The Human Comedy (1943)

Set in a small California town during WWII, the film follows a high school student (Mickey Rooney in an Oscar nominated performance) as he attends school during the day and works as a messenger boy for a telegraph office after hours. Based on the novel by William Saroyan and directed by Clarence Brown (NATIONAL VELVET). Actually, Saroyan's novel was based on his original screenplay for the film which he had hoped to direct but left the project and turned his movie script into a novel which was published just before the film opened. Although displeased with the film as it turned out, he won an Oscar for his screen story. Saroyan's displeasure aside, this is a heartwarming look at small town Americana as its citizens deal with life and death as the world changes around them. While Fay Bainter as the family matriarch assures her family that after the war, "Everything will be the same", it's clear that our country will never be the same again. Like Rooney's young protagonist, we'll grow up in a changed world. If the film lays on the sentimentality a bit thick at times, it also presents us with a gentle hopefulness. A humanist leaning outlook that as a nation we're a melting pot of people working together toward a common vision. Its idealism seems nostalgic now in light of our nation's current nightmare. The film also received Oscar nominations for best picture and director. The large cast includes Van Johnson, Donna Reed, Robert Mitchum, Frank Morgan, James Craig, Barry Nelson, Marsha Hunt, Ray Collins, Don Defore, Mary Nash and the scene stealing Jackie Jenkins.