Of Mice and Men, 1939 (Grade A)

Director Lewis Milestone
Awards: Nominated for multiple academy awards 
Stars: Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr.. Charles Bickford, Betty Field, Bob Steele



sez says: origianlly a short story by Steinbeck ( Of Mice and Men,) then a Broadway play produced by George S Kaufman, then made into a move directed by Lewis Milestone.  Those are some impressive names to be attached to a single work.  The story is an American classic--and Milestone brought his genius to the telling of it. It is a sad, yet heroic story of good men facing hard realities while holding on to a dream.   Meanwhile, men need to help each other to achieve their dreams, and few men ever get past the imagining of another life. Women are trouble.  Every man should have a dog. It is full of stuff like that.
One of my favorite scenes is when an old man tells about a night, long ago, when he visited a brothel. He is asked how much did that cost you. He says $15.  The men laugh at him and say that was a  whole weeks wages.  He looks up and says I've worked a lot of weeks in my life and I don't really remember many of them. But after all these years I still remember that one night, so one of my week's work got me something. 
You can like or dislike the story--but Milestone serves it up beautifully in B&W. The end is also altered, no doubt, to meet the film code, which is annoying.  But it is still beautifully done. Chaney is a little over the top as Lenny, but not so much so as to be distracting -- and the rest of the cast is excellent.  (Grade A)