TCM airs 5 John Steinbeck adaptations tonight, November 3

November 3, 4:21 AMNY Classic Movies ExaminerCliff Aliperti

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See Jane Darwell as Ma Joad tonight at 10 pm EST

Turner Classic Movies airs classic films based on the work of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist John Steinbeck throughout the evening of Tuesday, November 3. The night begins with the big three, "East of Eden," "The Grapes of Wrath," and "Of Mice and Men," which combined for 15 total Oscar nominations, three of which were winners.

"The Grapes of Wrath," based on the novel Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for, is generally considered one of the finest movies ever made. "East of Eden" boasts James Dean's grand performance, one which if it were missing from his list of credits would severely curtail if not kill the cult of Dean which survives to this day. Similarly in "Of Mice and Men" Lon Chaney, Jr. is allowed to shine in a mainstream effort before achieving his cult status as a horror icon, though at the same time his Lenny has a lot of common ground with Frankenstein's monster and could also be viewed as a precursor to Chaney, Jr.'s monsters to come.

The characters in tonight's stories are at best working class and sometimes even dirt poor. John Steinbeck's fiction has a way of humanizing people whose lifestyles and struggles were often quite foreign to his audience, he gave his characters the voice of America. The best of tonight's movies are very American and very human.

Here's tonight's complete lineup of John Steinbeck based classics airing tonight on TCM:

8:00 pm "East of Eden" (1955) starring James Dean, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, D: Elia Kazan

10:00 pm "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940) starring Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, D: John Ford

12:15 am "Of Mice and Men" (1939) starring Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney, Jr., Betty Field, D: Lewis Milestone

2:15 am "The Red Pony" (1949) starring Myrna Loy, Robert Mitchum, Louis Calhern, D: Lewis Milestone

4:00 am "Tortilla Flat" (1942) starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, D: Victor Fleming