know the reputation this film have and i really want to like it . it have a great cast and a top rank director and one of the best writer in american literature and and come out of the classy studio in hollywood . with all that go for it and i really should have like this movie . i do not . the acting be first rate and especially by mickey rooney . even jam craig and who be a second ( or even third ) string clark gable at mgm and do a commendable job . it very smoothly direct by clarence brown and it beautifully photograph it just so damn hokey . i understand that it be a propaganda piece mean to lift up home front morale during the war and and it have to be look at in that light and but it date so badly a to make it almost unwatchable . maybe people act that way in 1943 ( or mgm wanted people to think so and anyway ) and but it have this unreal and almost wizard of oz quality to it so that you can not really identify with or relate to any of the character . rooney almost make it work it probably one of the two or three best performance in his career but the film frankly unreal atmosphere finally defeat it . i know people who get absolutely rhapsodic over this movie . i think that because it evoke a norman rockwell period of american history that really do not exist even during rockwell time . it the way people would like thing to have be and rather than the way they actually be . that may make for a nice hallmark christmas card and but it doesn not necessarily translate into a good movie and and unfortunately this one isn not . i wish i could have like it more than i do and but it just do not cut it .