Note Perfect

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2001)

There's probably nothing new I could say about this film - just the regular and much deserved praise: John Ford's direction is perfect, perhaps only surpassing it in The Searchers, as well as Greg Tolland's cinematography; the next year, he would photograph Citizen Kane, and his work there is just the slightest hair better than his work here (which, of course, means that this is one of the most impeccably photographed films ever made). And then there's the acting. Henry Fonda was, no doubt, one of the greatest actors of all times, and this might just be his best film (other great roles of his include The Lady Eve, made the following year, and Hitchcock's underrated The Wrong Man). John Carradine has his shining hour here - too often he was cast in B-movies. Even in Stagecoach, his role was kind of, well, cheesy (I'm not a big fan of that particular Ford film). That scene where Tom Joad meets him in the tent is excellent; Carradine is brilliant (and so is Greg Tolland; man, look at the lighting job!). I do, however, wish he had kept his mustache. It's hard to picture him without it! But even with those two masterful actors, a viewer's attention will always shift to Jane Darwell, who plays the Joad matriarch. She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, perhaps the most justly won Oscar in the Academy's history. There is a scene near the beginning of the film in which, as the Joad family is just about to flee their home, Mrs. Joad finds some old earrings. She puts them up to her earlobes and looks in the mirror. How long has it been since she was young or beautiful enough to wear earrings? The past is past, and it will never come back.