Sunday, December 13, 2020

Saturday, December 12 - Penny Serenade

Penny Serenade (1941)

The film charts the meeting, courtship, and marriage of Julie Gardiner (Irene Dunne) and Roger Adams (Cary Grant) through the playing of popular songs relevant to each time period. After their spur-of-the-moment marriage on New Years' Eve and a night in Roger's train compartment en route to San Francisco, Julie rejoins Roger in Tokyo where he has a stint as a reporter. Julie loses their unborn child in the 1923 Tokyo earthquake and returns to California despondent, until their friend Applejack Carney (Edgar Buchanan) encourages them to adopt a child. While Roger struggles to keep a newspaper going in the fictional California town of Rosalia, Julie keeps house and outfits the nursery.

They apply at an adoption agency for a two-year-old boy, and receive a call from Miss Oliver (Beulah Bondi) that a five-week-old baby girl is available. Though Roger would have preferred a boy, he falls in love with the baby, and he and Julie care for her during their one-year probation period. At the end of that time, Roger has lost the newspaper and the law will not allow him to adopt the baby without an income. Roger appears before the judge and delivers an impassioned plea to keep the girl, whom he considers his own. The judge awards custody, and Roger returns home to Julie with their daughter.

Years later, Roger and Julie swell with pride as their daughter, not yet old enough to play an angel in the Christmas play, plays the "echo" instead. The following Christmas, Julie writes to Miss Oliver that Trina has died from a sudden illness. The child's death sends Roger into a depression, and Julie resolves to leave him, believing he does not need her anymore. Just as she is about to leave for the train station, the couple receives a phone call from Miss Oliver, saying that a two-year-old boy has just become available for adoption. Roger and Julie embrace, ready to rebuild their marriage with a new child.

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