OVP: Penny Serenade (1941)

Film: Penny Serenade (1941)
Stars: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan
Director: George Stevens
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Actor-Cary Grant)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Cary Grant is an unusual star if you just look at his career from the lens of Oscar.  Grant is a true movie star, absolutely one of the best and longest-lasting stars of Classical Hollywood, running from the early sound films (in his work with Mae West & Marlene Dietrich) to being a posh romantic comedy star in the 1930's & 40's to his stint with Alfred Hitchcock reaching into the late 1950's.  His Hollywood classics list is unrivaled by pretty much anyone: The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, Notorious, North by Northwest,...brilliant movie after brilliant movie.  Yet when it comes to Oscar, he received only two nominations, and they were for none of these films, but in fact two little-remembered (by comparison) dramas of the era, 1944's None But the Lonely Heart and today's film 1941's Penny Serenade.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie starts out as something of a light romance between Julie (Dunne) and Roger (Grant), both of whom meet by chance (Julie is a salesgirl in a record shop, Roger buys a record from her even though he doesn't have a record player), and they fall fast in love.  When they are married, though, they understand the complications that come with this as Roger's career flounders (and Julie doesn't know how to teach him to be more sensible with his money), and then an earthquake destroys their home, causing Julie to miscarry and then become infertile.  The remainder of the movie is centered around their struggles with adopting, particularly as a couple with money troubles, who fight for their adopted daughter Trina to stay in their home.

The movie, despite starring two of the great rom-com stars of the era, isn't a comedy or even that much of a "romantic" romance.  This is a straight-up melodrama, and one with a lot of sad twists.  Not only does Julie lose her first baby during the earthquake, but she & Roger are forced to give up their second child because Roger lost his job, a decision Roger eventually pleads with the judge to reverse...and then Trina still ends up dying as a young girl from a sudden illness.  The family goes through hell before eventually adopting an infant boy, willing to give their relationship & parenting another go, and the film is supposed to have a happy ending, but this film toes the line between melodrama and abject cruelty to the poor leads, and despite loving other work from these actors in the past, I couldn't get beyond this even when their movie star charisma finds ways to shine.

Grant likely won his Oscar nomination for two reasons-the first is the courtroom scene, as he's atypically dramatic, and Oscar is impressed when comedians try drama, and second, he had missed for his glorious work in The Philadelphia Story the year before, when his costars Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, & Ruth Hussey all were cited (Stewart even won).  The problem with this nomination is that Grant is one of those actors who views drama as monochromatic, and his flare in these scenes isn't what it is in his comedic work; the courtroom scene is impossible not to watch and wonder what, say, Henry Fonda could have done with it.  Additionally, he plays Roger with too many swings in his character; honestly, though it's not remotely as showy of a part, Irene Dunne is considerably better than Grant in the world of a straight drama.  While Grant might well have won my Oscar for The Philadelphia Story (he's better than Stewart), I can't count past snubs when considering the OVP, so I don't suspect Grant, one of my favorite actors, will do too well at his first Best Actor race when we get to it.