“PENNY SERENADE.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 291, 13 November 1941, Page 2

“PENNY SERENADE.”

, AT REGENT TO-MORROW. Ecstatic romance is the major theme of George Stevens’ “Penny Serenade,’’ George Slovens’ new drama at tire Regent Theatre, commencing to-morrow with Irene Dunne and Gary Grant starred. Two of the most exciting stars on the screen to-day, in a love story which is. everything a love story should be—sentimental, rapturous, filled with laughter and with tears —“Penny Serenade” possesses as well a warmth and tenderness which makes it one of the year’s immediate selections for the vaunted “ten best.” As a casual, irresponsible newspaperman and his wife, Grant and Miss Dunne bring to the screen characterisations which are intrinsically human, filled with sympathetic understanding so that the romance becomes one that not only belongs to, but becomes a part of, every member of their audiences. The stars surpass anything they have ever given the screen. “Penny Serenade'’ carries its principals through a ten-year period, it traces Uicir hectic courtship and impetuous marriage, and describes their rapturous honeymoon which ends in neardisastcr. Despondent, and despairing because of the loss of their baby, the couple settle down to life in a small country town, where he attempts to run a newspaper. The struggle for existence straightens the newspaperman out, so that he becomes an attentive husband and, when they adopt a child, a loving and responsible father. When the tragedy hits them again, the boy finds himself unable to face the future; ho reverts to his former reckless disregard of life. His drinking makes the situation ever more intolerable, and his wife, unable to halt this wreckage of. their high romance, finally plans a divorce. “Penny Serenade” reaches a smashing climax of laughter and tears in a surprise ending.