OF MICE AND MEN (1939)

Beautifully acted version of the classic John Steinbeck story. Burgess Meredith is a migrant farm worker who travels with his cousin, Lon Chaney Jr. Meredith is a philosophical type but also a realist; Chaney is a gentle but retarded giant of a man who occasionally forgets his own strength--he likes to pet small, soft things, like rabbits, but not realizing his strength, he sometimes goes overboard and hurts or kills his object of affection. The two are frequently on the run after Chaney unintentionally causes trouble. At the beginning of the movie, they find work on a ranch run by Bob Steele (later one of the Three Mesquiteers of B-Western fame), a cruel but weak man. The two become friendly with most of the ranch hands, and Meredith feeds the hopes of Chaney and others by spinning pipe dreams about living an easy life on a rabbit ranch. Eventually, Chaney gets caught between Steele and his unsatisified wife, Betty Field, and the two must go on the run again. Meredith, realizing things will never get better for or with Chaney, must decide between letting Chaney go to jail for life, or putting him out of his misery through mercy-killing. Although you do come to care about several of the characters, and the last few minutes are emotionally affecting, much of the movie feels more like a fable than a real-life story. This is Chaney's one great performance before he got mired in B-horror films. If you've only seen him in those movies, this will be a revelation. The cast also features Charles Bickford and Noah Beery Jr., and there is lots of human/animal symbolism, especially in a particularly sad incident involving an old man and his sick dog. I'm more a cat person than a dog person, but it still brought tears to my eyes, as did the ending. [DVD]