“Of Mice And Men (1939) was the first screen adaptation of Steinbeck, and possibly director Lewis Milestone's finest work. 1939 was a year in which the movies finally threw off the shackles of the production code, and decided that - even within given restrictions - the film could still conduct itself as an adult art.... A superb example of remaining entirely faithful to the content and structure of a literary work, yet transposing a story originally told exclusively through dialogue into visual terms, Of Mice And Men was powerful, gripping, almost unbearably poignant - and beautifully acted by Burgess Meredith, Betty Field, and a superb cast.
“Despite unqualified raves from the critics, the film was not a huge success. After the froth and never-never-land trivia of the mid- and late thirties, audiences just weren't ready for such a grim and uncompromising film; moreover, the war in Europe and the remote but growing threat that America might be involved turned audiences further away from it and toward escapism. United Artists hastily shifted the emphasis in the ads to suggest erotic sex content (glamour poses of Betty Field, and such sure-fire come-on catchlines as ‘Unwanted, she fought for the one thing that is every woman's birthright' and ‘A thrilling drama of careless love') but even this failed to turn the tide. In subsequent years, however, the film...became a fixture at the growing number of art houses and revival theatres.
“...The only compromise that the film was forced to make in 1939 was the elimination of Steinbeck's taut, casual, and thoroughly right wrap-up line, ‘Now what the hell do you suppose is eating them guys?' And even that line (innocuous as it was) was not really missed since, instead of finishing on that note of shattering suddenness, the film substituted a long, lingering, melancholy pull-back shot which, in a visual sense, was even more effective.” --William K. Everson