We have seen all sorts of films that deal with the families left behind while a son or father is off fighting in the war. It’s an interesting narrative tool to focus on the affected families rather than the heroics of combat because it is a dynamic so many people were experiencing for themselves during that time. It makes for good drama and it can resonate with a large number of people; after all, during the height of World War II, virtually everyone in the United States either had a family member in the war or knew someone who did. It’s fertile ground for a great deal of drama, some comedy, and a lot of social commentary, too.
William Saroyan was an American novelist and playwright who drafted the first version of The Human Comedy with the intention of directing it as an epic-length film. The version of the script he turned in, though, was considered too unwieldy, pushing four hours in length. When this was rejected by the studio, he left the project and turned that script into a novel, barely beating the film to screen. Howard Estabrook was brought in to trim the project down to a manageable length, reducing it to a much more reasonable two hours long. This version was then helmed by Clarence Brown, a prolific director whose career spanned all the way back into the mid-1910s.
The Estabrook version of the story is far more sentimental and less focused on social criticism, although that aspect can still be found in the film. Saroyan was more critical of things as the world was embroiled in the war, and that shows in his writing. It turns out that the world was hungry for both plays on the theme, as both the novel and the film were hugely successful. Saroyan was, of course, critical of the film, seeing it as a bit of a betrayal of his original script.
The film stars Mickey Rooney as Homer Macauley, a young man in high school working part-time as a telegram delivery boy for the Postal Telegraph Company in the fictional town of Ithaca, California, during World War II. Homer’s older brother Marcus (Van Johnson) is stationed on the East Coast awaiting orders to deploy overseas to fight in the war. Meanwhile, back home, the townspeople, Homer included, anxiously await any news of their families and friends fighting for the freedom of the world. That news would arrive via telegram meaning Homer would be among the first to see it.
The film is mostly a series of vignettes depicting what life is like for those back home. Some of these are humorous; many of them are more touching and sentimental, while others are a bit ugly. This film explores the whole gamut of human nature and experiences for those back home. Only occasionally does it cut away to Marcus and his experiences before being deployed to the frontlines, and the film never shows us the actual battles. This is not really about the war but about the various lives of those left behind.
Because of the setting, one of the inevitable duties of Homer in his job at the telegraph office is to deliver messages from the military, notices to families that they have lost their child to the battlefield. This is personified in a single moment when Homer brings just such a telegraph to a woman. In a moment of pure cinematic genius, we see the woman fall back into her chair, singing a lullaby she once sang to her child in infancy. For a brief moment, she fades into that younger version of herself cradling the baby while singing it to sleep, all the while, still in frame is Homer, observing her grief and unable to say anything to comfort her in her moment of sorrow. This is powerful imagery, and it gets across that Homer has to do this occasionally as part of his job, and it never gets easy. On top of that, having a brother deployed, he has to worry about having one of those telegraphs show up with his family name on it. Were that to happen, he feels that would lose all light and would spit on the world.
Homer works for Willie Grogan (Frank Morgan), an elderly man who runs the telegraph office and has no ambitions to retire. He longs to live to be 100 and never give up his work. These telegraphs (no pun intended) his character’s fate, and we see that slowly playing out over the course of the film. Frank Morgan is a wonderful character actor that I personally haven’t seen enough of his work. He carries with him the good nature he had as the wizard in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz, a role I will forever associate with him. Homer occasionally has to wake him up at work because he dozes off, and when that happens again late in the film, we know that his end is nigh. It comes on the heels of an equally ominous telegram, one that will change Homer forever.
While Homer is the primary focus of the film, because this is a smattering of vignettes, there are large periods of time where he is absent, especially in the middle third. These are moments in the picture that don’t really add to the overall plot but provide color and give us a better sense of the rest of his family and the town in which they live. We get moments with his younger brother Ulysses (Jackie Jenkins) and his sister Bess (Donna Reed). Strictly speaking, these parts could be trimmed from the movie, and it wouldn’t affect the story much, but the film would lose the flavor without them. For instance, there is a lengthy scene involving Bess and a friend entertaining some soldiers who are in town. This goes on for several minutes and amounts to little other than to give us a funny and touching moment where the three soldiers have the telegrams to their families and loved ones read aloud back to them before Willie Grogan sends them off.
We also get moments that tell us a bit about Homer without really advancing the plot. He’s an athlete who specializes in the hurdles but is underappreciated by the coach. He also has a bit of a sarcastic streak that gets him and another runner held after class on the day of the track meet. When the coach finds out, he storms into the classroom and overrides the teacher’s decision, taking the other boy out to compete. This makes their teacher incensed and, knowing Homer is basically a good boy, she not only lets him go to compete but actively roots for him to beat the other boy, which he does. It’s funny, but it also tells us about Homer’s reputation that the teacher sees and speaks to.
All these little stories culminate in a telegram arriving at the telegraph office, received only partially by Mr. Grogan. Homer is there to see the little that was transcribed and knows that it is bad news for his family. The important part of the message is cut off, but there’s no denying his brother has been killed in action. The news is, of course, devastating, but a little later that night, he runs into a fellow soldier who has just returned and knew his brother. This soldier brings Marcus’ prized ring back to give to Homer, who doesn’t feel he should take it. Homer may have felt that he would spit at the world and be the worst person if his brother was killed in action, but the reality is quite a different thing as evidenced in this scene.
This is not a plot-heavy film, yet a lot happens over the course of two hours. Quite a bit of it can be seen as superfluous on paper, yet there isn’t a single scene that deserves to be removed. This is about people, not events, and it handles that perfectly. If it weren’t for Casablanca releasing that same year, I would say The Human Comedy deserved the Best Picture award for the year. Alas, Casablanca is the better film overall, but it is a close race for me. The Human Comedy is just superb all around and is a film I could watch again and again.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Motion Picture: Clarence Brown
Best Directing: Clarence Brown
Best Actor: Mickey Rooney
Best Writing (Original Motion Picture Story): William Saroyan (won)
Best Cinematography - Black-and-White: Harry Stradling
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Release Date: March 2, 1943
Running Time: 118 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Mickey Rooney and Frank Morgan
Directed by: Clarence Brown
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