Of Mice and Men

I am now 60 years old, have an incurable and non treatable cancer and have never and probably will never see a production as moving as this. "Tell me about the Rabbits, George" is a quote that I have passed on and of course explained, to generations, yes generations. I don't want to duplicate what has been said above but this must be seen, if at all possible. I have seen Phantom (of the Opera), Les Miserables (over 10 times between those 2) and countless other moving shows but Lenny and George stole my heart a long long time ago. I have always looked at that movie and felt the pain. Pain of the era. Pain of friendship. Pain of what life sometimes demands one to do, even if illegal or unethical. If you're showing young people, explain what they will be watching and feeling before they start. There is no James Bond, Bourne Supremacy here just gut wrenching feelings that will swirl throughout their bodies and the memory WILL last forever. If anyone knows of a way to get a copy of this or how to view it again please reply. If you can ever get a wish, my wish for you is to witness and feel from this and BTW, bring a lot of tissues. Fireman Rob

Check out at the bottom of this comment for update - Believe it or not, there is a high likelihood that out in my garage on a regular reel to reel audio tape is the sound track recording that I recorded that night in 1968 from the TV show. No video, but the audio was complete with no surrounding room sounds because I recorded it direct. Long ago my reel to reel recorder failed me and I never got a replacement since they seemed to fall out of favor. I'm computer savvy though and sometimes entertain thoughts of finding one to convert it to mp3 or something. If that ever happens I guess I could make it available if legal to do so. Great production.

I found the reel to reel recording but have not managed to digitize it yet - I got ahold of an Akai M7 recorder but am having trouble transferring the play/video/tv production to my laptop and from there to flash drive or DVD etc.

I have now digitized it in RAW form - gotta use some filters on it but it sounds pretty good. Thought of offering it to George Segal and Nicol Williamson's kids and any one else in the production or their kids (wouldn't be kids anymore though, would they?) Any one know how to contact them? WAV file is 1.25 GB so not big.

Just after I did the above, this version of "Of Mice and Men" became available from places like Amazon etc. On DVD!!!!! The full video including the 1968 commercials.

Back in the 60s, David Susskind's Talent Associates did a number of TV adaptations of plays that had previously been made into feature films. Also included were A HATFUL OF RAIN and THE DESPERATE HOURS, and there was also an infamous remake of LAURA, which had not been a stage play. George Segal was Lennie in this production, getting good support from Nicol Williamson as Lennie, although more than once, the actor's obvious intelligence made his Lennie seem just a superficial characterization. Will Geer made an excellent Candy, and it was one of his more showy roles as he worked his way back from the blacklist. Joey Heatherton was, well Joey, in her interpretation of Curly's wife. It would be nice if Susskind could find a way to put some of these programs, all done for ABC, onto DVD, if only to preserve the efforts of all of those behind them, as videotape is hardly a great storage medium.

We were "assigned" by our English teacher to watch this production when I was in high school. It was my first introduction to Nicole Williamson, who was astonishing as Lenny. It wasn't until I saw him on a talk show about a year later that I realized he was English. Segal was also good as George, although he plays the role as more "frantic" than it is usually played. The entire cast was very good except for the unfortunate attempt by Joey Heatherton to act.

Don Gordon played Curly in this version--I have added this to the database.

The release date which is listed (1970) is wrong, by the way, since I graduated from high school in 1969.

This was the very first film version I saw of Steinbeck's great novel. Unfortunately it seems go have been totally forgotten. That is a shame as it is incredibly good! The performances are top notch, especially the one of Lenny. I wish this would come out on DVD. This version deserves that and to be known by others who have seen other versions but not this one. I was extremely moved by the ending. Not any film can make me cry like that. I saw this version twice and have been wanting to see it again for a long time. It is not fair that this excellent version if primarily "lost" for so long. Most younger people (and even those my age) are completely unaware of it. It deserves to be well known.