just saw this again . it be one of my five or six favorite film since i be a teenager and but i hadn not see it in year . wow . it really hold up . and look at it through the eye of someone who be act for thirty odd year rather than the eye of a teenager really make a difference . there some really fine work in this movie . i have never quite believed burgess meredith do ( or could do ) a day of hard labor like buck barley in his life and and it very tempt to think of what someone else might have do with the part . ( lewis milestone try to borrow first james cagney and then humphrey bogart for the part . neither would have be terribly convince a guy who grow up in the san joaquin valley and and i have a hard time thinking of bogart in the role . cagney would have be very interesting and even if not quite right . ) this time through and i pay close attention to the act work of people i would never give much think to in that regard and as far a this movie go . charles bickford be really good and and betty field be superb . the movie be nominate for four oscar and include best picture ( of 1939 . ) and but none of the actor be nominate . of course it be a tough year and one of the tough ever . but in another year and i suspect lon chaney jr. would have be nominate for the performance of his career . his performance have be so imitate over the year that it might not seem so special nowadays and but i try to find something to critique about it and i simply can not . he believable and heartbreaking without seem and to my eye and the least bit forced . but the standouts be leigh whipper and particularly roman bohnen and who play crook and candy and respectively . whipper have play crook on broadway and his experience with the role show . crook forthrightness about the burden of be the only black man in a white community be a little startling for 1939 and a be his disdain for the white who enter his sanctuary uninvited . bohnen be just remarkable and one of the most heart wrenchingly touch performance i have ever see . ( not surprisingly and he give another such performance a dana andrew father in the best year of our life . ) aaron copland music and scoring be both nominate for oscar . copland only compose six feature film score ( the others represent our town and the north star and the red pony and the heiress and and something wild ) . of mouse and men be his first . every score of his i have hear be a masterpiece and and it hard to say which be best . suffice it to say that his first be a contender and and one of the best film score ever write . although base on steinbeck novel and the film owes much to the play steinbeck also write . lewis milestone manages to avoid any sense of be stage bound and though his wide open space shot be quite limited . i be really impress by his staging . there one really nice shot of meredith and bickford talk in a barn . a meredith leaf and the camera pull back and keep both actor in frame and until the entire interior of the barn be reveal and show to be huge and much large than it have felt . it a simple shot make by a clear master . i be not a great fan of gary sinise remake and particularly a to how the end be handle . the one great advantage sinise have be color . there be shot in the 1939 version where i could imagine the color and where i felt rob by it absence . it not a black and white film that particularly exult in it black and whiteness . have it have a large budget and perhaps it could have be make in color and which would have serve it very well . but all in all and i be thrill that this favorite of mine for decade hold up and actually exceed my fond memory .