Happy Land (film)

Happy Land (1943) is a film directed by Irving Pichel and starring Don Ameche. It was based on the 1943 novel of the same name by MacKinlay Kantor.

Plot Summary

While at a luncheon with his wife, Lew Marsh receives a message that his only beloved son Rusty has been killed in action. Lew, a third generation pharmacist in the small town of Hartfield, Iowa, is beside himself with grief, and beyond consolation from reverend Wood and his wife, Agnes. Because of the grief he neglects his duties at the pharmacy and isolates himself.

One night, Lew gets a visit from his dead grandfather's spirit. "Gramp" was the one who took care of Lew after his parents died, and he tells him he has been watching over him from beyond the grave. The spirit of gramp is troubled by Lew's mourning and the way it affects his life and those around him.

As Lew and Gramp's spirit walk the streets of the small town, Gramp offers Lew a flashback to his and Rusty's life.

It begins with Lew participating in a welcome home parade at the end of World War One. He finds out that his girlfriend before he left has married another man while Lew was away war. He met Agnes soon after, fell in love, married, and had Rusty.