Human Comedy, The USA
1943, 118min.
Prod./Dir.: Clarence Brown, Script: William Saroyan, Howard Estabrook, Dir. of Phot.: Harry Stradling, Compos.: Herbert Stothart, Prod. Design: Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Sound: Newell Sparks, Edit.: Conrad A. Nervig.
Cast: Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Fay Bainter, Ray Collins, Van Johnson, Donna Reed, Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins, Dorothy Morris, John Craven.
Homer Macauley is a 14 year-old boy growing up fatherless in the San Joaquin Valley of California during World War II. His oldest brother is off fighting in the war, and Homer feels he needs to be the man of the family. To make money, he takes an evening job as a telegraph boy: sometimes he has to deliver the news to a family that a son has died in the War. Yet Homer also keeps up his normal life, going to school, to church, and to the movies. He is buoyed by his home and his loving family, including a very young brother and a mother who plays the harp. His roots and an almost instinctive sense of right and wrong keep him honest and hopeful. The novel was written to give hope during World War II.
The Human Comedy was MGM chief executive Louis B. Mayer's favorite film, an apotheosis of Mayer's devotion to "family values."
Awards
Oscar, 1944 (Best Writing, Original Story - William Saroyan).
| Brown, Clarence  Clarence Brown (1890, Clinton, Massachusetts, USA, - 1987, Santa Monica, California, USA)
He attended the University of Tennessee, graduating at the age of 19 with two degrees in engineering. An early fascination in automobiles led Brown to a job with the Stevens Duryea Company, then to his own Brown Motor Car Company in Alabama. He later abandoned the car dealership after developing an interest in motion pictures around 1913. He was hired by the Peerless Studio at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and became an assistant to the great French-born director Maurice Tourneur. After serving in World War I, Brown was given his first co-directing credit (with Tourneur) for The Great Redeemer. Later that year, he directed a major portion of The Last of the Mohicans after Tourneur was injured in a fall. Brown moved to Universal in 1924, and then to MGM, where he stayed until the mid-1950s. At MGM he was one of the main directors of their female stars–he directed both Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo five times. Garbo referred to Brown as her favorite director. He worked across the introduction of sound and continued to use the silent film's visual techniques throughout his career; he did not work particularly well with dialogue. His works have been regarded as considerate and atmospheric, but often conventional, placid and slow. Nevertheless, he was nominated five times for the Academy Award as a director, and once as a producer, but never received an Oscar. However, he did win Best Foreign Film for Anna Karenina at the 1935 Venice IFF. Brown retired a wealthy man due to his real estate investments, but refused to watch new movies, as he feared they might cause him to restart his career. In the 1970s, Brown became a much-sought guest lecturer on the film-festival circuit, thanks in part to his connection with Garbo. The Clarence Brown Theater, on the campus of the University of Tennessee, is named in his honor.
Filmography
The Great Redeemer (1920), The Last of the Mohicans (1920), The Foolish Matrons (1921), The Light in the Dark (1922), Don't Marry for Money (1923), The Acquittal (1923), The Signal Tower (1924), Butterfly (1924), Smouldering Fires (1925), The Goose Woman (1925), The Eagle (1925), Kiki (1926), Flesh and the Devil (1926), The Trail of '98 (1928), The Cossacks (1928), A Woman of Affairs (1928), Wonder of Women (1929), Navy Blues (1929), Anna Christie (1930), Romance (1930), Inspiration (1931), A Free Soul (1931), Possessed (1931), Emma (1932), Letty Lynton (1932), The Son-Daughter (1932), Looking Forward (1933), Night Flight (1933), Sadie McKee (1934), Chained (1934), Anna Karenina (1935), Ah, Wilderness! (1935), Wife vs. Secretary (1936), The Gorgeous Hussy (1936), Conquest (Marie Walewska, 1937), Of Human Hearts (1938), Idiot's Delight (1939), The Rains Came (1939), Edison, the Man (1940), Come Live with Me (1941), They Met in Bombay (1941), The Human Comedy (1943), The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), National Velvet (1944), The Yearling (1946), Song of Love (1947), Intruder in the Dust (1949), The Schumann Story (1950), To Please a Lady (1950), Angels in the Outfield (1951), It's a Big Country (1951), When in Rome (1952), Plymouth Adventure (1952).
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