Of Mice and Men (United Artists) (1939)

Hii Ten h Than thantf America was proud of its front porch until John Steinbeck showed the backyard. Today two motion pictures spread his message never apprehended while under indictment. It was probably this same prac¬ tice of keeping his altruism on a strictly practical level that caused Rousseau to keep his theories purely theoretical. Voltaire, on the other hand, named names and dated dates and languished in jail for circulating this information. Between them, they fathered eighteenth century liberalism. Without the education of the pop¬ ulace for which these two men were largely responsible, the French Revolution probably could not have occurred when it did. Today Voltaire’s social concepts are still apparent in French Law and, in some cases, still resisted. Although the work of Voltaire and Rousseau had in the long run, tremendous repercussions, no so¬ cial document has ever had the immediate eye-opening effect that “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” had on the already war-conditioned popula¬ tion of this country. When it was published, there was no such thing as a middle course in one’s feelings about the book. Either one hated it fanati¬ cally or one embraced it as a reli¬ gious document. Historians agree that slavery might still exist in this country, in one form or another, if Harriett Beecher Stowe had not made compromise impossible and precipitated the Civil War \vith this volume. A small segment of a pressing social problem, the migratory workers of America, as they are- portrayed on the screen in Hal Roach’s production, "Of Mice and Men". Lon Chaney, Jr. as "Lennie," Betty Field as "Mae” and Burgess Meredith as "George." A GHOSTLY cheering section sits by and enthusiastically watches a latter-day fraternity brother carry on where they left off. They are the great crusading writers. Voltaire and Rousseau with the royalty-trampled hordes of Paris at their shoulders. Dean Swift with the starving men and women of Irels.nd behind him) Dickens flanked] by Oliver Twisf and David Clopperheld, Mrs. Stowe with the freed negroes and Zola sitting in dignity with Drey¬ fus. They know what the man they are watching is doing and what he is going through. They have been through it themselves. They, too, wrote books which shocked and dismayed the aver¬ age person with unvarnished and unpleasant truth. Books that also produced radical economic and so¬ cial changes for the betterment of society. They are watching John Stein¬ beck. His books, “Of Mice and Men” and “The Grapes of Wrath” have been burned, banned and blast— in various communities from coast to coast. The conditions these books present are not pleasant to view, yet America is seeing them. Not only in published form but in the medium of the screen. Authentic motion picture ver¬ sions of both books have been made by the two most courageous producers in the industry, Hal Roach and Darryl Zanuck. The movies give Steinbeck’s message a greater and more dramatic cir¬ culation than was possible to lit¬ erary reformers of yesteryear. In consequence, his subjects, the dust bowl refugees and the mi¬ gratory workers, are bound to arouse a much wider interest in their plight. When books like “Of Mice and Men” appear, they are invariably the work of that rarity in the lit¬ erary world, the sincere crusader. The crusading novelist is under¬ standably scarce. He sticks his neck out for the good of his fel¬ low man and what does he get? Usually the ax. And right in the part of his anatomy he exposed —his neck. In fact, the defense of one’s fel¬ low man in print may safely be classed as one of the hazardous occupations, along with deep-sea diving and looking down the bar¬ rels of loaded guns. Of course not every attempt to alleviate social abuses ends in dis¬ aster for the author, although it often, may. The true reformer, if at all effective with the pen, is likely to step on a number of well padded toes. Steinbeck is fortunate that he writes in the twentieth century rather than in a previous one. A man who feels the plight of others as deeply as did earlier vrriters who attempted meliora¬ tion of the downtrodden, he is, in our modern democracy, blasted in the editorial columns rather than hung by his thumbs. If he had written the Gallic equivalent ei1)her “Of Mice and Men” or “Granijs of Wrath” in. eighteenth century Franfce he ) could Jiave expected quick execu¬ tion. And this would have been a lucky break compared with al- were just writing about condi¬ tions as they saw them. Stein¬ beck, Voltaire and a host of others were, and are, merely trying to bring to light the conditions of those who, through lack of edu¬ cation and power, have no way of voicing their exploitation and their resultant misery. Charles Dickens, for example, was ncit “supping on horrors” for his ovra amusement] when he wrote J“David Copperfield” and “Oliver Twist.” He knew the hor¬ rors of child labor conditions in the England of that day. John Steinbeck, the author whose biting prose and courageous pre¬ sentation of the truth in ”Of Mice and Men” and '^Grapes of Wrath” has shocked the country and made it conscious of its responsibility to its race of lost souls His first published work, “The '' Cup of Gold,” was a historical novel aiid not too well received. Three lother books followed, among them a book of short stories. Then with “Tortilla Flat” he began to receive some recognition. His next book, “In Dubious Battle,” was somewhat noticed and thoroughly con¬ demned by those it attacked. When “Of Mice and Men” was published it became apparent that here was no dilletante. It was obvious at last that Steinbeck was not merely another artistic writer who spends his time being a voice in the wilderness. The man who wrote “Of Mice and Men” pre¬ sented his characters vitally and boldly—as only a man who has lived among them and been one of them could. Those who ranted against the book for its brutality, and they were many, did so because this is the sort of reality that is not stone. The cast of the film is headed by Burgess Meredith, Betty Field,I Lon Chaney, Jr., Walter Bickford, Bob Steele and Noah Beery, Jr. Lennie and George are not fig¬ ments of an author’s imagination. Lennie and George are problems that this country must face to¬ day. They are representative of one of the great working classes, the migratory workers. Steinbeck made the nation realize that the migratory workers, as embodied in Lennie and George and Old Candy, were humans with human desires who should be allowed to enjoy life instead of merely exist¬ ing. He supplemented the sociologi¬ cal problem presented in “Of Mice and Men” with the economic poser contained in the “Grapes of Wrath.” How can we reabsorb the derelicts our own wastefulness has produced? And how can we give back to Lennie and George, "Oliver Twist asking for more” by the famous carica¬ turist George Cruikshank. This book was Dickens’ most effective contribution to the light against child labor. ternative punishments. He had been a child laborer Voltaire, who campaigned himself. When he was still a against the«abuses of the common small boy he worked in a den, for people by royalty, became so unbelievably long hours and in¬ familiar with the interior of the finitesimal wages, packaging and Bastille that he should have re- labeling shoe blacking. This ceived special rates. Yet Voltaire period may have warped his per- never approached in his wildest sonality but it certainly produced tirades against the conditions that in him a singleness of purpose prevailed, the brutal frankness of that colored all his work. Steinback’s exposes. He became an unfiagging cham- In neither case were the au- pion of the poor man and of the thors of these attenfpts at reform poor man’s right to enjoy life. He striving for sensationalism. They became also, and this was even Voltaire arrested on the orders of Frederick the Great at Frank¬ fort for "subversive” writings attacking royal privilege. Ever the champion of man’s rights, jail was no novelty to Voltaire. more important, an implacable enemy of the Slum and its effect on human beings. This fixation of his produced results that cannot be accurately estimated, even today. His novels about the evils of uncontrolled poverty and cold indifference to social reform eventuallyjproduced more beneficial legislation in that field than any other factor in English history. To get back to M. Voltaire and his running mate, Rousseau. Those two gentlemen asked to be thrown in the jug more consist¬ ently than any other non-criminal Frenchmen before or since. Voltaire’s implied requests for incarceration were often an¬ swered. Rousseau, on the other hand, skipped around from France to Italy to Flanders to Germany with such agility that he was Here are four of the great crusaders in literature whose work strongly influenced the history of their countries and the fate of their people. Voltaire, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emile Zola, Charles Dickens. Emile Zola, another of the great who fought for the rights of others, had a great deal to do with slum clearance and the re¬ habilitation of the under-privi¬ leged. But Zola, although he undertook it as a battle against an individual injustice, accom¬ plished his greatest service for his people when he championed Drejffus during his persecution as an espionage agent. It is the same zeal for the righting of wrong and the re¬ moval of injustice and its causes that has led John Steinbeck to write the most controversial novels of the present decade. Steinbeck did not arrive at this juncture haphazardly. His first four books will always be more or less mysteries as to content, as he destroyed them all in manu¬ script. easy to face. And when it was first considered as motion picture material, these same people said' that it could never be made as a picture. But Hal Roach realized that an increased interest in our problems made a picture possible. Roach’s motion picture is as much Steinbeck as the book was. Hal Roach entrusted the pro¬ duction and direction of “Of Mice and Men” to Levds Mile- and the legion they represent, their self-respect and the right to walk like men? These are the questions that Steinbeck has had the courage to advance in prose. These questions have stirred the country. Certainly Zola and Dickens and Voltaire and a host of other self¬ less reformers must reach out their bony talons to him in some effort of encouragement. Here's an exciting story about America's "man of the hour" in the field of entertainment—John Steinbeck. An absorbing yarn replete with human interest, illustrated with arresting art and layout, about the author of the best-selling, prize-winning story, "Of Mice And Men." Your local news¬ paper will want this timely feature. Order the complete 8-Column mat direct from Exploitation Dept., United Artists Corp., 729 7th Ave., N. Y. C.