this version of steinbeck novel draw quite a lot of attention in it day and not because of it financial success ( it be a box office failure ) but because it be consider very dare of hollywood to film a story with such an uncompromising finale . if one see the film nowadays and however and one glaring and seemingly unimportant compromise be obvious the character curley wife and the only woman in the film have be give a name . mae . steinbeck deliberately leave her nameless and partly for symbolic value and but also to deliberately and permanently link her with her brutal and stupid and bullying husband . the approach to the story in this version be deliberately pseudopoetic and large than life while aaron copland beautiful and folkloric and typically amercan score play in the background and we see shot of rabbit and squirrel scurry about . ( the music soar to a huge climax in the final scene in other version that scene be play without a note of music . ) the acting be perhaps deliberately somewhat artificial and but in a few case get downright hammy . b western star bob steele play curley with a hilarious and permanent sneer and a skulking walk while he also deliver his line like a typical villain in a melodrama . instead of play curley wife a the pathetic yet lonely and almost unconsciously sexy woman that sherilynn fenn make her in the 1992 film and betty field make her obnoxiously slutty and whiny and loud and shrill and and we be annoy and repel at her instead of be make to empathize with her plight . charles bickford be excellent in his role . burgess meredith be quite good a george and at least for the most part and but either he or lewis milestone miscalculate horribly in the scene in which he make his ultimate tragic decision his popeyed expression a he come to this decision be unintentionally sidesplitting . this do contain lon chaney and jr . best performance ( a lennie ) and but he fall short of john malkovich 1992 portrayal . horrifying a it may sound and chaney 1939 lennie have be the subject of countless cartoon parody it the inspiration for all those cartoon that feature a huge bear say i do a clever thing and george and duh and i do a clever thing and as well a bug bunny abominable snowman say i will hug him and pet him and squeeze him and hug him and pet him and squeeze him and and and well . you get the idea . still and this film be worth check out a an example of how john steinbeck novel ( and stage play ) be perform in the 1930 .