Mickey Rooney and The Human Comedy

 

    

                  

 

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, the diminutive Mickey Rooney was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. He is best remembered for playing teenager Andy Hardy in an extremely popular series of films, and for the MGM musicals where he was paired with MGM’s other great teen star, Judy Garland. In these light comedies and musicals Rooney, who had been in show business since early childhood, demonstrated that he was an extremely talented performer and musician. A good example can be seen in Strike Up the Bandwhere Rooney appeared as a leader of a teen age band hoping to make it big. His “Drummer Boy” number where he plays both the drums, and a xylophone is truly iconic. Click on this link or see the video below. 

Perhaps his greatest role came in 1943 when he starred in a film adaptation of William Saroyan’s The Human Comedy, a wartime drama that depicted life on the home front in a small California town. Saroyan had originally written a screenplay for a film that he planned to direct himself, but when the studio complained that the film would be way too long, Saroyan walked out and published his work as a novel which became hugely successful right before the studio completed its version. It is a great and moving read.

The film version based on Saroyan’s script and directed by veteran director Clarence Brown was also a huge hit in wartime USA. The story revolves around a family headed by a recently widowed mother played by Fay Bainter, one of Hollywood’s standard mothers, who has four children. The eldest son, played by Van Johnson, has been drafted into the army and awaits assignment overseas. Donna Reed, a budding young star, plays the daughter on the verge of womanhood. There is even a four-year-old son, what used to be known as a caboose baby, who gets some good scenes. Although Mickey Rooney was 22 years old at the time, his looks and small stature allowed him to play the fourteen-year-old son.

Although everyone in the fine cast is featured in various vignettes, Rooney is the star, and he gives a magnificent performance. He plays Homer Macaulay, a teenager whose father has recently died, and whose elder brother is in the army. At 14 he must somehow become the man in the family. He takes a part-time job as a messenger for a local telegraph company to help his mother with the bills. It turns out to be a life changing experience.  The office manager, played by James Craig, becomes a mentor, as does the elderly, alcoholic telegraph operator played by Frank Morgan, a veteran character actor who had played the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz.

Telegrams are largely a thing of the past but delivering them during the war could be difficult. Apparently, the War Department used telegrams to notify families of the death of their sons. In one memorable scene, Homer has to deliver such a message to an illiterate Mexican mother who asks him to read the dreaded message. It is an extremely moving scene, and Rooney does a great job. It’s no wonder that he received a nomination for Best Actor.

Although largely forgotten today, The Human Comedy is one of the great films of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Like the book, it is a beautiful and moving story with a memorable if idealized depiction of small-town life during the war years. 

By the end of the war, Rooney was too old to play teenagers and had to make the transition to grown up roles. His looks and stature made it impossible to play traditional leading men, but he still possessed great dramatic ability.  Two of my favorites from the post-war era are the 1949 Quicksand, and the 1953 Drive a Crooked Road.

In Quicksand Rooney plays an automobile mechanic working in a large garage who falls for a sexy cashier in a nearby diner. He asks her for a date and when she accepts, he has to come up with some dough since he is broke until payday. He decides to borrow some from the garage cash register and replace it on payday. Unfortunately, he is found out and must struggle to replace the money. His attempts only get him deeper and deeper into trouble. The film’s title is appropriate. The film also features Jeanne Cagney, James Cagney’s sister, and Peter Lorre.

Drive a Crooked Road, follows a similar pattern. Once again Rooney is a garage mechanic but, in this film, he also drives race cars in local races. He plays a lonely young man who can only dream of driving at Indianapolis or Le Mans. One day a beautiful young woman walks into the garage and singles out the unlikely Rooney to work on her car. It turns out that she is part of a gang of bank robbers who need a skilled driver to drive the getaway car for their next job. Sure enough, he falls for her and the dream of big money with tragic results. 

Quicksand and Drive a Crooked Road are low budget “B” movies, but Rooney gave “A” performances in both. Although he would never again reach the fame and fortune of his Hollywood heyday, he continued to work in movies, TV, Broadway, and touring companies almost until his death in 2014 at the age of 94. 

 

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