Happy Land

Years ago (1980's) I happened on this film just as it was beginning on AMC. At that time I was a newly licensed pharmacist (less than 5 years experience.) I couldn't stop watching it. There on the screen was the story of a druggist like I'd always thought it should be--respected in his community, devoted to his fellow citizens' health, and always available night and day. This was the life I'd thought I was supposed to have before the reality of modern health insurance had fully settled on me. Don Ameche played the role perfectly. Harry Carry as the ghost of 'Gramps', Ameche's grandpa and druggist mentor, could not have been better cast. The central role of the Marsh drugstore was also perfectly set. This was like being in the era. Even a non-pharmacist would find this to be a charming look at an older generations' simpler life. Even with a world-war raging, the drugstore with its soda fountain and variety of dry goods was always there. People met their future spouses at the soda fountain, were able to find just the right remedy for what ailed and could get there favorite bath oils,etc. This is a must-see film for any pharmacist or anyone else who longs for the good-old-days. Anyone would find the story moving and even though most scenes take place in the drugstore, there is plenty of story to keep your attention. This film should be released on DVD. I know every pharmacist would want a copy.

Saw this movie with my family in 1943 at age 10. We all liked it, even though it made us sad. Seems like it starts with Rusty already dead, killed in the war. Then there are flashbacks to his childhood. What it said to me back then was: war makes no sense. I'm not sure that's what was intended.

Finding this oddity on cable recently, I was quickly seduced by its opening sequence, a Welles-like plunge down main street into a small everytown's heart, Marsh's pharmacy. Here, as some clever camera work reveals, solid citizen Lew Marsh (Don Ameche) tends to the blisses of early 40's Hollywood America; everyone's prescription is filled, sundaes topped off with a cherry, local oddballs humored, etc.

What most recommends the film is its frame narrative. Quickly the idyll is broken when Marsh learns his son has been killed in the war. He sinks into a lengthy depression. Enter the ghost of Gramp to conduct psychotherapy: he spirits Marsh back into the past where we relive the childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood of the now-dead Rusty. While the mid-section unfolds linearly, Marsh and Gramp function offscreen as a Greek chorus (their melancholy dialogue often a grim counterpoint to the generally cheerful scenes). Then it's back to the present where an exorcized Marsh learns to stop questioning the wisdom of sacrificing young men in war. "Rusty died a good death," Gramp's ghost counsels, and we know it's only a matter of time before Marsh will agree.

Three years before "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946), "Happy Land" was already hijacking the "Christmas Carol" device of reliving the past on a therapeutic sightseeing tour. Unlike the Stewart film, though, the tone is more darkly somber, lingeringly mournful. The theme of sorrow outweighs the theme of recovery. Ameche looks and sounds wracked, bitter.

In fact, the film's heart is scarcely in its chief enterprise, which is to steel its audience for more wartime sacrifice. It seems at times almost to be working against its own message that war deaths are "good deaths." I imagine it may have helped salve some broken hearts, but the crime of this type of film is that, if it succeeds, it only helps to break more.

I thought this was a wonderfully nostalgic movie. The acting is well done, and the end is just a real tear-jerker. It brings back the feelings that I believe really did exist in WWII, right down to the fateful trip the girl from Western Union had to make to deliver the telegram that said his son died. Excitement, no. A few laughs, yes. Great nostelgic drama with a good story line.

I loved this movie and I highly suggest you catch this movie if you can. If for the very least, to see Harry Morgan (aka the crusty Col. Potter from TV's M*A*S*H) back when he was just a kid at 28 years old.

The other reason is it's a sweet and warm story of a small town family and how it deals with post WWII. The film's cinematography is a vivid Hallmark card of 1940s Americana.

There's a really tender scene where Morgan, a recent vet from the war, helps Don Ameche, the father of a fellow soldier stock the shelves of Ameche's Pharmacy. The art direction of this film is amazing as well.

Also look for Morgan as the mysterious bad guy in "The Big Clock" circa 1948 with Ray Milland which has an analagous plot line to "No Way Out" with Kevin Costner.