The Human Comedy **** (1943, Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, James Craig) – Classic Movie Review 11,029

William Saroyan wrote a 240-page, four-hour script for the 1943 film The Human Comedy, which MGM deemed too long. He refused to compromise and was dumped as director. He turned his script into a bestselling novel and won an Oscar for his story.

Director Clarence Brown’s warm and generous spirited 1943 MGM American black and white comedy-drama film The Human Comedy stars Mickey Rooney, who gives one of his most winning performances as teenager Homer Macauley, a California small-town (the fictional town of Ithaca) telegram delivery boy, whose deliveries bring sadness or hope during World War Two. It also stars Frank Morgan, James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Fay Bainter, Ray Collins, Van Johnson, Donna Reed and Jackie ‘Butch’ Jenkins.

This appealing movie is heavy on the sentiment, but never too slushy, thanks to expert writing and handling, and the work of the fine cast, including a particularly winsome turn from freckle-faced five-year-old Jackie ‘Butch’ Jenkins, as Homer’s younger brother Ulysses Macauley. The story is introduced and directed by a narrator, Homer’s father, who has been dead for two years.

Mickey Rooney in The Human Comedy (1943).

At the head of a splendid roster of MGM character stars, Fay Bainter gives a thorough working over of her usual stalwart turn as widowed Mrs Macauley, Van Johnson plays Homer’s older brother Marcus, an army private away at the war, Donna Reed is his student sister Bess, and Ray Collins is the dead father. Frank Morgan plays another key character, Willie Grogan.

The original story by William Saroyan won an Oscar and the film picked up four other nominations. MGM boss Louis B Mayer hired Saroyan to write the screenplay. Saroyan wrote a film treatment and a screenplay, expecting to direct. But Mayer deemed his 240-page, four-hour script too long. However, Saroyan would not compromise and he was removed as director. He turned his script into a novel, published just before the film was released, becoming an instant best-seller. Saroyan was unhappy with the film with its many noticeable differences from his script. Thereafter he never permitted Hollywood screen adaptations of any of his novels, despite his financial troubles. Howard Estabrook is credited for the screenplay.

Nevertheless, it was reputedly MGM boss Louis B Mayer’s favourite film.

It made $2.8 million in the US and Canada and $1.0 million elsewhere, making MGM a profit of $1.5 million.

Saroyan is probably best remembered for his 1939 play The Time of Your Life, set in a waterfront saloon in San Francisco, adapted into the 1948 film The Time of Your Life starring James Cagney. Saroyan worked on the screenplay of Golden Boy (1939), based on Clifford Odets’s play.

It is the first released feature of Robert Mitchum (uncredited).

Robert Mitchum (as Quentin ‘Horse’ Gilford) and Don DeFore (as Texas) appear in small roles as soldiers who, with their buddy Fat (Barry Nelson), have a night off from training. And Carl Switzer, best known as Alfalfa in the Our Gang shorts, also appears uncredited as Auggie, a friend of Ulysses.

When Mitchum sought work as a film actor, his agent got him an interview with producer Harry Sherman, who hired him to play minor, mostly villainous roles in several films in the Hopalong Cassidy series made during 1942 and 1943. Border Patrol was his feature film debut, though released after other later films, following released roles in The Human Comedy, Hoppy Serves a Writ and Aerial Gunner.

Runtime: 117 minutes.

The cast are Mickey Rooney as Homer Macauley, Frank Morgan as Willie Grogan, James Craig as Tom Spangler, Marsha Hunt as Diana Steed, Fay Bainter as Mrs Macauley, Ray Collins as Mr Macauley, Van Johnson as Marcus Macauley, Donna Reed as Bess Macauley, Jackie Jenkins as Ulysses Macauley, Dorothy Morris as Mary Arena, John Craven as Tobey George, Ann Ayars as Mrs Sandoval, Mary Nash as Miss Hicks, Henry O’Neill as Charles Steed, Katharine Alexander as Mrs Steed, Alan Baxter as Brad Stickman, Darryl Hickman as Lionel, Barry Nelson as Fat, Rita Quigley as Helen Elliot, Clem Bevans as Henderson  and Adeline De Walt Reynolds as Librarian, with Byron Foulger, Howard Freeman, Hobart Cavanaugh, Frank Craven, Don DeFore, Wally Cassell, Connie Gilchrist, Gibson Gowland, Emory Parnell, S Z Sakall, Carl Switzer, Sarah Padden and Robert Mitchum.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,029

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