MovieChat Forums > Of Mice and Men (1940) Discussion > Unusual lack of vehicles seemed odd

Unusual lack of vehicles seemed odd

posted 9 years ago by allen-406-128450
5 replies | jump to latest

I figure it was the late 20s or early 30s in California. There was the bus, a billboard for airplane travel and the gas powered barley threshing machine. There were mules but no tractor. I never noticed a car or truck at the ranch. [There might have been some autos outside the bar and bijou on Saturday night in town but I'm not certain.] This seemed very unusual and all I can come up with is that it was atmosphere to make vigilante justice on this Western ranch more believable.

[–] iroquoisjoe 9 years ago

I figure it was the late 20s or early 30s in California.

Ha!  ...even earlier! If John Steinbeck based this story on his experiences working summers with migrant farmworkers when he was young...then that would place this story late 1910's to early 1920's.

So that makes the lack of farm automation and the reliance on community applied law enforcement seem much less anachronistic. 

On November 6, 2012 god blessed America...again. 

[–] Hefferik90 8 years ago

When the guys go into town to the bar and met up with the girls. They were joking around. One of the girls made a Greta Garbo reference and imitated her avcent "I want to be alone"
That Greta Garbo line comes from the movie "Grand Hotel". 1932.

I haven't read OMAM in a long time so I don't know if that particular scene and movie reference is in the book.

It seems though because of the 1932 Greta Gabo reference then this film is set in at least early 1930s.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (18433) 3 years ago

That or the farm couldn’t afford one.

[–] Wuchak (8857) 3 years ago

The book was published in 1937, written the previous year, and the movie came out in 1939. The fact that the story takes place during the Great Depression places the events in the 30s. Since, as another poster pointed out, there's a quote from a Greta Garbo movie from April, 1932 -- "Grand Hotel" -- this places the events somewhere between late 1932-1936.

The lack of vehicles can be explained on the grounds that the Great Depression had been in full swing for a few years and the ranch couldn't afford many, as HarlemEagle pointed out.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

The people in this movie couldn't afford cars, a car would be a luxury for the richest of them, and it wouldn't be a sensible for someone who owned a farm in hard times to spend their money on a car instead of fixing the leaky roof of the hay barn or something.

And the ads for airplane travel and modern farm machinery were presumably there to make the characters' poverty that much more painful. That, and to make it clear that physically being able to leave was possible in that world, but only for people who had more disposable income.