Customer Reviews

Of Mice & Men [VHS]

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John Steinbeck's masterful story of friendship is definitively brought to screen in Lewis Milestone's 1939 OF MICE AND MEN. This is a terrific movie, essential viewing for anyone with a tolerance for black and white. The story is so universal and cleanly told this one is hard not to become deeply engrossed in.
Lon Chaney Jr., rightfully, is the chief reason we remember this movie. He nails the role of the feeble-minded Lennie, who wants nothing more than to tend his rabbits. I've never seen this movie before, and I was surprised at how effective Burgess Meredith was as Lennie's friend and protector, George. If Chaney steals most of the scenes he's in, Meredith is the reliable engine, grounded in humanity, that draws us in.
OF MICE AND MEN has been remade once, in 1992, in a production starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise. For all of Malkovich's talents, I still prefer Chaney's performance. More importantly, the 1939 production was contemporaneous with Steinbeck's novel. If the latter movie is a period piece, the 1939 version is current events, and that does make a difference.
Get out the hankies and get ready to be deeply moved. An essential movie.

From 1939, arguably the most oustanding year for films in Hollywood history, this eloquent, moving and touching film is almost a forgotten piece of masterful moviemaking.

Lewis Milestone faithfully brought to the screen John Steinbecks time honored novel about two nomadic workers sharing a simple dream of one day owning their own farm. Lon Chaney gives his most memorable performance (apart from his portrayal's as tormented wolf man, Lawrence Talbot) as the immensely strong, but simple-minded Lennie. Burgess Meredith, in a fine performance too, plays his jaded travelling companion, George Milton. The two men seek work on a farm bucking barley, but their situation quickly darkens due to the aggressive, bullying attitudes of the owners son, Curley (well acted by serial cowboy, Bob Steele) and his bored and lonely wife, Mae (Betty Field)

In addition to this masterly casting, there is marvellous support lent by Charles Bickford as the straightforward head ranch hand, Slim.....Noah Beery Jr. as the kind hearted and easy going cowpoke, Whit....and noted stage actor Roman Bohen is simply unforgettable as the crippled old timer, Candy. Bohen solidly contributes to many key scenes throughout the film, and his on screen relationship with his faithful, old dog is exceptionally moving (aided by a poignant score from Aaron Copeland)

"Of Mice and Men" rightfully deserves it's place as one of the finest American films of the twentieth century. An inspiring piece of film making that will illict a wide range of emotions from fans of strong, story driven films. Simply, a must see !

The greatest year ever for the movies was undoubtedly 1939. Of Mice and Men was a member of the class of '39 and was also one of the ten films to be nominated for best picture that year. Competing against Gone With the Wind it had little chance of winning, but merely to be nominated that year was an achievement. Of Mice and Men is one of the great films and one of the best adaptations of a novel. Only The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden can compete with it as an adaptation of Steinbeck. The film is not as well known as it ought to be, which is a pity as it has a deeply felt story and some superb performances. It really shows the hardships of being a poor farmhand in depression era America and includes many details which give the setting authenticity. Burgess Meredith is wonderful as George while Lon Chaney Junior is a revelation as Lennie. Chaney is probably best known for his horror roles as The Wolf Man, but these roles don't really show his acting ability. Only in his brief role in High Noon does he show the acting ability that is so clearly evident from his performance in Of Mice and Men. George and Lennie's friendship and interdependence forms the heart of the film, but the film is also about loneliness. This is especially shown with regard to two characters, Crooks played by Leigh Whipper, who is excluded from the rest of the workers because of the colour of his skin, and Mae played by Betty Field, whose jealous husband wont allow her to talk to anyone. Field had a great acting talent and her film roles are very distinctive. Here she shows the loneliness and desperation for human contact of a woman who has married the wrong man. It is her search for some warmth that leads her to Lennie and this has unforeseen consequences for everyone. Both Lennie and Mae are unconscious of their actions, they can't see ahead and thus both are like children. What makes the film so great is that it does not judge them. The characters in the film are just people with various strengths and weaknesses. The story is thus very true to life and believable.

The print used for the Image DVD is superb. The picture quality could hardly be better with clear, sharp and detailed images. The black and white photography is truly beautiful. Unfortunately the sound quality is less good. There is quite a bit of background noise in some scenes. However, the sound quality is far from bad as the dialogue is always easily audible and the Aaron Copland score sounds fine. Anyone who is a fan of classic films should add this DVD to their collection.

Of Mice and Men unfortunately gets lost among other great films of 1939 such as Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights and The Wizard of Oz. However this poignant portrayal of the Depression era West stands tall in its moral values and simplicity.

George and Lennie are itinerant farm workers hoboing there way through the west. The sharp minded leader George played superbly by Burgess Meredith has been looking after the dim witted beast of burden Lennie for years. He has crafted a scenario where they will accumulate enough money to buy a place of their own. He promises Lennie, who has a patholgic affinity for stroking soft things, that he will be able to tend the soft furry rabbits. Lennie makes George repeat their plans time and time again never tiring of the story.

They find work on a barley farm but soon the uncontrollable Lennie gets into trouble and their plans get altered.

Lon Chaney Jr. was obnoxiously fantastic as the mentally challenged Lenny. Burgess Meredith once again proves that he is one of the greatest character actors to ever have appeared on the American screen.

Yeah, yeah, so it's a major motion picture that has been forgotten, etc., but I never forgot it. I first saw it when I was 11 years old, and it shocked and saddened me the same way the Zapruder film did when I first saw it. (In other words, I burst quite unexpectedly into tears. I hadn't read the Steinbeck short novel yet.) I became a lifelong fan of Aaron Copland, the composer of the film's score, and I already liked Lon Chaney because of the Wolfman and Mummy movies, and also Burgess Meredith, pre-Batman and pre-Rocky. All I can say is, in addition to the very moving Candy's dog sequence, the end of the film in which the music softly swells up while the squirrel runs up the tree and the leaves fall has to be one of the most affecting scenes ever made. Also I found that as I grew older, the plight of Curley's wife Mae touches me profoundly. Just thinking of Slim saying "poor kid, I shoulda let her talk" makes me kinda sorta a little bit weepy. *sigh* a real gem. (And it's not really in B&W, but sepia.) I actually bought the movie on two LP's in the pre-video days, and my best friend and I used to sit and sob and listen to the last side of the four sides over and over in order to weep.

one of the greatest classics of all time. if not for such great insurmountable competition released during the same year, this one would have taken the oscar for best picture and garnered Lon Chaney Jr. an oscar. absolutely without refute, one of the great legends.

as for the DVD, you won't get any extras, just the movie and chapter selections. but the transfer is quite good, especially the picture. if you're an avid collector of the great classics, it's worth the money.

OF MICE AND MEN might have been written for the stage: it naturally falls into scene divisions, with a lot of its drama presented in dialogue. Director Lewis Milestone, in making this film, broke that almost inevitable mold, rehandled the material and made it move in the flow-eddy-flow style of the screen and yet kept the essentials of events and characters true to their author's conception, which was, in itself the director's triumph. The story about two unfortunate men who dreamed a dream of having a home of their own, with a garden to eat from, working for themselves with no boss to rout them out of bed in the morning, the privilege of loafing or going to the circus without anyone's permission......Just "bindle stiffs", migratory farm workers tramping from job to job, this dream meant heaven-on-earth to them, but things happened, those fatal things that can't be called anyone's fault, and their plans went astray. As the painfully pathetic Lennie, Lon Chaney, Jr. had the role of his career (his WOLFMAN is decidedly a close second). Milestone soft-peddled Lennie to a considerable degree, and toned down a lot of Steinbeck's violence, to say nothing of his profanity. The unique Burgess Merideth is fine as George while the underrated Betty Field does commendable work as the flirtatious Mae. Steinbeck's tragedy was theatrical but Milestone and Eugene Solow's script gave it dignity, inevitability and an unusual strain of excitement.

This is the legendary film that brought Lon Chaney Jr. to star status with his portrayal of dim-witted Lenny. Great story, great cinematography, great performances by Burgess Meredith as Lenny's "guardian", Charles Bickford and former cowboy star Bob Steele as the cruel Curly. Plot in a nutshell: George & Lenny are drifters, landing a job at a ranch and dreaming of the day when they own their own ranch, complete with a dozen rabbits for Lenny to take care of. Curly's wife flirts with the ranch hands, especially Bickford, which causes confrontations with Curly and the ultimate tragic ending. If you are a fan of Warner Brothers cartoons, you may be familiar with their over-usage of Chaney's Lenny in their films: "gee, George"..."whadja say, George?"..."I wouldn't hurt 'im, George"..."George is my friend"...you remember, right? Films can hardly get more classic than this. Do yourself a favor...add this to your collection!

The America of the 1930s was a hodgepodge of geography, but the terrain that most movie audiences could relate to was either Tara from GONE WITH THE WIND or the bitter dust bowls of the parched west. Director Lewis Milestone perfectly caught this sense of dry dust mingled with human walls of self-constructed isolation in the filmed version of John Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN. America was still caught in the tail end of a decade long depression that seemed quite capable of extending itself for yet another. Since America was not yet involved in Europe's troubles, it was natural for Hollywood to focus on internal matters that reflected the dust that seemed to settle everywhere. Lenny Small (Lon Chaney, Jr) and George Milton (Burgess Meredith) symbolized the alienation between man and an uncaring society. Bindlestiffs like them existed only as punching bags for anyone with a grudge to settle. The only solution for forced isolation was to painfully build an enduring relation with someone who cared. As Lenny tells George incessantly about how 'I got you and you got me,' the viewers could see that maybe he was right.
Lenny and George are two tramps who seek only a place to call their own. To George, land is physical; it will provide security against the uncertainties of a dust bowl existence. To Lenny, land is internal; it is more of a time than a place. It represents a time to pet rabbits and feel the closeness engendered by the proximity of those rabbits to George. Both are fleeing from the rape charges shouted out by a woman in the previous town against the hulking, dim-witted Lenny. All Lenny wanted was to pet a pretty thing. Both escape to find work on a ranch, but the loneliness that plagued them as a pair on the road they learn afflicts others too. Nearly everyone on the ranch is isolated in one way or another. The most tragic loneliness is the one belonging to Mae, the neglected wife of Curly, whose own loneliness forces him to seek meaningful contact with his fists. Mae is a sexy flirt who might have been happy with a man who could have torn down the high walls of her own isolation, but Curly simply builds them higher as he makes sure that his jealousy keeps her increasingly deprived of human contact. Mae reaches out to the uncomprehending Lenny, and in her words to him of her need to impact on others, the audience can see that a twin set of monologues does not add up to a dialogue. Each is talking at not to one another. Lenny touches her hair and becomes excited enough not to hear her protests. He breaks her neck, and all he knows is that George will know that he 'done a bad thing.' The climax occurs when George finds Lenny hiding but is aware that a vigilante posse is just minutes away. George understands that the only service that one friend can do for the other is to kill Lenny. The scene that George kills Lenny is one of the most heart-rending in film. George again conjures up the mystery time and place that will let Lenny find a cure for his isolation. As George speaks, Lenny responds and for a brief moment actually is transported to the rabbit warren. The gunshot, like the reverberations of the horns that tumbled the walls of Jericho, similarly restore the isolation that had always been the status quo of all concerned.
OF MICE AND MEN is noteworthy for many reasons, but an often unappreciated factor is the movie's point of view. Lenny, rather than George, is seen as the protagonist. He is in nearly every scene, and he is the focus of discussion when he is not. The audience tends to see the action from his perspective, even if George is the one who performs as a chorus, interpreting it. The movie seems to suggest that while the walls of isolation are high indeed, the need to break them down is one that lies in the souls of all concerned. Just ask Mae or Lenny.

1939's Of Mice And Men is a beautiful film. I enjoyed it from frame 1 through its heartbreaking finish. For those who remember Burgess Meredith as only a villain in the Batman TV series of the 1960s, they should take a good look at this moving, splendid motion picture (with a fine performance by Mr. Meredith).

It's hard to envision a more engaging movie. 1939 sure produced some great ones, and this just might be the cream of the crop.