{"id":21779,"date":"2012-01-04T12:28:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T19:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=21779"},"modified":"2021-12-20T18:56:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T01:56:33","slug":"human-comedy-the-1943","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=21779","title":{"rendered":"Human Comedy, The (1943)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Try to remember that nothing good ever ends.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-21781\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Poster.jpg 505w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nDuring World War II, a teenager (Mickey Rooney) in the small town of Ithaca, California takes a job as a telegram messenger to help support his widowed mother (Fay Bainter), his sister (Donna Reed), and his younger brother (Jackie &#8220;Butch&#8221; Jenkins) while his older brother (Van Johnson) is away at war. Meanwhile, his boss (James Craig) negotiates a romance with an upper-class girl (Marsha Hunt); his elderly co-worker (Frank Morgan) struggles to keep up with his job; and Johnson regales his orphaned army buddy (John Craven) with tales about how idyllic life is back in Ithaca.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clarence Brown Films<\/li>\n<li>Coming of Age<\/li>\n<li>Donna Reed Films<\/li>\n<li>Fay Bainter Films<\/li>\n<li>Frank Morgan Films<\/li>\n<li>Mickey Rooney Films<\/li>\n<li>Small Town America<\/li>\n<li>Van Johnson Films<\/li>\n<li>World War Two<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary acknowledges that &#8220;director Clarence Brown shamelessly pulls all our heartstrings&#8221; in &#8220;this beautifully realized adaptation of Williams Saroyan&#8217;s wonderful novel about life in a small town during WWII&#8221;. He lists all the elements of &#8220;Americana&#8221; we see as the gently episodic film progresses, arguing that &#8220;we can&#8217;t help but feel waves of nostalgia, religion, and patriotism and develop a sense of family, duty\/responsibility, and brotherhood&#8221; as a result. He calls out Mickey Rooney&#8217;s &#8220;moving performance as Homer McCauley&#8221;, and notes that the film is &#8220;filled with characters you&#8217;ll recognize, events that you may also have lived&#8221;. He asserts that &#8220;every few minutes your eyes will fill with tears &#8212; over something happy, sad, noble, familiar&#8221;, and ultimately posits that the &#8220;picture&#8217;s major theme is simple: all Americans are equal, all orphans in America&#8230; are part of the American family&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not quite as enamored with the film as Peary (who nominates it as one of the Best Pictures of the Year in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>). My sentiments are much more aligned with those of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s3401huma.html\">DVD Savant<\/a>, who writes that &#8220;the movie has all the faults of a wartime film tailored for morale purposes, and as such offers a strange mix of Saroyan&#8217;s poetry (too much of it, in fact) and overbearing MGM sentiment&#8221;, yet concedes that &#8220;despite its flaws the film is as touching now as it was then&#8221;. Like Savant, I feel the film &#8220;tries too hard&#8221; yet &#8220;is by no means an embarrassing hoot&#8221;, given that &#8220;most of its scenes are honest and quite a few have a wonderful, natural appeal&#8221;. Indeed, for every shamelessly hokey device (i.e., the presence of Rooney&#8217;s deceased father [Ray Collins] providing a voice-from-beyond-the-grave narration), there&#8217;s a scene that hits home in its quiet authenticity &#8212; i.e., Frank Morgan&#8217;s struggles to stay awake and sober while receiving news about heartbreaking tragedies on the front. <\/p>\n<p>The performances throughout are a mixed big, with some characters coming across as simply archetypes (i.e., Bainter as a harp-playing widow; Reed as Rooney&#8217;s quietly beautiful sister) &#8212; but often this seems due simply to the material they were given to work with (or not). Rooney was rightfully Oscar-nominated for his surprisingly heartfelt and selfless portrayal as Homer Macauley; Savant accurately points out that Rooney &#8220;flawlessly&#8221; performs a critical early scene &#8212; in which he delivers a telegram to a Mexican-American woman whose son has died in the war &#8212; by simply &#8220;shut[ting] up and giv[ing] the scene over to the other actor&#8221;. Jackie &#8216;Butch&#8217; Jenkins, as Homer&#8217;s little brother Ulysses, also gives an admirably &#8220;natural&#8221; performance, coming across like a real kid, not an aspiring child actor; and Morgan is pitch-perfect in his small but memorable role. <\/p>\n<p>However, I&#8217;m not at all a fan of the romantic subplot between Craig and Hunt, which seems patently crafted to bolster Saroyan&#8217;s thesis that (as Peary puts it) &#8220;all Americans are equal&#8221;. Yeah, right. While it&#8217;s somewhat refreshing, I suppose, to learn that Hunt and her parents aren&#8217;t the haughty snobs one might believe them to be, we&#8217;re still never given a good reason to understand why Craig and Hunt are so in love. What attracted them to each other in the first place? To that end, Craig&#8217;s character is a frustrating cypher; he&#8217;s clearly a well-meaning, generous guy (as evidenced in a revealing early scene with a customer in his store), but nothing more is made of this tendency. Meanwhile, their &#8220;honeymoon&#8221; drive alongside a WEIRD multi-cultural festival &#8212; reminiscent of the &#8220;It&#8217;s a Small World&#8221; ride at Disneyland &#8212; is simply, as Savant puts it, &#8220;hilariously insulting&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> I recall being enamored with Saroyan&#8217;s novel as a teen, and was fascinated to read (in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/218\/the-human-comedy#articles-reviews?articleId=12669\">TCM&#8217;s article<\/a>) that, based on the success of his play <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Time_of_Your_Life\"><em>The Time of Your Life<\/em><\/a>, he was solicited to write the story as a screenplay based on his own life growing up in a small California town. (The screenplay was eventually rewritten by someone else, but Saroyan turned the material into his novel.) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mickey Rooney as Homer<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Rooney.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Rooney-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-21782\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Rooney-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Rooney-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Rooney-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Rooney.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Frank Morgan as Mr. Grogan<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Grogan.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Grogan-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-21786\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Grogan-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Grogan-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Grogan-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Grogan.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Jackie &#8216;Butch&#8217; Jenkins as Ulysses<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Ulysses.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Ulysses-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-21784\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Ulysses-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Ulysses-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Ulysses-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Ulysses.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fine cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Cinematography-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-21780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Cinematography-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Cinematography-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Cinematography-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Human-Comedy-Cinematography.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as a heartwarming, if somewhat dated, WWII-era classic. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Genuine Classic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0036022\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1943\/03\/03\/archives\/the-screen-william-saroyans-first-picture-the-human-comedy-with.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s3401huma.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.classicfilmguide.com\/index2921.html\">Classic Film Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/218\/the-human-comedy#articles-reviews?articleId=12669\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Try to remember that nothing good ever ends.&#8221; Synopsis: During World War II, a teenager (Mickey Rooney) in the small town of Ithaca, California takes a job as a telegram messenger to help support his widowed mother (Fay Bainter), his sister (Donna Reed), and his younger brother (Jackie &#8220;Butch&#8221; Jenkins) while his older brother (Van Johnson) is away at war. Meanwhile, his boss (James Craig) negotiates a romance with an upper-class girl (Marsha Hunt); his elderly co-worker (Frank Morgan) struggles&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=21779\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21779"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78872,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21779\/revisions\/78872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}