In addition to Penny Serenade being a beautifully photographed movie, there are affecting performances across the board. Perhaps Serenade offers simple examples of George Stevens’ keen eyes, but it’s still a worthy study.
#Biff cane in movie movie
I find myself pausing often when I watch Serenade to digest his use of otherwise inconsequential objects to balance a shot – a ladder placed in front of the actors in several scenes or the way he places the actors slightly off-center to frame the perfect composition or how he uses columns and doors throughout the movie to frame the actors.
This is one reason why this movie is worth a second and third look as Stevens brings his staging perfection to each and every scene.
He is the Penny Serenade – if you will – of those belonging on the Mt. Yet for some reason, Stevens remains mostly overlooked himself. George Stevens’ pictures range from melodramas to screwball comedies with many that stand among the best of the golden age. One of the all-time greats, a Stevens story always offers a stylized visual precision and memorable performances fostered by a master of emotion. Penny Serenade was produced and directed by George Stevens for Columbia Pictures. This is a beautifully woven tapestry of nostalgia, where the tears are supplemented by joy and charm and beauty. I submit Penny Serenade as my choice for the “No, you’re crying!” blogathon hosted by Moon in Gemini for the tears, but I offer this post in honor of one of my all-time favorite movies for everything else I see in it. The reason for that being that Penny Serenade is seen as a weepie, as they used to refer to movies that make people cry, because it does make you cry. It’s been my experience that the mere mention of Penny Serenade causes people to shrink back in alarm, a severe avoidance reaction that few movies elicit. Serenade takes quite a leap from the broad comedy that rules the pair’s first two outings – Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth (1937) and Garson Kanin’s My Favorite Wife (1940). In Penny Serenade we get a story about the trials and tribulations of a couple who struggle to stay together after the death of their child. This many years later my torch has not diminished for Penny Serenade, the third and last cinematic marriage between Dunne and Grant, the two actors I believe to make up the perfect film couple. I have a deep affection for George Stevens’ 1941 heartbreaking melodrama, a movie I watched many times throughout my childhood since I was about 6 years old. I must warn you that this may be one of those times when my emotions defeat any semblance of coherent writing I may possess. Before I recognized His Magnificence, or as you may know him, Cary Grant – and before I knew Irene Dunne as one of Hollywood’s great talents, I was in love with Penny Serenade (1941).
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