Penny Serenade

A married couple, Julie and Roger Adams, are preparing to part ways. As Julie sorts through their belongings, she plays the records they collected together, and the music draws her back through the story of their life as a couple. What follows moves between the early days of their impulsive marriage, a newspaper assignment that takes them to Japan, and the hardships that shape their attempts to build a family. The loss of a pregnancy during their time abroad leaves Julie unable to have children, and the couple later pursue adoption. A kind adoption agency worker, Miss Oliver, helps them bring a child into their home, though their troubles are not over. The film is a drama about endurance and the strain that repeated misfortune places on a marriage.

George Stevens directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Morrie Ryskind. It was released in 1941, arriving between Gunga Din and Woman of the Year in a career that would later include A Place in the Sun, Shane, Giant and The Diary of Anne Frank. Irene Dunne and Cary Grant lead the cast as Julie and Roger, with Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan, Ann Doran and Eva Lee Kuney in supporting roles.

On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 7.5 out of 10 from 17 reviews, higher than its audience score on TMDB, where it sits at 6.6 from 125 votes. The gap suggests critics have responded to it more warmly than general viewers have.