This movie version of Steinbeck's short novel, Of Mice and Men, is stellar. It stays very close to the original story, and fills out the characters in the book very nicely. Lon Chaney Jr. plays Lennie, who is simple-minded, trusting and sees the world in black and white terms. Burgess Meredith plays George, his companion and caretaker, who alternates between cruelty and tenderness in his treatment of Lennie. The two…

Aside from a few relatively minor adjustments to accommodate the censors, this is a pretty faithful screen adaptation of John Steinbeck's really wonderful book. Burgess Meredith is super as "George", who is travelling from job to job with his gentle giant pal "George" (an equally good Lon Chaney Jnr.) with both hoping to eventually raise enough of a stake to buy a small farm where they can settle down and the latter…