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Pretty Good

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

If I had the ability to read minds, a version of Our Daily Bread would probably be playing in the minds of every self-professed anarcho-communist I met in college (I met a lot surprisingly). For much like the passions of youth, the thoughts on culture and politics in this movie are bold, provocative, and not very well thought out. Not to worry comrades, with a little bit of elbow grease, "aw-shucks," and "gee-willickers" you too can be a part of a commune that will force you to listen to Utah Phillips all night long. What happens if and when you don't like the way things are headed; Suck it up!To be fair to the film, it was a far different and more volatile time in 1934. The film begins in a nameless Depression Era city with John (Keene) who struggles to find work. Mary (Morely), his wife calls upon Uncle Anthony (Ingraham) an old codger with a vacant plot out in the country. John and Mary know nothing about rural farming life but lacking any other options, they decide to take a chance and take the lot until it can be sold. John and Mary find working off the land nearly impossible until a friendly migrant (Richards) and his family help them out in exchange for room and board. Then John gets an idea; an idea that culminates in dozens of men, women and children, finding hope on a burgeoning co-op farm.It's truly shocking that a movie as unabashedly this side of Mission to Moscow (1943) can be made by a director who was a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. The Alliance was responsible for the vast majority of friendly witnesses to the House Un-American Activities Committee and was spearheaded by the likes of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Leo McCarey and Walt Disney. The group's aim was simple; defend American ideals from being eroded from the inside out (mostly by communists). Perhaps gossip columnist Hedda Hopper forgot this little film while bad mouthing the likes of Paul Robeson and Dalton Trumbo. Or perhaps Vidor's adaptation of the interminably petulant The Fountainhead (1949) was enough to make him beyond reproach.There are remnants of other, finer films in Our Daily Bread not the least of which is director King Vidor's Silent Era populist opus The Crowd (1928). In-fact this movie was meant to be a sequel of sorts, providing a concrete solution to the foibles John and May Sims faced in 1928. At this point in his career however, King probably didn't know how this whole sound thing worked. Whatever visual vocabulary King seems to want to replicate here, is immediately undone by pat dialogue so on the nose you'd swear just out of shot actors and crew members were chuckling. Of course if Our Daily Bread was a sequel one is prompted to ask what happened to their small son; tuberculosis? They sure are very quaint and naive for a bereaved couple if that be the case.There's also smatterings of Sunrise: A Tale of Two Humans (1927) in the form of Barbara Pepper's femme fatale Sally; a lost girl meant to represent the encroachment of selfish, city life upon a proverbial Garden of Eden. Again what would have worked in pantomime comes across as one dimensional and eye-rollingly goofy. Her appearance after the noble (and poorly written) sacrifice of convict Frank (Hall) catapults the movie into outright parody.Personally I found the simplicity of the dialogue and the supposed character conflicts laughable even by 1930's standards. Those looking to see a movie much more attuned to communist/socialist fervor should check out the austere but riveting Salt of the Earth (1954). At least that film had a more immediate and compelling conflict than "will the wheat grow?"

Too bad the movie's laudable message gets dragged down by bad acting. That's been the traditional rap on this Depression era film, and critics are correct. Tom Keene's Golly, Gee Whiz! performance seems tailor made for Andy Hardy's older brother, but not for the embattled head of a farm co-operative. No doubt, director Vidor wanted a fresh faced non- celebrity for the inspirational role of Tom, but he should have kept auditioning before settling on Keene-- and what was Vidor seeing when he viewed the daily rushes which he likely did. The part requires an actor of Henry Fonda's calibre to bring off the various mood changes. Unfortunately Keene treats those scenes like a sulking teenager. Then too, the normally competent Addison Richards overplays the hostile stranger to a fault, which doesn't help. Fortunately, the winsome and polished Karen Morley has a featured part that anchors the rest of the cast. Nonetheless, I can see why Vidor was driven to make the film. Depression era audiences needed reminding that they could re-establish their livelihoods by combining skills instead of waiting for the financial markets to get their act together. After all, our daily bread ultimately depends not on the money changers or financial firms, but on cooperative labor working to keep production going for mutual benefit. Here, ordinary people are shown as having the necessary skills of farming, carpentry, care-giving, and the other know-how's necessary to sustaining a community. It's these folks and these skills that we can't do without when the economic chips are down. Note especially how the cooperative farm has no need for money in order to exchange goods and services. Then, no less than now, people are led to believe that no economy can function without money in some form, no doubt a comforting thought to the private bankers of the world. The movie however, shows that cooperation, not competition or money, is the ultimate background from which other economic forms develop.The fact that the cooperative farm had to reach into the money economy in order to survive only shows that their cooperative is still too small, and not that the idea won't work on a larger scale. I expect Vidor's effort was not favorably reviewed on Wall Street. It doesn't help the movie's down-to-earth message to sentimentalize plain folk as the script too often does. There's too much of the "happy peasant" atmosphere at times to be believable. (Note also how even the cheerless Addison Richard's criminal past is reformed by productive labor before he makes his sacrifice.) Nonetheless, I'd like to know where Vidor got his very ordinary looking people who don't even look like standard film "extras'-- a real boost to the movie's theme. Note too, how quickly the 4th of July rhetoric about "immortal democracy" is dismissed by the refugees as being the cause of their problems and not the solution. That's certainly an unexpected point to ponder. The fact, however, that they turn decision-making over to a single individual may be a naive reflection of developments in European fascism at a time when Germany and Italy were turning to strongmen as their solution. All in all, this is one of the more thought-provoking movies to emerge out of that turbulent period. Then too, its message is no less important now than it was then. For all that apparently aimless rolling in the mud at movie's end is more than just an expression of unbounded joy. It's a near-religious communion with the rich moist earth from which we spring and on whose bounty we still depend. For the basic fact is that mother earth and those who work it continue to feed, shelter, and clothe the rest of us, no matter how far the movies, TV and super-slick celebrities may remove us from that homely truth. Thanks, King Vidor, for the celebration and the much needed reminder.

This Depression-era film attempts to depict how working together can overcome hard times, but leading man Tom Keene's gee-whiz performance, and the needless subplot which has Barbara Pepper's Sally attempting to distract him from his mission, tend to derail the effort.Karen Morley is the star here. Her fine performance as Mary (weren't most good girls in movies of this era named "Mary"?), the faithful and enduring wife, keeps both the mission and the movie on track with her constancy and support.Also notable are John Qualen in his oft-portrayed "Swedish farmer" role, and Addison Richards as the shady character who becomes the commune's enforcer, but who makes a sacrifice for the common good.As one of the features of the film involves following a large field of corn from seedlings to stalks, one can but wonder how Hollywood got Nature to cooperate in the production by providing the right conditions at the proper times to advance the story toward the climax.Despite the flaws in acting and script, one has to admit that the ending is thrilling as the men work together and literally throw down their bodies to save the day. Still, if you want to watch a really good film on a similar subject, go see "The Good Earth," made three years later.

Boy, is this film interpreted differently, depending on which critic is discussing it. Overall, however, most of them - including me - like this movie and find it interesting.Today's critics like to use this film as a boost for socialistic or Commununstic causes, but that's baloney. One could easily do the opposite and use this film as an analogy to the early Christians, too - people who banded together pooling their talents and possessions for the good of the whole group.This was a simply of story of America during the Great Depression with a bunch of people out of work, so they try to make a living by turning themselves into farmers and making a go of it together.Tom Keane and Karen Morley star in here, playing husband-and-wife. Morely played a very upbeat, sweet lady who was joy to watch. Keane's acting was strange. At times it bordered on raw amateurism. He also looked, with the wild expressions, as if he were back doing a silent film.The rest of the cast was solid, from the Swedish farmer to the tough guy who turned himself in to the police to help the rest of the group. Overall, a good film and worth watching, whatever your politics.