Grapes Of Wrath (1940): John Ford's memorable screen version of John Steinbeck's epic novel of the Great Depression--often regarded as the director's best film--stars Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. After having served a brief prison sentence for manslaughter, Joad arrives at his family's Oklahoma farm only to find it abandoned. Muley (John Qualen), a neighbor now nearly mad with grief, tells Tom of the drought that has transformed the farmland of Oklahoma into a desert and of the preying land agents who have plowed under the shacks of the sharecroppers. Joined by former hellfire preacher Casy (John Carradine), Tom finds his extended family, including Pa (Charles Grapewin) and his indomitable Ma (Jane Darwell), packing their ramshackle truck to seek work in the fields of California. As the family treks across the country, their dissolution begins with the deaths of Tom's grandparents at close intervals. When they arrive in California, the Joads find only an abundance of poverty-stricken migrants like themselves and little in the way of potential work. Yet, ever resilient, they maintain their dignity, hoping for the best.

Among the talented cast, Fonda does perhaps the best work of his career, as does Qualen in the film's most haunting sequence. Director of photography Gregg Toland captures the suffering and the weathered, luminous nobility of the Joads and the other uprooted, drifting families, creating striking images equal to the best work of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. In a stirring film that stands as a microcosm of the depression experience of millions, Ford gives poverty a human face in a way that was rare then and even rarer in the decades to follow as Hollywood films with a sense of class consciousness dwindled like a species nearing extinction.

(Dir. John Ford, Cert. PG)

My Darling Clementine (1946): After Wyatt Earp's (Henry Fonda) brother James is murdered by cattle rustlers, the frontier legend becomes Tombstone's marshal and sets out to avenge the younger man's death. Torn between his badge and his fury, Earp confronts the likely killers, the notorious lawless family of Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan), setting the for the famed shootout at the O.K. Corral. Along the way, Earp falls in love with a schoolteacher named Clementine (Cathy Downs) which also pits him against the cantankerous Doc Holiday...

(Dir. John Ford, Cert PG)

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943): Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) and Art Croft (Henry Morgan) ride into a town frustrated by the prevalence of cattle rustlers. Suddenly, word comes that a popular rancher has been murdered which puts the already enraged town over the edge. When the spiteful mayor forms a posse, Gil and Croft are swept up in their mission, to seek vengeance, even upon those innocent of any wrong-doing.

As it becomes clear that bloodlust may win out over rationality, the tension mounts in this masterpiece with its timeless message about the dangers of mob mentality...

(Dir. William A. Wellman)