John Ford's movie was released in 1940 and stars Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, who was recently released from jail and whose family is leaving Oklahoma and heading to California because of the tough economic times. As they set out on their journey, they realize how many other people are also going to California to try to find work. The story takes place during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The novel by John Steinbeck on which the film is based won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
According to , Twentieth Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck sent people to find out how the migrant workers were living to see how it compared to Steinbeck's novel. Zanuck's investigators told him it was even worse than depicted in "Wrath."
