The Human Comedy (1943)

Directed by Clarence Brown. Starring Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, Van Johnson, Marsha Hunt, James Craig, Fay Bainter, Donna Reed, Dorothy Morris, John Craven, Mary Nash, Henry O’Neill, Ray Collins.

Not a chuckle-hut, as suggested by the title, but a patchy piece of Americana comprised of plush, unsophisticated vignettes on the home front during the Second World War. William Saroyan’s original screenplay was too long, so he left the project in lieu of cutting it down to a more manageable length, and turned it into a novel; Howard Estabrook received sole credit for the revised script, although it might as well have come from Frank Capra. In the end, Saroyan won out, since he received credit for the story, avoided blame for the screenplay’s flaws, and went on to earn an Academy Award for the now-defunct category of Best Story. Rooney’s telegram delivery boy, Homer, gets most of the spotlight, and he’s better at sincerity than nuance, while heart-on-the-sleeve poignancy continued to elude him. Craig is his high school nemesis, Johnson his serviceman brother, Morgan fills in the “Lionel Barrymore role”, and Ray Collins is Homer’s deceased father, appearing as a spirit a couple times and providing some maudlin bits of narration. Cornball, sentimental, and even preachy at times; there’s an audience for this sort of movie, but in the absence of wit, embellishment, and earned discretion, I’m not it. Be on the lookout for a young, uncredited Robert Mitchum making his film debut.

49/100