). In fact, Dunne was so popular as a star of melodramas that she was dubbed “The Queen of the Weepies” by the press. Her comedic breakout performance was in Theodora Goes Wild (1936), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She would go on to make other comedy classics like The Awful Truth (1937), where she earned another Best Actress nod, and My Favorite Wife (1940). Dunne and Grant were one of the most popular screen teams in movie history. All three of their films were critical and box office successes. Dunne earned a total of five Academy Award nominations for Best Actress but never won a competitive Oscar. The fact that the Motion Picture Academy never awarded her an Honorary Academy Award for her body of work is a travesty to me.

Cary Grant (1904 – 1986) was an English-born American actor who became one of the most popular leading men in film history. Grant started his career in vaudeville before heading to Hollywood. He became a superstar in the late 1930s in a series of screwball comedies, including The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne. He was a memorable C. K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story (1940) opposite Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart. He received two Best Actor nominations: Penny Serenade (1941) and None but the Lonely Hearts (1944). Other classic Grant films include Gunga Din (1939), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). He made four popular films with Alfred Hitchcock: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). He was presented with an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970.

Penny Serenade trivia

• Irene Dunne said this was one of her favorite films because it reminded her of her adopted daughter.
• This was the third and final film that Dunne and Grant made together.
• Dunne and Grant share the same bed, which was against the Production Code.
• This was the first of Grant’s two Best Actor nominations; the other was for None but the Lonely Heart (1944).
• To get around the laws restricting the time infants could be on camera, director Stevens hired two sets of identical twins.

Director Stevens hired identical twins to get around the laws restricting the 
time infants could spend on camera.

To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.

To join us on Zoom for a discussion on December 15, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click the link for details and invitation. When you RSVP, you will receive an email and a link to the discussion.

Questions for discussion:

1. Were Grant and Dunne believable as first-time parents?
2. What do you think about how the adoption process was portrayed?
3. Did you like the film’s narrative flashbacks?
4. What did you think of the character roles played by Beulah Bondi (Miss Oliver) and Edgar Buchanan (Applejack Carney)?

Screening of "Penny Serenade" December 17 at Daystar Center

Penny Serenade (1941)
Where: Daystar Center, 1550 S. State Street, Room 102
When: December 17, 2018
Time: 6:45 p.m
Hosted by Stephen Reginald

Penny Serenade (1941) stars Irene Dunne and Cary Grant as a couple on the brink of divorce after a tragic event in their lives. While preparing to leave her husband, Julie Adams (Dunne) listens to some old records that take her back to the early days of her relationship with her husband Roger (Grant). Balancing laughter with tragedy, director George Stevens (A Place in the Sun, Giant, Shane) strikes all the right notes with this sentimental classic. The excellent supporting cast includes Beulah Bondi and Edgar Buchanan. Grant earned his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a truly moving performance.

P.S. Bring tissues!

General Admission: $5, Students and Senior Citizens: $3

Have some Joe and Enjoy the Show!

Before the movie, grab a cup of coffee from Overflow Coffee Bar, located within the Daystar Center. You can bring food and beverages into room 102.

Join the Chicago Film club; join the discussion

Twice a month we screen classic films and have a brief discussion afterward. For more information, including how to join (it’s free), click here. The Venue 1550 is easily accessible by the CTA. Please visit Transit Chicago for more information on transportation options.

Stephen Reginald is a freelance writer and editor. He has worked at various positions within the publishing industry for over 25 years. Most recently he was executive editor for McGraw-Hill’s The Learning Group Division. A long-time amateur student of film, Reginald hosts “Chicago Film Club,” a monthly movie event held in the South Loop, for the past two years. Reginald has also taught several adult education film classes at Facets Film School, Chicago.

Irene Dunne and Cary Grant: Making It All Look So Easy

This post is part of the Dynamic Duos in Classic Film blogathon hosted by fellow classic movie bloggers Once Upon a Screen and Classic Movie Hub.

Irene Dunne and Cary Grant starred in three films together during Hollywood’s Golden Age. One of those films is an undisputed classic and the others are still highly regarded by students of film. Not only were the pairings of Dunne and Grant popular with the critics, but with the public as well. All of the films they starred in were box office smashes, showcasing the stars’ unique talents. And these delightful pairings almost didn’t happen.

Irene Dune established herself as the star of successful melodrama’s like Back Street (1932), The Silver Cord (1933), This Man Is Mine (1934), and Magnificent Obsession (1935). A trained opera singer and stage actress, Dunne also triumphed as Magnolia in Show Boat (1936). When offered the lead role in the screwball comedy Theodora Goes Wild (1936), she resisted. Having carved out a nice career for herself as a dramatic actress, Dunne didn’t want to ruin a good thing. So reluctant to star as Theodora Lynn, Dunne supposedly extended her European vacation, hoping the producers would give the part to another actress. But the suits at Columbia were set on Dunne and they persisted—some say to the point of threatening a lawsuit since Dunne had signed a multiple picture deal with the studio.

Dunne made a name for  herself
by starring in popular melodramas.

Theodora Goes Wild was a showcase for Dunne’s incredible versatility. She sings, she dances, she plays the piano, (Dunne received a degree in music from Chicago Musical College, now Roosevelt University) and she shows her seemingly effortless comic timing. Dunne was so good as Theodora Lynn that she received the second of her five Best Actress Academy Award nominations. The comedy landscape would never be the same. In the wake of that comedy triumph, it was inevitable that the studio suits would put Dunne in another comedy.

The Awful Truth (1937) is a screwball comedy masterpiece that put Cary Grant on the map. Before this film, Grant was doing fine as eye candy to his more famous female costars. As popular as he was, he hadn’t yet solidified his movie image and on-screen persona. Like Dunne in Theodora Goes Wild, Grant was reluctant to make The Awful Truth. Grant originally didn’t feel comfortable under Leo McCarey’s direction. McCarey had an improvisational style that was troubling to the actor. As crazy as it seems today, Grant campaigned to switch roles with character actor Ralph Bellamy. Ironically, it’s McCarey’s direction and encouragement that helped established Grant as one of the best light comedy actors of all time—according to director Peter Bogdonovitch, “there was Cary Grant and everyone else was an also-ran.” In The Awful Truth, Grant is charming, funny, and showed that he was a master at physical comedy. Paired with Dunne, he appears comfortable, assured. He also looks as though he’s having the time of his life on screen. The chemistry between the two stars was magical. The film made Grant a superstar and Dunne earned another Best Actress nomination.

Publicity photo of Dunne and Grant for The Awful Truth

Three years later, Dunne and Grant teamed up again for My Favorite Wife. Leo McCarey co-wrote and produced the film, which was adapted from the very serious Alfred Lord Tenneyson poem “Enoch Arden.” Tennyson’s poem about a long-thought dead spouse was turned into a screwball comedy. This new Dunne/Grant pairing once again focused on the chemistry of the two stars. Arguably not as good as their first outing together, My Favorite Wife is still a delight. Opening at New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall, New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther called the film “an altogether delightful picture” and praised the performances of both stars, reminding viewers of the antics in their previous outing in The Awful Truth:

Do you remember “The Awful Truth”. . . Do you remember Mr. Grant and Miss Dunne as the interlocutorially divided lovers, whose immediate return to domesticity was prevented by nothing much more substantial than Miss Dunne’s tantalizing contrariness? Then you know pretty well what to expect in “My Favorite Wife” only more of it.

Once again, Dunne and Grant starred in a critically acclaimed picture. Once again they starred in a box office smash.

Dunne and Grant went from comic to
dramatic with great success.

Dunne and Grant would take an interesting turn with their next pairing, Penny Serenade (1941). The stars play a young couple who adopt a child and then struggle to raise her under economic hardship. When their little girl suddenly dies, their marriage is put to the test. Directed by George Stevens with a sure touch, the movie tugs at your heart without devolving into crass sentimentality. Our friend Crowther noted the movie’s successful manipulation of his emotions, but praised the picture overall, saying this about the two stars’ performances, “…some very credible acting on the part of Mr. Grant and Miss Dunne is responsible in the main for the infectious quality of the film.” Both performances by the two leads are heartbreaking. Grant has a remarkable scene where he pleads with an adoption agency worker that will break your heart—if you don’t find yourself moist around the eyes, you’re not human. For this performance, Grant received the first of his two Best Actor Academy Award nominations.

Of all the famous screen teams, I think Dunne and Grant are often overlooked. The world would be a much sadder place had the movie paths of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant never crossed.


For more great posts on Dynamic Duos in Classic Film, be sure to click on the links at the top of this page.

Classic Movie Man’s Favorite Christmas Movies: 2011 Edition

Last year I put together a short list of Christmas movie favorites (see Classic Movie Man’s Favorite Christmas Movies). So I decided to put together another list for 2011. This year’s list includes some movies that you may not identify as Christmas movies, but they all include pivotal climatic holiday scenes and often show up during this time of year. The movies are listed below in order of their respective release dates.

Babes in Toyland—1934 This Laurel and Hardy classic also known as March of the Wooden Soldiers, was a favorite of mine as a kid. The “boys” are at their comic best in this interpretation of the Victor Herbert operetta. All the Mother Goose characters are here, including Bo-Peep, Tom-Tom, The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, and Mother Goose herself. Santa Claus makes an appearance, checking up on an order with the toy maker. Due to a misunderstanding the soldiers Santa ordered were mistakenly made life-size and too big for children to play with, which forces the jolly old man to cancel his order. But it’s these giant toy soldiers that save the day at the end.

Heidi—1937 This Shirley Temple classic includes a climatic scene toward the end of the film that takes place during Christmas. Loosely based on the Swiss literature classic by Johanna Spyri, Heidi was originally released on October 15, 1937. One of Temple’s best and most popular films, it has a wonderful message about redemptive love and reconciliation. Jean Hersholt’s characterization as The Grandfather is perfect. He makes the transition from a gruff and bitter man into Heidi’s kind and gentle protector most touching. The film also includes Temple movie mainstays Mary Nash as the evil Fräulein Rottenmeier, Marcia Mae Joes as Klara, and Arthur Treacher as Andrews, the butler, of course.

Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart

The Shop Around The Corner—1940 Legendary film director Ernst Lubitsch’s classic stars Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart as battling coworkers in a Budapest shop. They fall in love when they start corresponding through letters, after answering ads in the newspaper’s lonelyhearts section. Of course Sullivan and Stewart don’t know the true identities of their loves, which makes for some wonderful situations. Never mind that everyone in Budapest sounds like they’re from California, this movie has a warmth and charm that neither remakes, In The Good Old Summertime and You’ve Got Mail, came even close to capturing. For good measure we have the irrepressible Frank Morgan as shopkeeper Mr. Matuschek.

Remember the Night—1940 Tough girl Barbara Stanwyck gets caught shoplifting a bracelet during the Christmas holiday season and is arrested. Fred MacMurray, the prosecuting attorney, postpones the trial until after Christmas and bails Stanwyck out, rather than have her spend the holiday in jail. MacMurray then volunteers to drive Stanwyck to her mother’s house. When Stanwyck’s mother gives her the cold shoulder, MacMurray brings her to his mother’s home to spend the holiday, where she is warmly received. A wonderful romantic melodrama, Remember the Night was written by Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve) and directed by the underrated Mitchell Leisen (Hands Across the Table). An edearing film that demonstrates the power of love and its ability to redeem and transform. 

Meet John Doe—1941 This lesser-known Frank Capra classic stars Barbara Stanwyck as Ann Mitchell a crafty newspaper columnist who creates an everyman character, John Doe. Doe pledges to jump off of the roof of city hall on Christmas Eve, to protest all the injustice in the world. Gary Cooper plays John Doe, handpicked by Mitchell to perpetuate her newspaper column and her job. The column, and the sentiment expressed in it is such a hit with the public that John Doe clubs start forming, making Doe a national figure. Double-crossed by a corrupt newspaper tycoon (Edward Arnold), Doe is disgraced and makes his way to the roof of city hall on Christmas Eve. Will he jump? You’ll have to find out for yourself. Cooper and Stanwyck had a great 1941. They costarred again in the Howard Hawks classic Ball of Fire and Stanwyck starred in the Preston Sturges classic, The Lady Eve. Cooper won the first of his two Oscars for Sergent York. Available in a 70th Anniversary two-disc DVD, Meet John Doe never looked better.

Penny Serenade—1941 The third and last pairing of screen legends Irene Dunne and Cary Grant is a tear-jerking melodrama, which was a change of pace from the rollicking comedies they made together in 1937 and 1940. The movie told in flashback, begins with Julie Adams (Dunne)  packing up her belongings, in preparation to leave her husband, while listening to old recordings on the phonograph. With each familiar tune, she thinks back to the early years of her marriage and happier times. After it is revealed that Julie cannot have children, she and her husband Roger (Grant) adopt a little girl. Tragedy strikes right before Christmas and it tears the couple apart. Directed by Academy Award winner George Stevens, the movie still packs an emotional punch. Grant’s performance earned him his first Best Actor Academy Award nomination. The film also costars the great character actors Beulah Bondi (wonderful as a sympathetic social worker) and Edgar Buchanan. If you’re not crying by the end of this film, you’re dead!

Holiday Inn—1942 Another favorite from my childhood, the movie revolves around friends and entertainers Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) and Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) and their professional and romantic entanglements. After Jim’s girlfriend Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) throws him over for Ted, Jim decides to retire to a Connecticut inn open only during public holidays. Jim hires Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) to work as an entertainer at the inn and a romance quickly develops. This is the movie that launched the song “White Christmas,” which became the biggest selling Christmas song of all time. This film isn’t shown on TCM because it contains a minstrel number, “Abraham” where Crosby and Reynolds appear in blackface. It’s uncomfortable to watch today, but it’s a unfortunate part of our history. The future holiday classic, White Christmas (1954) was a loose remake of this film.

Since You Went Away—1944 Another film not necessarily associated with Christmas, this war-time classic boast an all-star cast featuring Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Montey Wooley, Robert Walker, and Hattie McDaniel. The film begins in early January and ends in late December 1943. Concentrating on the Hilton family as they keep the home fires burning while its matriarch’s (Colbert) husband is fighting overseas. The film is at times sentimental, but at others is brutally honest about the emotional toll of war, separation, and loneliness. The film has a very moving scene between Ann Hilton (Colbert) and fellow factory worker Zofia Koslowska, a Europen émigré, played by silent-screen legend Alla Nazimova. Zofia details her emigration to the United States and how in spite of the tragedy of war, her life is still so much better than it was in the war-torn land of her birth. The film ends on an inspirational note during Christmas to encourage wartime moviegoers, but the message of courage and hope still resonates—maybe even more so—today.

It Happened On 5th Avenue—1947 This minor classic hasn’t benefited from annual showings on TV to build its reputation, but it is an interesting and engaging film. Frank Capra had intended to film this story, but decided he couldn’t make two movies centered around Christmas in the same year, so he opted to make just one, It’s A Wonderful Life. It Happened On 5th Avenue is about a hobo named Aloyisius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) who lives in a boarded up Manhattan mansion during the winter while the owner, Michael J. O’Connor (Charles Ruggles), the second richest man in the world, moves down south for the season. McKeever meets a homeless World War II veteran, Jim Bullock (Don DeFore), recently kicked out of his apartment. Aloyisius feels sorry for Jim and decides to take him “home.” O’Connor’s daughter, Trudy (Gale Storm) unhappy at finishing school, runs away and returns to the boarded up New York City mansion. Both Aloyisius and Jim think she’s a crook out to steal a mink coat. Not wanting to get her father involved and possibly sent back to school, Trudy confesses to being a girl down on her luck and in need of some nice clothes for a job interview. The three become fast friends and decide to invite two homeless families with children to live with them. Before you know it, Trudy’s mother, Mary O’Connor (Ann Harding) is living in the mansion too, disguised as a cook, along with her estranged husband, Michael, now pretending to be another hobo. The plot is incredible, but the cast of pros make it all work somehow. Don Defore and Gale Storm would go on to TV immortality as Mr. Baxter in Hazel and Margie Albright in My Little Margie respectively.

Holiday Affair—1949 Not a big hit when first released, it’s become something of a classic today, due in part to the curiosity surrounding the change-of-pace role for tough-guy Robert Mitchum and repeated showings on TCM. Fresh-faced Janet Leigh costars as war widow, Connie Ennis, with a young son (Gordon Gebert) to support. Connie, a comparative shopper, buys an electric train set from salesman and army veteran, Steve Mason (Mitchum). Connie returns it the next day for a refund, which results in Steve being fired. Connie’s long-term relationship with lawyer Carl Davis (Wendell Corey) is complicated when she finds herself attracted to Steve. Similar to Miracle on 34th Street in some ways, the film benefits from the good chemistry between Leigh and Gebert as mother and son.

Of course there are more Christmas movies, but that’s what the 2012 list is for! Please feel free to share your favorites here and Merry Christmas!

Classic Movie Man's Favorite Christmas Movies: 2010 Edition

Well Dunne: From "Queen of the Weepies" to the Queen of Comedy

Few movie actresses had the critical and box office successes that Irene Dunne had in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939),  My Favorite Wife (1940), and Penny Serenade (1941) were all big hits when released and undisputed classics today.

Dunne started her film career in 1930 with the lead role in a film called Leathernecking. The very next year, she had a breakout performance in Cimarron starring opposite the more established Richard Dix. So impressive was Dunne's performance that she received the first of her five Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.

The films that followed, cast Dunne in a series of popular melodramas including Back Street, Thirteen Women, The Secret of Madame Blanche, and Ann Vickers. When she costarred again with Dix in the 1934  production Stingaree, she was the bigger star and received top billing.

During the early to mid-1930s, Dunne was known in the trade as the "queen of the weepies."  This reputation made Dunne apprehensive when offered the role of Theodora Lynn in the screwball comedy Theodora Goes Wild. As the small town girl who writes a scandalous novel, Dunne's comic timing and expressive emotions were a instant hit with critics and the public.

The two comedies she made with Cary Grant: The Awful Truth and My Favorite Wife helped establish Dunne as one of the grand dames of movie comedy. On her films with Grant, Dunne remarked, "I think we were a successful team because we enjoyed working together tremendously, and that pleasure must have shown through onto the screen ... I will always remember two compliments he made me. He said I had perfect timing in comedy and that I was the sweetest-smelling actress he ever worked with."