Happy Land

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.

An old-timer comes down from heaven and walks a despondent middle aged family man from Anytown U.S.A. through his memories after the latter has suffered a major setback in life so that by the end his peace of mind is restored. Sound familiar? Well, "It's A Wonderful Life" it isn't but this is still a pleasant enough fantasy feature obviously made to bolster the war effort and act as a consolation to those families who lost their sons and daughters in the fighting.

This time there's no angel seeking its wings, popular drug-store owner Don Ameche's accompanist is his old, long-dead father who fought in the First World War. Gramp, (Harry Carey Sr.) as he's called obviously can't stand to see his son lose the will to live and so pays his ailing boy an extra-terrestrial visit in particular to reconcile him with his grief after Ameche's only son Rusty has fallen in battle trying to save another man while serving in the Far East with the Navy.

There are no real special effects to speak of and the story doesn't have the dramatic arc of Capra's classic, as we tag along with Ameche and Carey's gentle walk around their old town and their remembrances of the much loved boy, the point having been made earlier that the boy came into the world pretty much as his grandad was leaving it, so even though they hardly met, there is also an emotional connection between grandfather and grandson.

There's a nice coda to the piece when Rusty's Navy mate, played by a young Henry Morgan of TV's "M.A.S.H." fame, calls on his late buddy's parents and finally convinces them, especially the formerly morose father, that their son's sacrifice was worthwhile and that they can move on with their lives while still cherishing his memory.

Although not much happens between Gramp's arrival and departure, this is still an amiable feature with its pleasant reconstruction of small town life during the war with the drugstore and its attendant soda fountain a vibrant meeting point for the townsfolk young and old.

Personally I think a little more fantasy and perhaps a brief "return" by the son at the end might have proven slightly more satisfactory, in terms of content but this was a pleasant well-meaning morale-boosting piece which achieved its brief.

Happy Land is a film set firmly in time and place during the World War II era. Had this been attempted during subsequent military involvements the USA has been involved in Happy Land would have been hooted off the screen.

As it is Don Ameche, Frances Dee, Harry Carey and the rest are held firmly in check by director Irving Pichel, if they weren't this film would have more tears than the Mississippi.

Happy Land is set in small town Midwest USA in Iowa. Ameche and Dee receive that most dreaded of telegrams between 1941 and 1945 from the Navy Department informing them that their son and one and only child Richard Crane has been killed in action in the Pacific.

Ameche totally withdraws into himself, not even going to his pharmacy to tend to his business there. It's then that he receives a visit from his long deceased grandfather Harry Carey. It's then he has an It's A Wonderful Life experience only it's a lot more reassuring and it's not his life.

Short and sweet Richard Crane had a wonderful life and he died so that others might enjoy freedom. You could never make this message film about any subsequent war.

Happy Land's message is why we fight and die in 1943. It's a great fantasy film unlikely to be remade.

When Randy Marsh is killed in action during WWII, his father, Lew (Don Ameche), takes it very hard. He is depressed and wonders if the loss was worth it. Fortunately, God takes pity on him and sends Lew's dead father (Harry Carey) back to help him through the death. Magically, dead dad transforms Lew back in time and they view Lew's life as well as Randy as he grows to manhood. It's all very nostalgic as well as highly reminiscent of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"--and that is a fundamental weakness of the film. It IS derivative and it also puts forth a strange message that the boy's death wasn't so bad after all. Clearly the film was intended as propaganda in order to try to get the public to accept the necessity of their sons' deaths fighting the Axis powers. Fortunately, following this weird ghostly meeting, the film works very well when one of Randy's pals (Harry Morgan) arrives to visit with the Marsh family. Overall, while I wasn't thrilled by the style of the film (i.e., the ghost story element), the film worked very well because of the great acting and the lovely way the film was directed. Worth seeing even if by today's standards it's a bit old fashioned.

We saw this film sometime in the late 1980's on the old AMC. You remember AMC, the station that didn't like colorized or edited movies. That showed films how they were meant to. Well enough of that.

The HAPPY LAND was one (1) of those fine WWII films that gave you a peek of what the home front was like and the effects the war had upon it. This was effectively and economically done. Not as long as SINCE YOU WENT AWAY or the HUMAN COMEDY more in line with the FIGHTING SULLIVANS another seldom seen home front film. Or at least seldom seen since AMC went to seed.

The importance of these films is to give a glimpse into the lives of our parents or grandparents and not just the war, but the effects of rationing, personal loss and the fear that we could lose. Many young people have no concept what a close run thing WWII was. Not that we would have been conquered. But that Asia and Europe would have been dominated by two (2) powers both with a race superiority agendas. The NAZI Germans who wanted to create a master race and Imperial Japan who thought they WERE the master race.

The film as far as we know is unavailable on any video format. Seems like a shame when so much bad material is rushed to DVD. 20th Century Fox should do something about this. After all they have released A YANK IN THE R.A.F which main claim to fame is Betty Grable and Tyrone Power.