Les grands rêves d'un couple cèdent la place à une vie remplie de tristesse et de joie inattendues.Les grands rêves d'un couple cèdent la place à une vie remplie de tristesse et de joie inattendues.Les grands rêves d'un couple cèdent la place à une vie remplie de tristesse et de joie inattendues.
- Réalisation
- Scénario
- Casting principal
- Nommé pour 1 Oscar
- 2 victoires et 2 nominations au total
- Trina (at the Age of 1 Year)
- (as Baby Biffle)
- Mother in Stalled Car
- (non crédité)
- McDougal
- (non crédité)
- Girl
- (non crédité)
- Reporter
- (non crédité)
- Man
- (non crédité)
- Boy
- (non crédité)
- New Year's Party Drunk
- (non crédité)
- Miss Morgan
- (non crédité)
Avis à la une
'Penny Serenade' was luckily not one of those potential wastes, and the reasons as to why it was seen (cast, director, premise) weren't squandered either. Found it to be a great film that was even better than remembered, with genuine emotional impact and immense likeability. Also thought that mostly it avoided the traps that it easily could have fallen into, considering the type of film (essentially a melodrama, not an easy type of film to nail) it was. A type of film that can be done well, and has been done well numerous times, but has a good deal of dangers evidenced by just as many films falling into those traps.
Maybe 'Penny Serenade' moves too slowly at first, it doesn't find its momentum straight away.
The ending also felt a bit too pat and tacked on.
However, 'Penny Serenade' is very nicely shot and looks like it was made with care and love. Stevens directs with expert control, mostly keeping the story engaging, getting the best out of his cast and stopping the story from going over-the-top on the sentimentality, doing all of this with ease. The music is lovely to listen to and didn't ever find the placement questionable, a good thing seeing as music is a very important thing to talk about when reviewing for me and can find how the music is placed as important as the music itself.
Script is thought-provoking and warm-hearted, with the highlight being Grant's big speech that really brought a lump to my throat. Once it gets going, the story is charming and engaging more often than not, with also a relatability factor that's inspiring yet wrenching the gut worthy, but it's the emotional impact that makes 'Penny Serenade' memorable. This is genuinely poignant stuff without being sentimental-heavy, and it is very difficult to not clutch at your heart or reach for the tissues watching the film.
Furthermore, the characters are ones investing in and relating to and brought to life by the note-perfect cast. Dunne radiates class and Beulah Bondi and especially Edgar Buchannan provide sympathetic and knowing support, but it's a superb Grant at his most heartfelt who sticks out the most. He and Dunne's chemistry is beautifully tender.
All in all, slow start but well worth sticking with, because up until the ending it is a beautiful film. 9/10 Bethany Cox
Opening with Julie assuming her deliberated departure from Roger in medias res, the narrative consists of a nexus of chronological flashback segued by various melodies in an album coined "The Story of a Happy Marriage" playing from the phonograph, as signifiers to Julie's memories, how a tuneful and glitched YOU WERE MEAN FOR ME brings Roger to her life, their sequential romance, a spur-of-the-moment marriage and their spell in Japan due to Roger's work where a seismic shock (both literally and metaphorically) leaves an irremediable missing link in their otherwise content life.
Back to US, Roger starts his print business from the scratch in a small town, that missing link will be mended through adoption, a new life is put into their care and they must get familiar with parental skills (where we get great comedic moments in its slice-of-life simulation) and fight for their baby girl against their unstable financial situation, only to come in for another hammer blow that will (almost) sabotage their marriage, if not for the problematic and expedient ending, the fond memory of a departed can be so quickly and miraculously displaced by the arrival of a new one, is it a blind faith deeply entrenched in the psyche of America at then or that marriage is so unbearable if not for the presence of an offspring? One would gratingly wonder.
Save for that reactionary deus ex machina, the film is a heartfelt blessing from Hollywood-land in a less glamorous and often depreciated genre of melodrama, the two leads give sterling performances here, both shorn of star vanity and completely carry the rather corny story on their own shoulders and shore it up with significant effort to sustain a touching but also realistic vibe that transmogrifies the picture with enduring charisma and yesteryear nostalgia. Cary received his first-ever Oscar nomination for this picture, his Oscar moment is that earnest plead in front of the judge, which rarely emblazons his dramatic showmanship to great extent, but Dunne, admittedly, is the fulcrum of the film here, she is self-deprecating but never shy of inner strength and orthodox femininity, quite a leading lady in her early 40s, why isn't she more worshiped by new generations? She is the convention-bucking heroine of a sexism business and an impressive 5- times Oscar nominee. Also, Edgar Buchanan and Beulah Bondi both need a shout-out for their supporting turns, the former's uncle Applejack is the bee's knees every family needs whereas the latter is so primly respectable by her sheer appearance as the rule-breaking head of the adoption faculty, lastly, to sing a little praise to director George Stevens, what an even-handed actor's director he is, his style is un-showy but after all, it is the torrid human emotion gets our attention and keeps us watching closely to his performers, that is a different kind of cinematic expertise which no one can deny.
Le saviez-vous
- AnecdotesCary Grant, one of the cinema's greatest comedic actors, was only ever nominated twice for an Academy Award for Best Actor, in both instances for lesser-known dramatic roles. This was one of them, followed three years later by Rien qu'un coeur solitaire (1944).
- GaffesThe dress Julie wears at the beginning of playing the records is not the same dress she is wearing when she is playing the last record. This is because she changed into a different dress as well as coat while she is packing to leave and left the record playing.
- Citations
Judge: [Judge firmly addressing two unseen attorneys] I'll give you an opportunity to better prepare your facts.
Man: [Hands Judge some papers] Adoption proceedings, the Adams case.
Judge: What?
Man: The Adams case.
Judge: [Looks disturbed] Oh yes, yes. Uh...
[turns back to attorneys]
Judge: if either one or both of you gentlemen conduct yourselves like you've been doing today I'll hold you in contempt, the both of ya!
Judge: [Walks into chambers, sees Roger, Miss Oliver, and the baby all seated. Sits at desk] Uh, oh this is the child in question. Ahem, let me see. Yes, I recall looking over these adoption papers. I see you have no income at present.
[Looks at Roger]
Judge: Is that correct?
Roger Adams: Yes your Honor.
Judge: Now what is this Miss Oliver? You know this case should never have come before me.
Miss Oliver: Well your Honor I feel that this is a special case. I kept hoping until the last minute Mr. Adams might be able to resume the operation of his paper or get a job. But unfortunately he hasn't been able to do either, so i thought...
Judge: Under these conditions I can't grant the adoption. This child will have to revert to the orphanage.
[Gestures to Roger]
Judge: Will you draw up a chair please while I prepare these release papers for you to sign? Just a matter of routine.
Roger Adams: If you please your Honor, it can't just be a matter of routine for people to have their baby taken away from them. This child is ours Judge...
Judge: [Interrupting] Those are the requirements of the law.
Roger Adams: Yes but you see we've had her since she was six weeks old. It just doesn't seem reasonable to give her back to-to-to strangers.
Judge: Mr. Adams, you're not here to plead your case. You've had the regular opportunity to prove your fitness to provide.
Roger Adams: We are *fit* Judge if you just look at the record.
Judge: Without any income I have no alternative. Didn't you make that clear Miss Oliver?
Miss Oliver: Yes your Honor I did, but I thought...
Judge: [Firmly] I'm sorry but that is the law.
Roger Adams: Look your Honor, she's not like an automobile or an icebox or a piece of furniture or something you buy on time and when you can't give up the payments they take it away from you!
[Baby starts to cry]
Roger Adams: Now sit still and be a good girl. Anyone could give up those kinds of things, but I ask you Judge how can you give up your own child? And she is our child just as much as if she'd been born to us!
[Baby continues crying]
Roger Adams: Now, now, Daddy's not going to go away.
[Baby stops crying and smiles]
Roger Adams: Look Judge, we've had her over a year now. Why we-we walked the floor with her when she had the colic. We've lost nights of sleep worrying every time she cut a tooth. We've gone through everything, everything real parents have with one of their own. Ask Miss Oliver here about the inspections we've had to have. Her-her weight charts, her vaccination certificates, h-her toys, her toothbrush! How many parents could keep one of their own and
[voice cracks]
Roger Adams: go through that? And you sit here and say it's a matter of routine for you to take her away from us.
Miss Oliver: Please! Mr. Adams...
Roger Adams: I'm sorry Judge, but we weren't as fortunate as most people. We would've had one of our own only-only... well you don't know how badly my wife wanted a child. It wasn't so important to me. I-I don't know, I suppose most men are like this but children never meant a great deal to me. Oh I liked them alright I suppose, but well what I'm trying to say is your Honor the first time I saw her... she looked so little and helpless. I didn't know babies were so-so little. And then she took a-hold of my finger and I held onto it. She-she just sort of walked into my heart Judge
[begins to cry]
Roger Adams: and-and she was there to stay. I didn't know I could feel like that! I'd always been well, kind of careless and irresponsible. I wanted to be a big shot. And I couldn't work for anybody, I had to be my own boss, that sort of thing. Now here I am standing in front of a judge pleading for just a little longer so that I can prove to you I can support a little child that doesn't weigh quite twenty pounds. It's not only for my wife and me I'm asking you to let us keep her Judge, it's for her sake too. She doesn't know any parents but us.
[starts sobbing]
Roger Adams: She wouldn't know what'd happened to her. You see there's so many little things about her that nobody would understand her the way Judy and I do. We love her Judge, please don't take her away from us. Look, I'm not a big shot now, I-I'll do anything, I'll work for anybody.
[Starts to break down]
Roger Adams: I-I'll beg, I'll borrow, I-I'll... please Judge I'll sell anything I've got until I get going again. And she'll never go hungry, she'll never be without clothes not so long as I've got two good hands so help me!
[Camera fades out as Judge, Roger, and Miss Oliver all ponder what has just been said]
- Versions alternativesAlso shown in computer-colored version.
- ConnexionsEdited into Connaître son ennemi - Japon (1945)
- Bandes originalesYou Were Meant for Me
(1929) (uncredited)
Music by Nacio Herb Brown
Lyrics by Arthur Freed
Played on a record and sung by Johnny Johnston four times
Played as background music often
Meilleurs choix
Détails
- Durée
- 1h 59min(119 min)
- Couleur
- Rapport de forme
- 1.37 : 1