Of Mice and Men (1939 film) it disappeared for many years at a time until the 1980s and 1990s, when it slowly appeared in revival theater houses, video and cable and earned a following of fans (both audience members and film critics) who praised the movie for its brilliant interpretation of the Steinbeck novella. Two migrant field workers in California during the Great Depression, George Milton (Burgess Meredith), an intelligent and quick-witted man (despite his frequent claims of being "not that smart"), and Lennie Small (Lon Chaney Jr.), an ironically-named man of large stature and immense strength who, due to his mental disability, has a mind
Of Mice and Men (opera) Lennie's pathetic inability to stay out of trouble. In the opening scene, they are once again fleeing the police and this provokes a reenactment of one of their almost daily rituals: exasperation and angry threats from George, followed by injured feelings and sulking from Lennie, and eventually yet another reconciliation. Lennie has a mouse with him which he has killed by petting it. George forces him to surrender the dead mouse and, when George throws it away, Lennie protests, telling George of his love for soft things he can stroke and pet. Lennie is consoled by the promise of live