秋缠断肠记

Title: Penny Serenade

Year: 1941

Country: USA

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Romance

Director: George Stevens

Writer: Morrie Ryskind

based on the story Martha Cheavens

Music: W. Franke Harling

Cinematography: Joseph Walker

Cast:

Irene Dunne

Cary Grant

Edgar Buchanan

Beulah Bondi

Ann Doran

Eva Lee Kuney

Wallis Clark

Dorothy Adams

Rating: 7.0/10

The film reunites Irene Dunne and Cary Grant for the third and the last time, after their successful pairing in Leo McCarey's THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) and MY FAVORITE WIFE (1940). Under the tutelage of George Stevens, PENNY SERENADE is a good-natured and polished melodrama where mishaps and glee alternately emerge around an average couple Julie (Dunne) and Roger Adams (Grant).

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 andBeulah 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 directorGeorge 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.

referential point: George Stevens’ A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951, 8.1/10)

关于一个普通甚至比较困难的家庭收养孩子的故事。

影片里的家庭，丈夫不是一个很有责任感的人，也许是还年轻，他对工作不那么珍惜，有点钱花起来很随意，有点好高骛远，没有长远打算以及认真工作的态度，以至于家庭的经济一直不怎么好，而妻子没有工作。不知道这算是当时典型的美国家庭么？当然，年轻的家庭也许是会这样。

在这样一个家庭里，由于发生了点事故，导致妻子不能生育，他们便决定领养一个孩子。领养很顺利，他们也很有爱心，但基本的经济没有保障，导致他们一年后差点失去继续领养的资格。虽然最后感动了法官，得到了继续抚养的资格，但几年后孩子生病突然死去了，于是家庭又陷入即将分裂的局面。一对相爱的夫妻，那么渴望孩子，然而经济基础又不稳固。不是很能理解这样的情况。如果真有养孩子的意愿，至少要成熟些，理解这背后的责任和义务，而不仅仅是为了维系感情或者自己想要孩子的意愿。毕竟孩子需要的不仅仅是有爱的父母，还有物质保障等一系列的需求。因此，影片的最后有点匪夷所思，竟然给他们又一个领养的机会。家庭难道必须要有孩子来维系吗？没有孩子的家庭一样可以幸福。家庭里的两个人则需要不断成长。不得不说，孩子的到来可以加速家庭的成熟度，但前提仍然是，大人需要有意愿接受生活的挑战而自我成长。

据说加里.格兰特很喜欢此片，并演出了一个不同于其以往的诙谐幽默睿智的形象，这里是一个有点浮躁但有爱心的父亲的形象，对孩子很温柔，特别是为了争取继续抚养而在法官面前慷慨陈词感动落泪，这是他演过的影片中极少见到的脆弱形象，他演得很感人。想到他自己的童年经历，这个角色对他兴许是有非凡意义吧。他在影片中可以表达他的父爱，虽然他在经济上的责任是不完美的，但爱孩子仍然坚持抚养孩子，也爱自己的妻子。现实中他突然失去了母亲，随后被父亲抛弃，完全靠自己生存，童年的经历给他带来巨大创伤。这也许赋予他在影片中不同的经历和体验，他的表演很棒。现实中，他也是一个好父亲，自女儿出生后便息影，尽量陪伴女儿的成长。