At 20th Century Fox, the management was worried when producer Darryl Zanuck bought the movie rights to John Steinbeck's latest book. And you can understand why. "The Grapes of Wrath" doesn't sound like a suitable story for the cinema. But Zanuck convinced his executives that, in the right hands, the film would be artistically and financially successful. It was just a matter of finding the right director.
The film is set during the Great Depression in the 1930s. It focuses on a poor family driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and bank foreclosures. Due to their hopeless situation they head for California along with thousands of other "Oakies" seeking a future.
After working with Steinbeck's book for several months, Fox Studios sent over a finished screenplay to John Ford. Many feared that the story would be too left-wing for the famous director, but luckily he had no such problems. On the contrary: John Ford thought the tale reminded him of his own family's plight in Ireland during the potato famine. He was more than happy to work with it.
Ford and his photographers immediately began shooting the movie on the Fox Studio lot. They tried to get the picture to look as bleak and harsh as a documentary, and it worked. Without using any makeup or diffusion, the actors came across as hard-edged, dirty Dust Bowlers. Finally, Zanuck selected an accordion version of the old standard "Red River Valley" to be the film's theme song.
After a successful premiere in New York, "The Grapes of Wrath" went on to become one of Fox's biggest pictures of 1940. Steinbeck himself wrote that the film was even better than his book. But not everyone was equally happy. The FBI began an investigation of John Ford, John Steinbeck and others involved in the film for suspicious Communist activity. In the end, of course, nothing came out of it.
The film is set during the Great Depression in the 1930s. It focuses on a poor family driven from their Oklahoma home by drought and bank foreclosures. Due to their hopeless situation they head for California along with thousands of other "Oakies" seeking a future.
After working with Steinbeck's book for several months, Fox Studios sent over a finished screenplay to John Ford. Many feared that the story would be too left-wing for the famous director, but luckily he had no such problems. On the contrary: John Ford thought the tale reminded him of his own family's plight in Ireland during the potato famine. He was more than happy to work with it.
Ford and his photographers immediately began shooting the movie on the Fox Studio lot. They tried to get the picture to look as bleak and harsh as a documentary, and it worked. Without using any makeup or diffusion, the actors came across as hard-edged, dirty Dust Bowlers. Finally, Zanuck selected an accordion version of the old standard "Red River Valley" to be the film's theme song.
After a successful premiere in New York, "The Grapes of Wrath" went on to become one of Fox's biggest pictures of 1940. Steinbeck himself wrote that the film was even better than his book. But not everyone was equally happy. The FBI began an investigation of John Ford, John Steinbeck and others involved in the film for suspicious Communist activity. In the end, of course, nothing came out of it.