| An unremarkable (by today's standards) childrearing | | | | anymore. But why did they have to go to Japan to |
| melodrama in which Cary Grant delivers a | | | | arrive at that point is a moot script question that is |
| performance so good that he was nominated for a | | | | left unanswered. Couldn't the same fate befall Julie if |
| Best Actor Oscar. George Stevens directed the | | | | she had another accident closer to home? Why did |
| script by Morrie Ryskind.The whole movie unfolds as | | | | they have to go all the way to Japan, is not clear. |
| a series of linear flashbacks, each triggered by the LP | | | | The whole "Tokyo episode" stands out like a joke |
| records a disconsolate Julie (Irene Dunne) is playing | | | | without a punch line.The rest of this drama unfolds as |
| on a gramophone just before she leaves her house | | | | the story of the married couple's desperate effort to |
| for good. The reason? There does not seem to be | | | | adopt a child, and once adopted, not to lose |
| anything left in her marriage to keep her there. We | | | | her.There is yet another "baby sequence" in the |
| are soon to learn the reason why and all the tragic | | | | middle of the movie which could easily be part of an |
| events that led her to that wistful moment.The first | | | | unrelated comedy. Grant again excels in this |
| couple of times the revolving LP record dissolves into | | | | sequence, almost paying tribute to the early years he |
| a "memory hole" through which we enter a slice of | | | | spent during his teens as a pantomime and acrobat |
| life in Julie's past, we enjoy it as a manifestation of a | | | | with Bob Pender's troupe. We see the young couple |
| director's creativity. But the sixth or the seventh time | | | | going through many of the anxieties in taking care of |
| that happens, we wonder how many times we have | | | | their adopted 5-week daughter. (Is she asleep or did |
| to suffer the same unrelentingly mechanical idea. It | | | | she quit breathing?)They are so inexperienced, they |
| gets old pretty quickly proving that consistency is | | | | don't even know how to hold a baby or bath her and |
| not always a virtue.Cary Grant plays the young and | | | | change her diaper.But we can't also help notice the |
| dashing newspaper reporter Roger Adams who | | | | progress of a father-daughter bonding between |
| marries the love of his life Julie (played by Irene | | | | Grant and his infant daughter despite the fact that |
| Dunne) on the eve of his departure to Tokyo to | | | | originally he asked for a 2-year old boy "with blond |
| take over his newspaper's Japan bureau. It also | | | | curly hair and blue eyes."For the first couple of years |
| happens to be the Christmas night, complete with | | | | Roger's newly established weekly newspaper |
| the obligatory snowfall (as in another Cary Grant | | | | business, helped by the press veteran Applejack, |
| movie, BISHOP'S WIFE (1948)).Once established in | | | | seems to be making the ends meet. But then his |
| Tokyo, Roger has Julie join him at his new opulent | | | | business takes a sudden downturn and suddenly he is |
| digs complete with a family of Japanese house | | | | a man without an income.Since they are still at a |
| servants. Julie is both delighted and astonished that | | | | "probationary period" in their adoption process, the |
| Roger can sustain that level of luxury with only a | | | | ever-vigilant adoption agency in the person of Miss |
| reporter's salary. We remember an earlier scene in | | | | Oliver (Beulah Bondi) takes Roger to court. The judge |
| which her friend Applejack (Edgar Buchanan) warned | | | | is supposed to take the girl back because a family |
| her against getting involved with a journalist. Is there | | | | without income is not a fit place for any child to |
| something shady about Roger or past that we would | | | | grow up in.However, Cary grant in yet another |
| know about yet?Two interesting things happen | | | | excellent scene, delivers this really emotional |
| during the "Tokyo sequence" that bring both Roger's | | | | monologue about the pain of separation from his |
| character and the script's strength into question.In | | | | daughter, and the absurdity of taking a child back as |
| the first scene, Roger announces Julie that he has | | | | though she was a car or a furniture repossessed |
| quit his job thanks to his family inheritance. Now they | | | | because the owner has been late in payments. His |
| can go travel around the world before they settle | | | | appeal as a heartbroken father wins the day and the |
| down and raise a family, although during their dating | | | | judge allows him to take her back home.After so |
| period Roger showed some reluctance to suffer | | | | many spinning gramophone records dissolving into |
| pranks of children (the beach scene) gladly.It turns | | | | flashback scenes, we watch the child grow and take |
| out what Roger calls "an inheritance" is just about ten | | | | a small part in a Christmas play at school as her very |
| thousand dollars, which shrinks further down to | | | | proud parents watch her and give all their support |
| $8,000 after he pays his outstanding bills. It is a let | | | | despite a minor mishap on the stage that ruins her |
| down for Julie. He accuses Roger by acting "childishly." | | | | day.Then disaster strikes, as it should in a tragedy. |
| We'll see this pattern for the rest of the movie: | | | | We read in a letter written to Miss Oliver that the |
| Roger will always come across as a man with grand | | | | child has died following an illness. Since up to that |
| ideas and much self-confidence who, however, can't | | | | point we have not seen a single scene in which the |
| deliver the bacon at the end.The second important | | | | child suffered from any physical ailments, this also |
| development in the "Tokyo sequence" is the | | | | comes across as contrived a plot point as the earlier |
| earthquake that levels their home. As we continue to | | | | " Tokyo earthquake."After the death of their |
| watch to see the "payoff" of this totally unexpected | | | | daughter Roger and Julie's union starts to unravel |
| natural disaster, the film abruptly shifts back to San | | | | quickly. The girl was the bond that kept them |
| Francisco where Julie is lying in a hospital and she | | | | together. |
| learns that she will not be able to bear children | | | | |