A Wonderful View of an America That Once Was
I saw this movie on TCM many years ago and I enjoy it every time I see it. It's a screenplay adapted from a William Saroyan screenplay which he later adapted as a novel of the same name and it tells the story of the Macauley family of Ithaca, California. It's a stereotypical American town during WW II with the post office, the Presbyterian church, and the telegraph office being noted landmarks. Homer Macauley, played by Mickey Rooney in what I would consider his finest role, is a high school student and works delivering telegrams on his bicycle. In this era of cell phones and internet connectivity, it's difficult to envision a time once when the fastest way to get a message somewhere without a phone call was telegraphy, but, in the early 1940s, that's the way it was. The old gentleman who is the telegrapher at the office is Mr. Grogan, played by Frank Morgan who is probably best remembered as Professor Marvel/the Wizard of Oz in the 1939 movie of the same name. Mr. Grogan drinks to inure himself to the tragic telegrams he receives at times, the telegrams that are sent to families to notify them of a son's or husband's death in some faraway place. Homer (Mickey) delivers these telegrams and also gets to see the pain and sorrow these telegrams give to the mothers or wives who receive them. It becomes personal for Homer as his older brother, Marcus, (Van Johnson) is being shipped overseas along with Marcus' best friend, Tobey (John Craven) an orphan who learns about the Macauley family and wishes it was his own, too.
The cast has Mrs. Macauley (Fay Bainter), daughter Bess (Donna Reed), and little Ulysses (Butch Jenkins) along with Ulysses' friend, little Lionel (Darryl Hickman). The scene in the library with Ulysses and Lionel is one I find quite touching, just 2 little innocent kids with a librarian who is kind and gentle with them.
This movie has comedy, tragedy, pathos, and a view of an America as it was then with different ethnicities and peoples yet united in a common cause. I find it difficult to keep a dry eye in many scenes as Saroyan seems to know how to touch the viewer's heart with a gentle simplicity.
How good was this movie in its time? It received 4 Oscar nominations and won for Best Story. IMO, Rooney should have also won Best Actor and I'm sure the reader will agree with me once you've seen this movie. I won't go into any more of the story as I don't wish to be a spoiler so let me just say that, if you've never seen this movie, you're in for a treat.
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