Directed by:
Clarence BrownCinematography:
Harry Stradling Sr.Composer:
Herbert StothartCast:
Mickey Rooney, Frank Morgan, James Craig, Fay Bainter, Marsha Hunt, Ray Collins, Van Johnson, Donna Reed, Dorothy Morris, Ann Ayars, Henry O'Neill, Alan Baxter (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
In an effort to support his family while his older brother, Marcus (Van Johnson), is away at war, Homer (Mickey Rooney) gets a job delivering telegrams for the local telegraph office. His sensitive manager, Tom Spangler (James Craig), and an elderly and wise drunken telegrapher, Willie Grogan (Frank Morgan), help Homer face the painful messages that are often tapped across the telegraph wire as he learns to accept the harsh realities of war. With the help of his faithful widowed mother (Fay Bainter), Homer navigates his new job while enduring the joys and defeats of high school in his small and charming hometown of Ithaca, California. This poignant vision of life in 1940s America, poignantly directed by Clarence Brown, follows the miniadventures of Homer's family, including a late-night rendevous between his blushing older sister Bess (Donna Reed) and a lonely soldier (Robert Mitchum). As Homer wavers on the brink of adulthood, his younger brother Ulysses (Jack Jenkin) is free to roam the streets of their idyllic small town without a care in the world in a sweetly sentimental reminder of childhood freedom and exuberance. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Mickey Rooney
USA
Best movies:
Captains Courageous (1937)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Strike Up the Band (1940)
Frank Morgan
USA
Best movies:
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Stratton Story (1949)
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
James Craig
USA
Best movies:
The Man They Could Not Hang (1939)
Side Street (1950)
The Devil's Brigade (1968)
Fay Bainter
USA
Best movies:
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
The Children's Hour (1961)
Jezebel (1938)
Marsha Hunt
USA
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
The Valley of Decision (1945)
Ray Collins
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Heiress (1949)
Van Johnson
USA
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
Madame Curie (1943)
Donna Reed
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Dorothy Morris
USA
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Keeper of the Flame (1942)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Ann Ayars
USA
Best movies:
The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)
Reunion in France (1942)
Henry O'Neill
USA
Best movies:
Two Girls and a Sailor (1944)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
The People Against O'Hara (1951)
Alan Baxter
USA
Best movies:
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
The Set-Up (1949)
Mary Nash
USA
Best movies:
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The Rains Came (1939)
Come and Get It (1936)
Darryl Hickman
USA
Best movies:
Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
If I Were King (1938)
Barry Nelson
USA
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
The Shining (1980)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
Rita Quigley
USA
Best movies:
Keeper of the Flame (1942)
Hills of Home (1948)
Gibson Gowland
UK
Best movies:
Sunrise (1927)
Gaslight (1944)
Behind the Door (1919)
Robert Mitchum
USA
Best movies:
The Longest Day (1962)
Dead Man (1995)
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
Don Taylor
USA
Best movies:
Stalag 17 (1953)
Father of the Bride (1950)
Battleground (1949)
Howard Freeman
USA
Best movies:
Madame Curie (1943)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
The Killers (1946)