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OF MICE AND MEN (1939)
United
Artists Release
|
Produced
by Hal Roach. Directed by Lewis Milestone. Associate
Producer: Frank Ross. Based on the novel by John
Steinbeck. Screenplay by Eugene Solow. Art Direction by
Nicolai Remisoff. Musical Score by Aaron Copeland.
Photography by Norbert Brodine. Photographic Effects by
Roy Seawright. Edited by Bert Jordan. Produced on the
stage by Sam H. Harris. 107 min. |
| Based on the 1937 novel by John Steinbeck, it wasn’t long before this best-seller was adapted into play form. The Broadway version, which was directed by George S. Kaufman and produced by Sam H. Harris was an instant hit with Wallace Ford (cast as George), Broderick Crawford (Lenny), Will Geer (Slim) and Claire Luce (Curley’s wife) receiving rave notices. Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times called the play “a masterpiece” with similar reviews forthcoming. Enter director Lewis Milestone, whose 1930 release of All Quiet on the Western Front was still receiving belated applause almost a decade after its release. |
| Trying to find a cinematic property, which would match his earlier success, Milestone expressed an interest in the film rights to OF MICE AND MEN.However, when he brought the idea to the heads of the various major studios to invest in this property, they all nixed the idea, claiming that the Hays Office would object to it’s rather grim subject matter, not to mention the extensive use of profanity in the play’s treatment. Hiring scriptwriter Eugene Solow to write an adaptation of the play, the two then presented noted comedy producer Hal Roach with the idea of purchasing the movie rights. Up until that time, Mr. Roach was a producer of two and three reel comedy shorts, but with the institution of the double feature in the mid thirties, it looked like the death knell for the short subject was imminent. By 1936, with the exception of the very famous Our Gang Comedies, Hal Roach Studios would now produce feature length pictures exclusively. He had been very successful putting Laurel and Hardy into features in 1931, but his other comedy stars (most notably Charley Chase) didn’t fare as well and were soon let go. |  |
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| After
turning out some very successful features such as Topper
(1937), Merrily We Live, There Goes My Heart (both 1938),
and Captain Fury (1939), Hal Roach was now becoming a
noted independent producer, with some critics comparing
him with Samuel Goldwyn and Walter Wanger. In the
meantime, Lewis Milestone and Eugene Solow convinced the
ecomony-minded Mr. Roach that they could produce a
prestigious ‘A’ picture for as little as
$250,000. Roach jumped at the chance, feeling that a
production costing so little could never lose at the
box-office. When announcements were initially made that OF MICE AND MEN would soon become a movie reality, everybody in Hollywood wanted to play the part of George. Spencer Tracy reportedly claimed that he would do the film for nothing if MGM Studio boss Louis B. Mayer would loan him to the small Culver City Studio down the street. But, Mayer had already invested a huge amount of money casting Tracy in the upcoming Technicolor super-production Northwest Passage. James Cagney, who was constantly battling Jack Warner for better parts, was also interested, but the headstrong producer insisted that Cagney star in yet another big-scale gangster epic The Roaring Twenties. John Garfield, who was also a Warner Brothers contract star, was another candidate, but he, too, was busy on another project. Burgess Meredith, who was making a name for himself on the Broadway stage, (although he did made a solid impression on movie audiences when he appeared in the film version of Winterset in 1936) was eventually cast as George. Betty Field, who was a relative newcomer in movies having recently appeared in lightweight juvenile roles, was cast as Curley’s wife, Mae, while formidable heavy Charles Bickford played the foreman Slim. Broderick Crawford, who had dazzled audiences with his bravura performance as Lenny was initially a shoe-in for the screen version. But, just before OF MICE AND MEN went into production, Lon Chaney Jr., who was the son of the famed “Man of a Thousand Faces”, Lon Chaney, auditioned for the role at the last minute. Roach and Milestone thought his screen test was brilliant and casting an unknown newcomer would prove considerably more economical compared to Crawford’s asking price. Also, Roach thought that he could capitalize on the Chaney name as well. |
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Released on December 30th, 1939, this was the first filmed adaptation of a John Steinbeck novel. Two months later, 20th Century Fox released the second based on one of his novels, The Grapes of Wrath, which garnered more attention, now that a major studio was backing the project as well as the casting of major stars in the lead roles, not to mention the intense amount of publicity that Fox had to offer. As a result, Grapes became a more popular successor, especially since an Academy Award winning director, John Ford was at the helm. In actuality, OF MICE AND MEN is the preferable of the two, uncompromising and superior in every aspect. Cinematographer Nobert Brodine does some of his best work here with the camera in constant motion, moving in and around the small sets as well as the beautiful landscapes of the Hearst Ranch, where the exteriors were filmed. Also, the musical score by Aaron Copeland remains one of the best in film history. Its various moods prove to heighten suspense in three key scenes beautifully! | |||
| At
the time of it’s initial release, OF MICE AND MEN
failed to make money at the box-office, perhaps because
of its grim subject matter. Hal Roach later stated
jokingly that women stayed away in droves because of the
word “mice” in the title. The Academy of Motion
Pictures Arts and Sciences awarded the film four
nominations in the Best Picture, Best Original Musical
Score, Best Scoring of a Motion Picture as well as Best
Sound Recording categories. But, since this was the year
of Gone with the Wind and other countless classics
(Wuthering Heights, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington, Dark Victory to name a few), OF MICE AND MEN
didn’t receive one statuette. Betty Field, however,
did win the New York Film Critic’s Award for Best
Actress for her wonderful performance as the troubled and
bored Mae. |
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| His
performance as the doomed soul of were-wolfery in The
Wolf Man (1941) remains a timeless classic of that genre.
In the 1950s, Mr. Chaney’s career was given a needed
boost when director Stanley Kramer cast him in two
excellent character studies in High Noon (1952) and The
Defiant Ones (1958), where he proved once again how good
he was when given the opportunity! Reviews at the time were wildly enthusiastic with one reviewer stating that “the film is excellently acted by everyone. . . there are, mercifully, no stars to intrude their tedious flat personalities into this picture of life. It is a picture which, for all its grief, is not depressing, and if it should be said that this is no time for adding to one’s own melancholy, let me reply that it is sometimes well not to lose from sight the individual pity of the lives of men.” As it is, OF MICE AND MEN was and is a screen masterpiece! |
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