FILM 1457: THE GRAPES OF WRATH
TRIVIA: Banned in the Soviet Union
by Joseph Stalin in 1940
because of its showing that even the poorest Americans could afford a car.
Prior to filming, producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent
undercover investigators out to the migrant camps to see if John Steinbeck had been
exaggerating about the squalor and unfair treatment meted out there. He was
horrified to discover that, if anything, Steinbeck had actually downplayed what
went on in the camps.
Banks and the large farming
corporations that controlled most California farms were not keen on the
original novel (it was banned in some states and in several counties in
California, and the book was not carried in the municipal library of author John Steinbeck's home town
of Salinas, California, until the 1990s) and were even less thrilled that a
film was being made of it. The Associated Farmers of California called for a
boycott of all 20th Century-Fox films, and Steinbeck himself received death
threats.
John Ford banned all
makeup and perfume from the set on the grounds that it was not in keeping with
the tone of the picture.
The pro-union stance of the film
led to both John
Steinbeck and John Ford
being investigated by Congress during the McCarthy "Red Scare" era
for alleged pro-Communist leanings.
Henry Fonda currently
holds the record for the longest gap between acting Oscar nominations. His
first nomination was for The Grapes of
Wrath (1940) in 1940, his second was for On Golden Pond (1981) in
1981, 41 years later. He received one other Oscar nomination in the period
between his two acting nominations, that was for producer of 12 Angry Men (1957) in
1957.
John Ford unmercifully
chewed out Frank Darien
for overemoting in the scene where Ma is preparing a simple stew for the family
in front of a crowd of starving children in the migrant camp. By the time Ford
had finished his tirade, Darien was completely drained, which proved to be
exactly the take Ford wanted for the scene.
