Not long ago I watched a community college production of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. The play differs slightly from the feature film version, but not in too many significant ways. Mostly, in the stage version, the action is confined to the sleeping quarters of the men. Of course, in the movie, the story is opened up a bit more to show the land and some of the roads down which the main characters, George and Lenny, travel.
Seeing the live performance of Steinbeck’s classic tale helped me appreciate just how much director Lewis Milestone expanded upon the basic story in his 1939 film for Hal Roach’s company. It is not filmed in Technicolor, nor does it really need to be, but the shots of the desolate countryside and these two men trying to find some sort of sanctuary, is depicted so starkly and honestly that we cannot view it without being moved by it. Part of the film’s success is the casting of Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr., which strikes just the right balance.
But I think a lot of the credit must be given to Milestone, a literary man who adapted other written works for the screen. Milestone also continues in the vein of adapting literature by John Steinbeck with his 1949 production of THE RED PONY for Republic Studios.
This time, the story is recorded in color (Trucolor to be exact), and again Milestone has assembled a superior cast to bring the story of a boy and his pony to life– including Robert Mitchum, Myrna Loy and Louis Calhern. As we had seen in the previous picture, Milestone includes many shots of rural landscapes, which serve as a mirror and a commentary about the inner state of mind experienced by Jody, the young Steinbeck protagonist.
Many of Steinbeck’s other stories were turned into motion pictures by Hollywood studios. However, none of that other filming had the benefit of Lewis Milestone’s assured direction. Milestone brings a truthfulness to the struggles faced by the characters in these dramas. He presents simple folk trying their best to survive in a world that would just as soon squeeze them out of existence. There’s a poignancy he captures that gives us an understanding of people strengthened by adversity, and a spirit they have that no hardship can defeat.
Of or Involving Motion Pictures 