1941 – Cary Grant
Penny Serenade
This nomination actually surprised me, but not because I don’t think Grant deserved his nomination. He absolutely did. I was surprised that this was his first Best Actor nomination, and his first of only two, at that. He is one of the most well-remembered and beloved movie stars of his time. He was a very good actor, who seemed perfectly at home in front of the camera. Playing the part of Roger Adams, the romantic lead in this drama, allowed him to show just how skilled he was.
Now, I’ll admit, when I think of Cary Grant, I think more of his comedic roles in films like the Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace, and His Gal Friday. But this movie was a romantic drama. There were moments where he needed to be teetering on the edge of tears, and other times when severe depression was called for. Grant handled it all with depth and gravitas. The scene the leaps to mind is the one in which he is pleading with a judge not to take away his adopted daughter because he has no steady income. The sheer desperation he was able to put into his performance was impressive.
And that wasn’t the only scene where he really leaned into the drama. At the end, when his wife is leaving him, he knows that he has really messed up his marriage, and that it is his own fault. Grant was amazing as he tells his wife that he can’t think of a reason for her to stay with him. He showed more than simple depression in that moment. There was fear as well, and that elevated the emotion of the scene to something special.
Alright, yes. There was an amusing scene in which both Grant and his costar Irene Dunne were able to ham it up a bit and make us all laugh a little. The baby’s first night in their home was pretty funny. When Roger thinks the infant is missing and starts to panic, I could tell that Grant was well within his comedic element. But when I think of this movie, it’ll be the dramatic moments that I’ll remember. There was a reason why audiences loved the actor for such a long time, and why he had such a prolific career. And apparently he was more than just a comedic genius. He was as dramatic as you could want when he needed to be.