Wonderful character development!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a married couple with regrets who tearfully plan to part; the wife's recollections of their union (via her phonograph records!) tell the story: they were childless after lucking into the adoption of a six-week-old baby girl, whose health suddenly grows worse in her formative years. Producer-director George Stevens smoothly steers this star-vehicle from light comedy to tragedy without hitting so much as a bump. The comfortable leads obviously do a lot to make the scenario an involving one, though Morrie Ryskind's script, from an original story by Martha Cheavens, is little more than a novelette. Grant received an Oscar nomination for his work; while Dunne works the audience over with sentiment--with faraway eyes and a faraway voice--Grant's honest, forthright husband connects with the audience in a more direct way. His reluctance to take on an infant--a girl even!--has to be nimbly handled so that this character doesn't come off cold or stubborn. Dunne has a standout bit trying to change the baby's diaper with a crowd watching (it's a funny/emotional scene many new mothers may recognize), but Grant's portrait of the 'ordinary man' with money worries and job troubles becomes the focal point of the picture. With Beulah Bondi as the adoption agent (she's directed to glow with grandmotherly warmth and yet look upon this couple with skepticism, often in the same scene) and Edgar Buchanan, who uses his humorous brand of cracker-barrel wisdom to get through a baby-bath. **1/2 from ****

Julie (Irene Dunne) is leaving her husband Roger Adams (Cary Grant). Her friend Applejack Carney (Edgar Buchanan) tries to help. She plays some records which reminds her of their happier days. Roger first meets Julie as a sales clerk in a record store. Applejack warns her about dating newspaper man Roger. The newspaper takes him to Japan and he asks her to marry. An earthquake in Japan causes Julie to miscarry. She can't have children anymore. Roger's small newspaper is struggling and money is tight. They adopt a little girl but the struggle continues and then the girl suddenly dies.This movie lacks a drive to move the story at the beginning. The first section is pedestrian and slow. Dunne and Grant are basically 40 year olds doing the young love story. They are rather bland and Grant isn't allowed much comedic leeway. The earthquake shakes things up a bit literally. The story stops being so bland. As adoptive parents, they show a bit more color. Roger is reluctant and Julie is eager. They start to have better chemistry. They get to do some fun bits like the alarm clock. The emotional content is also heightened. However the final act is rushed. The audience needs time to process the death. The letters are also hard to read. The death occurring off-scene is somewhat expected for the time. However it does take away the big cinematic move of the parents finding their dead child. It's better to take out most of the courtship. That's not the interesting part of the story.

I'm a fan of Grant and Dunne's two previous "screwball comedy" features, "The Awful Truth" and "My Favourite Wife". This movie is however a million miles away from those comedy classics being an old-fashioned weepie about a couple who come together later in life and who despite the initial resistance of Grant's character to fatherhood, suffer the loss of their first child in pregnancy (due to a surprise earthquake in Japan, yep, go figure it!) and who later adopt a baby girl who unsurprisingly becomes the centre point of their lives.As a childless husband, I found I couldn't relate to the tribulations of this couple who in the end can only co-exist if there's a child to act between them as the family glue, the happy ending emanating unsurprisingly from another phone call from the orphanage just as they're about to separate for good.It's all very sincere and earnest, but it's also very slow and undramatic, "high-points" of the film being Dunne's excruciating attempt to put a nappy on the baby and the couple's adoring attendance at the now infant girl's first Christmas nativity.Edgar Buchanan as the silly-named Applejack gets a sympathetic part as their best friend and Beulah Bondai likewise as the orphanage matron who they win over to their side despite their struggling poverty.Grant and Dunne try hard to put across this sentimental tosh with conviction but they seem too old for their parts and occasionally come over as gauche and unconvincing. Grant gets a big scene where he tries to convince the "by-the-book" orphanage governor to let them keep their child, but like so many other scenes, it goes on too long, lessening its dramatic input. Director Stevens uses as the, I hesitate to call it narrative drive, dissolves of Dunne playing "their tunes" on record discs, this gimmick palling quickly as the dull story kicks in.While I was pleased to finally see a rarely screened Grant movie, it probably isn't one I'll want to see again. It's not a terrible movie, but it is, alas, quite a boring one.

This is a very old-fashioned type of movie, so you have to be prepared for that when you sit down to watch it. It certainly seems older than 1941! But it rather nicely shows -- in episodic style -- the trials and tribulations of a marriage.Ironically, Cary Grant -- my favorite actor -- was nominated for an Academy Award for his role here, although I don't feel it's a stellar performance at all. Decent, but not stellar. And, Grant's character is not totally likable...but perhaps realistic. I guess I'd rather a nomination went to Irene Dunne, who shines as the wife. One of my favorite character actresses also shines here -- Beulah Bondi -- as the head of the adoption agency. Edgar Buchanan, not usually one of my favorites, does nicely here as a surprisingly sensitive newspaper printer and friend of Grant and Dunne.Generally speaking, the film drags a bit. The earthquake scene, though brief, is quite well done. It's a very sentimental story, and you may just shed a tear. It's nice to see a better print now on TCM. The film fell into the public domain, and for a while only poor prints were available for watching.Worth a watch, but far from my favorite film of either Cary Grant or Irene Dunne.