Happy Land (1943)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I agree with Rooster Davis (one of our contributors) -- this film was a good idea that missed the target.It begins with a great premise -- a young man who has been fighting in World War II is KIA, and his father (Don Ameche) receives the dreaded telegram and becomes very depressed and doesn't seem to be able to even begin to put it behind him. The ghost of Ameche's grandfather arrives to take Ameche for a walk where they review the son's short life. For a while you have the hope that maybe the telegram was a mistake, and the young man will actually come back alive; but that ending would have been unfaithful to what so many families were experiencing in 1943. So, all good premises.So what's the problem? The main problem for me was the length of the B film -- 75 minutes. And that shortness doesn't give us the opportunity to get to know the son very well. As an older teen and then young man we get to know him a bit, but as a boy we see only a couple of brief episodes. A nice kid. But why was he so special to his dad. That just never across. Perhaps another 15 or 20 minutes to expand on that would have made the difference.That's not to say there aren't some good things here. Don Ameche is never a disappointment, and is great here as the father. It's nice to see Harry Carey (as Gramp) in a more substantial supporting role; he's one of the great character actors. It's also nice seeing MGM's Ann Rutherford as a potential girl friend.Look, this isn't a bad film. It just coulda been more. I'll let it hold on to a "7", but that's stretching it.

I reviewed this back in 2001 and since then I have found it on DVD. I did a Google search for the title and I eventually came up with a place that sells self-copied movies that have fallen into the public domain. These folks had a ton of movies I never even heard of! I purchased a copy and it came in a case with a "home-made" cover insert as well. The quality of the copy was good. Sorry but it has been several years since I purchased it so I cannot give you a link - but Google it and you will most likely find it. Will also throw in a comment on another post- I loved the old AMC - uncut, no commercials, no colorized movies. What happened along the way? It was great having all those movies with no interruptions. I suppose they figured out that you can make a lot more $$$ by doing it the way they do now. It's a shame cause they played movies you absolutely cannot find.

Don Ameche's son is killed in WW II. Can grandpa Harry Carey, returning from the dead, convince a grieving Ameche that his life, his son's life, and this whole war is worth his son's sacrifice, and get Ameche to believe his small town is indeed HAPPY LAND?Despite a wonderful opening sequence, reminiscent of the homespun melancholy of the better parts of Our Town and Since You Went Away, this is a rather superficial and bland treatment of the grief of a good, if temporarily embittered man, whose son has died in the war. Ameche, a decent enough actor, does not have skill to bring off his role, and Harry Carey, with his mono-tonal voice, and facial expressions running the gamut of emotions from A to B, makes conversations about life and death as enchanting as a conversation about whether to pick up milk at the store. The result might be truly Midwestern in its emotions, but it's questionable whether that's a good thing.Much of the movie is flashbacks to the life of Ameche's child (though, interestingly, we do not see the kid actually fighting in the war). There's nothing especially interesting in the flashbacks, nor, really, is there much there that would provide comfort to Ameche. A final scene, where Ameche learns from a young Harry Morgan how his son died heroically, works somewhat better, simply because Morgan's flat Midwestern delivery and Ameche's flat Midwestern delivery grounds what has been rather leaden supernatural stuff in a bit of reality. Whether Ameche, under these circumstances, would find the will to go on again after all this, is questionable.A comparison between this film and It's A Wonderful Life is inevitable, as they deal with the same basic situation. This film, far more low key and far less extreme than the Stuart/Capra collaboration, might be more appealing to folks who prefer their fantastic/supernatural cinema to be realistic. But to this viewer, the far more dramatic events and emotional acting of Stuart makes his movie more fun to watch and, oddly enough, more believable.Assessment -- Don't avoid this movie. You might like it. Alas, I did not.

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.