Featured Audience Ratings

• Devon B

  
  Love, marriage, and parenthood, all the bittersweet magnificence of life is on display in "Penny Serenade", a sentimental little film from 1941. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne star as the lovers who, as the movie opens, seem doomed to separate. As she's packing to leave… More
  Love, marriage, and parenthood, all the bittersweet magnificence of life is on display in "Penny Serenade", a sentimental little film from 1941. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne star as the lovers who, as the movie opens, seem doomed to separate. As she's packing to leave her husband, she finds a box of old records and begins to listen to them. Each record is tied to a specific place and time in her mind, unlocking memories that show a relationship unfold as the movie progresses. The song she was playing at the record store where she worked when they first met or the song that reminded her of the time they spent living in Japan, each is a poignant little chapter in the lives of these two people. But why is she leaving her husband? The answer reveals itself slowly and tragically. It's said that the human body is simply a vehicle for genes needing to replicate (Agent Scully, X-Files, season 4, episode 2), so the suggestion is that a body unable to reproduce might lose its purpose. If I can find any fault in "Penny Serenade", it's that the ending is wrapped up a little too neatly and perhaps a little too callously. There are some things in life you can't just kiss and make better. There are some losses that can't be cooled with an ice cream cone on the ride home. Dunne and Grant both deliver career-highlight performances (Grant was in fact, nominated for an Oscar), and maybe the ending was an audience appeasement. After all, when we've invested so much emotion into the characters, it would be cruel not to give some light at the end of the tunnel.

• AJ V

  
  This is a very sentimental, sappy, but realistic drama of a young couple. It's good, but I'm not a big fan of the film, although I loved Grant in it.

• Jennifer D

  
  Such a sad-y! My biggest problem with this film was the time passage in records. Cutting back to Irene Dunne and all she did was change records, circle into "a few years" later deal and it got old. There are better ways to tell passage of time. That aside, Cary Grant's… More
  Such a sad-y! My biggest problem with this film was the time passage in records. Cutting back to Irene Dunne and all she did was change records, circle into "a few years" later deal and it got old. There are better ways to tell passage of time. That aside, Cary Grant's cracking voice in the courtroom teared me up. The man is such an acting god.

• Stella D

  
  i cry every single time! i guess that makes it a weeper

• Lanning :

  
  After seeing <i>None but the Lonely Heart</i> the other day, and hearing Robert Osborne and Jack Klugman compare it to <i>Penny Serenade</i>, I had high hopes for this. Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's much less Cary Grantish Cary Grant.… More
  After seeing <i>None but the Lonely Heart</i> the other day, and hearing Robert Osborne and Jack Klugman compare it to <i>Penny Serenade</i>, I had high hopes for this. Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's much less Cary Grantish Cary Grant. And Irene Dunne is always worth the watch. <p> Still, I think I suffered a bit from the Van Helsing effect: If you truly expect something to be good, it very often won't be. On the flip side, however, the Van Helsing effect can work to your benefit: If you truly expect something to be bad, it might actually surprise you and turn out to be good. <p> I can still recommend this, but it you want to see the best Cary Grant, you must see <i>None but the Lonely Heart</i>