Of Mice and Men (1939)

Academy Awards, USA 1940

Nominated Oscar	Best Picture
	Best Sound, Recording Elmer Raguse (Hal Roach SSD)
	Best Music, Scoring Aaron Copland
	Best Music, Original Score Aaron Copland

United Artists
Directed by Lewis Mileston
My rating: 4 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Migrant farm workers Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr., take up new jobs at a remote California ranch. Chaney is a "gentle giant" who does not know his own strength. Meredith is his lifelong friend who looks after him. There is trouble on the ranch in the form of diminutive cowboy Bob Steele, who is insanely jealous of his flirty, restless wife. Meanwhile, the ranch hands pine for an escape from their miserable lives. In one awful, but necessary, scene, an old man's dog is taken away to be shot. It's necessary because it sets up the ending, which would have been unbearable otherwise. Chaney's performance is a revelation, he literally becomes his character, something his father did on a regular basis in the silent era but the son had trouble duplicating over his own long career.