Odd wartime movie (spoilers!) - The Human Comedy (1944) Discussion

[–] paulb_30 18 years ago

No wartime telegraph office would have allowed a drunk to work there? First off, this wasn't a military telegraph office, it was a small town office. If the alcoholic had been working there before the war, why would they up and fire him if he was getting the job done (which it appeared he was)? Especially when you consider that most of the younger men were likely unavailable because of the war.

Audiences might have liked this film because it dealt with concerns everyone who had a loved one in the war shared. Like the classical Greek comedies (perhaps that is what Saroyan had in mind when he came up with the title), it would have provided audiences with a much needed cathartic experience, a way to relieve some of the pressures of holding those fears inside. Additionally, by reinforcing the values that America was fighting to preserve (so, where are those family values now?), the film might have also been experienced as encouraging and inspirational, helping audiences to see the death of a loved one as a sacifice worth making.

Of course, I wasn't there, having been born the year after this film came out. However, taken at face value, I thought it was a great period piece. I don't know if America was ever really like that, but it is nice to think that it might have been. I can't tell from your comments whether you enjoyed the film or not, but it is one of my favorites.

reply

[–] tigger 17 years ago

Drinking on the railroad and telegraph offices at that time is well known.

Do a little research and you can find out just how bad it was back in those days.

Yes Donna was very good looking in the 40's.

reply

[–] jojo-acapulco 16 years ago

I WAS there -- about the same age as Homer when I first saw this film in 1943. Back then, when almost everything was rationed and the war was not going well, and we school kids collected scrap metal "for the war effort", the story was overpowering and too real. The ghosts of the final scene were reasuring evidence of life after death. When I saw it again today, during the second term of "Bush 2", the movie seemed almost foolishly idealistic. How things have changed!

reply

[–] sockscats 14 years ago

A very spiritual film and there is nothing wrong with that and maybe America needed a big cry in 1943 to off set all the pro war propaganda.

Still this film is just too over the top near the end with the 2 deaths. Way over the top.

When the kid reads his brothers letter that to me is enough. He loves his brother and is so afraid that he will not come home. At that point nothing more needs to be said because all families lives through that.

At the half way point of the film i thought this was a really good movie that while bitter sweet and meloncholy in tone had some hope. In the end there was no hope.

Did they really inform the familes of those killed in action with a telegram? I would think at least somebody official like a police officer would have that job.

reply

[–] jarnoldfan 14 years ago

Yes, family was informed of a loved one's death by telegram. Incidently, US military personnel in WW2 were eligible for $10,000 in life insurance ($6.70/month was deducted from the serviceman's pay). Most unmarried men made their parents the beneficiaries of the insurance. While "chump change" today, $10 grand was a considerable sum in the Forties, and many bereaved families payed off their mortgages with the insurance. Hence the expression "bought the farm"; wartime slang for a death in combat.

reply

[–] hawkeye_74 13 years ago

I find it strange that the had Marcus in an artillery unit and then had him get killed....The guns that were on the train were long range artillery and being that those were not in close combat Marcus had a very very good chance of coming home.

reply

[–] boxerrebellion 11 years ago

I remember my Grandmothers telling me about when the telegram boy was on his bike, everyone watched to see which house he was going to. In some Vietnam and more recent era films, you sometimes see the official car in a military neighborhood with all the wives watching carefully to see in front of which house it would stop. Most recently, it would be husbands also. When I married my husband, I told him that if an official car ever stopped in front of the house and officers in dress uniforms got out, I wasn't going to answer the door. If they didn't say it, it wasn't true. He was retired for almost two months before I saw one of those scenes on television and it suddenly hit me that I didn't have to worry about that anymore.

reply

[–] dfc99 11 years ago

I was never in the service but remember a story that our 7th grade teacher told us back around 1969. Her son was serving in combat in Vietnam. She was walking to her house one afternoon and noticed a telegram sticking out of her mailbox. She froze with fear and reached for the telegram.

It wasn't bad news but just a quick message from her son that he was o.k. She told us this story to make the point about the fear that a simple thing like receiving a telegram could bring to a family during wartime.

reply

[–] pastorwillie-1 11 years ago

paulb_30 and some of the others that replied, hit the nail on the head. I was 11 years old when the war began. My Dad was a regular Army 1st Sergeant and we lived on an Army Post on the east coast. He and his Company sailed to Europe in August of 1942. My Mom and I had to vacate our quarters on the post and moved to a small town about 3 miles away. In many ways it resembled the town of Ithica depicted in the film. And yes, the film does in many ways reflect life during those wartime years and audiences loved it. In many ways, it was an exciting time. You have to remember that the country was just emerging from a tough depression and many families were still having a hard time making ends meet, Many found their way out of these hard times by securing employment in the defense industry. I wish we could return to that way and pace of life, without the war of course. But, without the war there's no telling how much longer the nation's hardship would have continued.

reply

[–] pastorwillie-1 11 years ago

paulb_30 and some of the others that replied, hit the nail on the head. I was 11 years old when the war began. My Dad was a regular Army 1st Sergeant and we lived on an Army Post on the east coast. He and his Company sailed to Europe in August of 1942. My Mom and I had to vacate our quarters on the post and moved to a small town about 3 miles away. In many ways it resembled the town of Ithica depicted in the film. And yes, the film does in many ways reflect life during those wartime years and audiences loved it. In many ways, it was an exciting time. You have to remember that the country was just emerging from a tough depression and many families were still having a hard time making ends meet, Many found their way out of these hard times by securing employment in the defense industry. I wish we could return to that way and pace of life, without the war of course. But, without the war there's no telling how much longer the nation's hardship would have continued.

reply

[–] ZurichGnome 9 years ago

Donna Reed was so gorgeous as a young actress. We remember her from the Donna Reed show and forget what a doll she was in 1940s movies.

Yes, Reed was stunning. She was also a fine actress, somewhat underrated. I will never forget the love scene at the telephone in It's a Wonderful Life, when George is trying to say how he wants to get out of that small town and he doesn't want to be tied down. I don't think I've ever seen better acting than Reed and Stewart in that one scene.

She also won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress, playing a prostitute in From Here to Eternity. And she surely deserved that award.

This sentence is false. -- The Zurich Gnome

reply