Thomas Gerbasi

A sad, depressing and grim movie with glaring historical inaccuracies and a disjointed storyline. This movie just didn't even try to have period authenticity and, for those of us who have actually seen a movie from the 1940's or live through the era or the decade following, it was jarringly wrong. The hair styles of the women, especially Ms. Ryan, were 40 years too recent, the Postal Telegraph office looks like it was a 1960's storefront, and the front door was of a style that did not appear until the late 1980's. Some aspects of men's clothing, especially the hats, were also 15 to 20 years too recent. This was so distracting that I found myself pointing out these errors rather than following what plot there was. The original "The Human Comedy" had many humorous and warm aspects, which this movie lacked. The original also had some wartime propaganda, which this movie expunged, but in doing so, it left certain holes in the plotline, in particular, the romance of the Postal Telegraph supervisor/boss was completely unexplored and the reason for the wounded soldier Toby to come to Ithaca unexplained. .