Highway 66 Revisited

Rating: 10/10 (9 April 2010)

After serving four years in the penitentiary, for shoveling a guy to death in a dance hall brawl, sharecropper son Henry Fonda (as Tom Joad) heads back to his Oklahoma home. Passing by "Cross Roads" Mr. Fonda hitches a ride in a truck labeled "No Riders Allowed" and descends to meet fallen preacher John Carradine (as Jim Casy). When Mr. Casy reveals, "I lost the spirit," Fonda gives him some liquor. From ghostly frightening resident John Qualen (as Muley), Fonda learns his Oklahoma dust-bowl family has been forced out of their home. Poor being no sin, Fonda goes to join their trek to California, the Promised Land, on Highway 66...
In a word, this is superb...
The biggest prizes included a "Pulitzer" for writer John Steinbeck, "Best Picture" honors from the "New York Film Critics" and "National Board of Review" for Fox producer Darryl F. Zanuck and "Academy Award" winning "Best Director" John Ford. For going through her box of mementos, and explaining how "a man lives in jerks," matriarchal Jane Darwell (as Ma Joad) won a "Supporting" award. Fonda should have won the year's "Best Actor" Oscar. This sweet combination made "The Grapes of Wrath" Mr. Ford's most lyrical masterpiece; incredibly, it reaches a level of poetic screen art unseen since the end of silent movies.
********** The Grapes of Wrath (1/24/40) John Ford ~ Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Russell Simpson