East of Eden - 1955

East of Eden, James Dean, 1955 Framed Art Print
24.875 in. x 30.875 in.

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Director Elia Kazan's updated re-telling of the Biblical story of rival brothers, Cain and Abel and a paradise lost. A brooding James Dean - as the unappreciated son (Cain), vies against his dull, but favored stuffy brother (Abel) for the affections of their father. The maligned, misunderstood Cain character, representing the unlikeable and outcast director himself (for naming names before the HUAC Committee in 1952), becomes the sensitive hero of this film. As the poster stated, "Sometimes you can't tell who's good and who's bad!..."

Writer Paul Osborn's screenplay adapted John Steinbeck's 1952 novel with the same title for this dramatic Warner Bros. film. [The film tells only a small portion of Steinbeck's work, leaving out the childhood of the parents and the Chinese character of Lee.] The CinemaScopic film, set in 1917 at a time just before the US entry into World War I, portrays the relationship between insecure, tortured, neurotic loner Caleb "Cal" Trask (Dean, in his first major role and film) and his dutiful, favored brother Aron (Davalos) - twin sons. Their father is a stern, hardened, devoutly religious, self-righteous man named Adam (Massey), a lettuce farmer living with his family in Salinas, California. The plot becomes emotionally charged when Cal expresses a liking for his brother's girlfriend Abra (Harris), and then learns that his mother (Van Fleet) is actually alive and operating a nearby brothel.

The Grapes of Wrath - 1940

The Grapes of Wrath Framed Art Print
14.75 in. x 12 in.
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The Grapes of Wrath (1940) is director John Ford's most famous epic drama in black and white - the classic adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1940 Pulitzer Prize winner, widely read 1939 novel. [The sentimental film is much more closely linked to social protest plays of Ford, the indicator (1935) and How Green Was My Valley (1941) as his masterly westerns.] This film was the most popular film Left Socialists on the subject before the World War II Hollywood.

The film's title is taken from the Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe ("My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, He is trampling on vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, it loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is on "). On the screen, the film honestly and realistically recreates the socioeconomic impact of the Great Depression and drought of the mid-30s on a family representative - the Joad. The epic theme of moving to a new house oppressed parallels the biblical story of Exodus. Their name, Joad, also evokes the biblical character of Job.

Nunnally Johnson script is remarkably faithful to its source material Steinbeck. Not present in the novel or screenplay is a ledge it ends in the movie sentimentally optimistic and affirms the strength and dignity of the individual mind. Many other times, Hollywood has capitalized on other Steinbeck works and adapted for the screen: Of Mice and Men (1939), Tortilla Flat (1942), The moon is down (1943), Pearl (1948 ), the Red Pony (1949), East of Eden (1955), and Cannery Row (1982).