East of Eden 1955 - Magnificent feature film debut of the iconic film star

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IMDB Rating: 8,0

Director: Elia Kazan
Main Cast: James Dean, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, Jo Van Fleet, Albert Dekker

"This truncated screen version of John Steinbeck's best-seller was the first starring vehicle for explosive 1950s screen personality James Dean. A grand, visually remarkable adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, East of Eden was one of the films responsible for the cult that grew up around James Dean. Released in 1955, the same year as Dean's Rebel Without a Cause, Eden featured the actor in his sullen, troubled prime, rolling his eyes, mumbling his words, and stuffing his hands into his pockets as only he knew how. At once angry and vulnerable, Dean's performances in both movies established him as an icon of youthful discontent for decades to come. Aside from its place in the Dean iconography, East of Eden remains remarkable for Elia Kazan's use of CinemaScope, capturing with harsh vibrancy the expanse and breathtaking desolation of the California farmlands. The landscape crackles with a moody intensity that mirrors the conflicts among the film's central characters. In this respect, East of Eden earned its place in Hollywood legend: it featured great performances from its human principals, while the scenery gave a spellbinding performance in its own right. Released the same year as Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden provided Dean with his first Oscar nomination, for Best Actor. Among the movie's other stellar performances, Jo Van Fleet won the Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. " - www.allmovie.com

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The grapes of wrath 1940 - A heartbreaking, compelling American classic

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IMDB rating: 8,2

Director: John Ford
Main Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin, Dorris Bowdon

"John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath is arguably the director's greatest movie, and the rare Hollywood film superior to its literary source (a view shared by the novel's author, John Steinbeck). Indeed, it is the movie that sums up the impact of the Great Depression, at least on rural America, better than any other film of its time (and there were hundreds that tried, by everyone from Frank Capra to Preston Sturges). From the opening shot of Tom Joad's return to the ruined land where he grew up, the movie is a study of people whose dreams and hopes wither away like the drought-stricken crops. Yet Ford managed to make a movie that wasn't utterly pessimistic, despite its story and setting: the performers and script availed him of indomitable characters, convincingly portrayed, with the result that even the most cynical viewers were persuaded of Ford's artistic vision. Henry Fonda, who'd been an up-and-coming leading man, solidified his image as an upright hero with an almost mystical bent in his portrayal of Tom Joad; Jane Darwell became the archetypal rural matriarch; and even the bit players, such as Ward Bond and Grant Mitchell, got relatively rare opportunities to play against their usual types as beneficent characters. The movie became a strange case of fiction transcending fact, as Ford's images (photographed by the great cinematographer Gregg Toland) became more representative of the period than most documentary photography. Countless filmmakers have quoted from The Grapes of Wrath (there's a very funny audio-visual reference in Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and Ford himself never made a more compelling social statement despite several attempts (The Sun Shines Bright, Sergeant Rutledge, and others) over the next 20 years." - www.allmovie.com

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Of mice and men 1939 - Steinbeck's classic invisioned perfectly

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IMDB rating: 7,7

Director: Lewis Milestone
Main Cast: Lon Chaney Jr., Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, Charles Bickford

"This 1939 film version of John Steinbeck's classic novel was a surprising choice for comedy producer Hal Roach; in fact, Roach had no intention of filming the property until forced to do so as a result of a lawsuit brought by director Lewis Milestone. Milestone was a filmmaker of many parts - in the silent era, he had been known for his skills as a director of comedies, while with the dawn of sound films, he was responsible for one of the most enduring and serious dramas of the time, All Quiet On The Western Front (1930), which is among the earliest sound films that is considered easily watchable by modern audiences; and across the 1930's, he moved between romantic comedies (The Captain Hates The Sea) and serious, topical dramas (The General Died At Dawn). But it was with Of Mice And Men in 1939 that he came into his own as a stylist and he ended up with one of the most prestigious movies ever to come out of Hal Roach Studios, nominated for four Academy Awards. This adaptation of John Steinbeck's short novel, appearing just two years after the book's publication, was released in the same year as John Ford's more prestigious and star-powered adaptation of the author's The Grapes Of Wrath, and yet it still managed to impress critics and audiences. The performances by Burgess Meredith as George and Lon Chaney, Jr. as Lenny (a role he had to maneuver and campaign for to earn a shot at) possess and immediacy that makes them seem like finely-honed theater work. And Milestone also got superb performances out of a supporting cast that included Bob Steele (essaying his first 'serious' role, after years of playing in B-westerns), Betty Field, Charles Bickford, Noah Beery, Jr., Leigh Whipper, and Roman Bohnen. For many of those concerned, this movie would be some of the best work they ever did; with just a few lines in a very spare script, all of these players create memorable and finely-etched characters, that audiences know and understand in just a few frames, their work filling out the corners and background of this story in fine, full dramatic form. Composer Aaron Copland, then 39 years old and coming into the production on the late end (as film composers usually do), also rose to the occasion, on his first opportunity to score a movie. The result was a poetic and lyrical film that was perhaps a little less bravura than Ford's masterpiece, but no less haunting in its nuances and its overall impact. Milestone later tried to repeat the artistic success, working as an independent producer/director under the auspices of Republic Pictures, on The Red Pony, with slightly less impressive results.
 Of Mice and Men retains its raw dramatic power. On its initial release, however, it proved a bit too powerful for many filmgoers, and it lost money.
The 1981 TV remake of Of Mice and Men starring Robert Blake and Randy Quaid, was a virtual scene-for-scene remake of the 1939 version. The 1993 theatrical remake, starring Gary Sinise (who also directed) and John Malkovich, is perhaps closer to the source than its predecessors, but only time will tell if it attains the classic status of the Lewis Milestone version." - www.allmovie.com

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