Happy Land *** (1943, Don Ameche, Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Ann Rutherford, Cara Williams, Harry Morgan, Dickie Moore, Richard Crane, Mary Wickes) – Classic Movie Review 12,358

Don Ameche stars as bitter, grieving Iowa shopkeeper Lew Marsh, in the attractive 1943 American home front WW2 drama film Happy Land.

Director Irving Pichel’s attractive 1943 American drama film Happy Land stars Don Ameche, Frances Dee, Harry Carey Sr, Ann Rutherford, Cara Williams, Harry Morgan, Dickie Moore, Richard Crane, and Mary Wickes.

Don Ameche stars as bitter, grieving Iowa drugstore shopkeeper Lew Marsh, who is helped over the recent bereavement of his son ‘Rusty’ Marsh (Richard Crane), killed in action at sea, when the ghost of his father Gramp (Harry Carey Sr) returns to this world to review the family’s lives.

Happy Land is good-hearted, homespun American World War Two home front propaganda, based on the 1943 novel by MacKinlay Kantor, which still manages a good yank at the heartstrings, with attractive performances and appealing, flashback script. Happy Land is on the sickly and sentimental side but it is slick and successful.

Keep an eye out for Wood’s screen début at the tender age of five. It is just a bit part as the little girl who drops an ice cream cone. She immediately rejoined Irving Pichel for Tomorrow Is Forever.(1946).

Also notable in the cast are Minor Watson, William Weber, Oscar O’Shea, Adeline De Walt Reynolds, Roseanne Murray, James West, Larry Olsen, Edwin Mills, Walter Baldwin, and Matt Moore.

Screenplay writers: Kathryn Scola and Julien Josephson.

The cast are Don Ameche as Lew Marsh, Frances Dee as Agnes Marsh, Harry Carey Sr as Gramp, Ann Rutherford as Lenore Prentiss, Cara Williams as Gretchen Barry, Richard Crane as Russell ‘Rusty’ Marsh, Harry Morgan [Henry Morgan] as Anton ‘Tony’ Cavrek, Minor Watson as Judge Colvin, Dickie Moore as Peter Orcutt, William Weber as Bill Beecher, Oscar O’Shea as Father Case, James West as Rusty ages 12 to 16, Larry Olsen as Rusty age 5, Bernard Thomas as Sam Kendall, Adeline De Walt Reynolds as Mrs Schneider, Terry Masengale as Arch, Edwin Mills as Bud, Roseanne Murray as Mrs. Velma Jacobson, James J. Smith as Everett Moore, Mary Wickes as Emmy, Walter Baldwin as Jake Hibbs, Tom Stevenson as Mr. MacMurray, Aileen Pringle as Mrs. Prentiss, Richard Abbott as Reverend Wood, Lillian Bronson as Mattie Dyer, Ferris Taylor as Mayor, Matt Moore as Mr. Prentiss, Larry Thompson as Andy Jacobson, Darla Hood as Lenore Prentiss age 12, Ned Dobson Jr as Jackie, Paul Weigel as Pop Schmidt, Jackie Averill as Tod, Joseph E. Bernard [Joe Bernard] as Clerk, Houseley Stevenson as Sam Watson, Elvin Field as Joe, Juanita Quigley as Sally Pierce, Milton Kibbee [Milt Kibbee] as Shep Wayne, John Dilson as Charles Clayton, Leigh Whipper as Old Ben, Marjorie Cooley as Teacher, Robert Dudley as Old Man Bowers, Pass Le Noir as Dr Hammond, William J. O’Brien as Drugstore Counterman Chris, Natalie Wood as Little Girl and Reed Hadley as Off-Screen Narrator.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,358

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