The Human Comedy

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Human Comedy, 1943.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The Human Comedy, 1943.

Teen Homer (Mickey Rooney), now helping support the family after his father’s passing, has just delivered his first wartime death notice telegram, visiting with his mom (Fay Bainter), then explaining stuff for his kid brother Ulysses (Jack Jenkins), in the MGM hit The Human Comedy, 1943.

Ray Collins appears as the posthumous McCauley, hewing close to the William Saroyan novel, then Jack Jenkins as his youngest son Ulysses, then Fay Bainter, his widowed mom, artful touches in director Clarence Brown’s opening, in the film said to have been MGM boss Louis B. Mayer’s favorite, The Human Comedy, 1943.

Contemporary San Joaquin Valley, Ca., we meet neighbor Mary (Dorothy Morris) and teen sister Bess (Donna Reed), with her mom Katie (Fay Bainter) playing harp and explaining to youngest Ulysses (Jack Jenkins) about his late father, in the MGM William Saroyan tear-jerker The Human Comedy, 1943.

Continuing the introduction of Mickey Rooney as Homer MacCauley of rural Central California, new kid at the telegraph shop, visiting with his new boss Spangler (James Craig) and the charming inebriate operator Grogan (Frank Morgan), in The Human Comedy, 1943, from the William Saroyan novel.

A smalltown telegraph boy deals with the strains of growing up during World War II in The Human Comedy (1943), directed by Clarence Brown and starring Mickey Rooney and Frank Morgan.