Directed by:
Irving PichelScreenplay:
Julien JosephsonCinematography:
Joseph LaShelleComposer:
Cyril J. MockridgeCast:
Don Ameche, Frances Dee, Harry Carey, Ann Rutherford, Cara Williams, Harry Morgan, Minor Watson, Dickie Moore, Oscar O'Shea, Natalie Wood, Mary Wickes (more)Plots(1)
An Iowa drugstore owner (Don Ameche) becomes embittered when his son is killed in World War II. The druggist believes that the boy's life was cut short before he had an opportunity to truly appreciate his existence. The grieving father is shown the error of his assumption by the ghost of his grandfather (Harry Carey), who through flashbacks details the good things about the son's short term on Earth, and the wonderful life that the druggist himself has enjoyed. Frances Dee plays Don Ameche's wife, while Ann Rutherford portrays his son's girl (who in turn is played in a flashback sequence by former Little Rascal Darla Hood). Happy Land was suitable wartime propaganda, though it doesn't play quite as movingly today. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Don Ameche
USA
Best movies:
Love Is News (1937)
Trading Places (1983)
Midnight (1939)
Frances Dee
USA
Best movies:
Come and Get It (1936)
Little Women (1933)
Of Human Bondage (1934)
Harry Carey
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Barbary Coast (1935)
Red River (1948)
Ann Rutherford
Canada
Best movies:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Adventures of Don Juan (1948)
A Christmas Carol (1938)
Cara Williams
USA
Best movies:
The Defiant Ones (1958)
Laura (1944)
Boomerang! (1947)
Harry Morgan
USA
Best movies:
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (series)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
Minor Watson
USA
Best movies:
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
Dickie Moore
USA
Best movies:
The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Out of the Past (1947)
Oscar O'Shea
Canada
Best movies:
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Of Mice and Men (1939)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Natalie Wood
USA
Best movies:
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
West Side Story (1961)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
Mary Wickes
USA
Best movies:
The Proud Rebel (1958)
Little Women (1994)
Columbo (1971) (series)
Walter Baldwin
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Storm Warning (1951)
Tom Stevenson
USA
Best movies:
Gaslight (1944)
The Song of Bernadette (1943)
The Hucksters (1947)
Aileen Pringle
USA
Best movies:
Laura (1944)
They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
Since You Went Away (1944)
Lillian Bronson
USA
Best movies:
Gaslight (1944)
Spencer's Mountain (1963)
A Stolen Life (1946)
Ferris Taylor
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Harder They Fall (1956)
Frontier Marshal (1939)
Matt Moore
Ireland
Best movies:
Spellbound (1945)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Plymouth Adventure (1952)
Houseley Stevenson
UK
Best movies:
You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)
Colorado Territory (1949)
Dark Passage (1947)
Milton Kibbee
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Edison, the Man (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
John Dilson
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Rhapsody in Blue (1945)