Standing on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, handsome yet jaded Glenn Ford looks over the city that never sleeps, spitting off the ledge as he relates to a security guard of how miserable it is to work in the basement of a department store when you're surrounded by so much wealth. So he's taken his savings and invested in a supposedly large ranch in Arizona, and begins to hitch-hike his way west. Like the Joads of "The Grapes of Wrath", what he finds is a mix of humanity and hateful uncaring people, yet ends up with a destiny that he never would have predicted in a lifetime.
Among his first encounters is an extremely young Richard Conte (billed as Nicholas) who teaches him the ways of getting cross country faster, and by coincidence, they end up on the same train, along with a European illegal immigrant (Jean Porter) whom Ford had encountered earlier while trying to sneak a ride on a truck. Conte takes the group to a hobo camp where they meet the gregarious professor (a delightful Raymond Walburn) who becomes the father figure of the group. Of course, not everybody they encounter is as nice as these folks, but they deal with the nefarious tramps in ways to protect each other, particularly the vulnerable Porter.
The film takes several twists and turns both comic and dramatic, and becomes amusing when Walburn encounters an old love (Margaret Wycherly) who runs a dive bar they visit. Wycherly announces she only wants a man who can protect a helpless woman, but it is obvious who will wear the pants in that family. Tragedy strikes one of the members of the group, while Ford finds out that his dream house is closer to disaster house, basically a shack in the middle of nowhere. But hopes, while dashed, are never destroyed, and like Jane Darwell's Ma Joad, the people keep going'.
Post depression America hadn't fixed everything, even two terms into Roosevelt's presidency, and this drama looks at the plights of a modernized America filled with planes, trains and automobiles where only the rich could fly, the poor had to hop trains or trucks to travel, and even a beat-up jalopy was better than no car at all. This reminds the audience to don't stop believing, never give up on dreams, and just because you are given a sow's ear instead of a silk purse doesn't mean that you can't find a silver lining at the end of the rainbow. Dreams really do come true, as one lost little country girl sang in 1939.
Among his first encounters is an extremely young Richard Conte (billed as Nicholas) who teaches him the ways of getting cross country faster, and by coincidence, they end up on the same train, along with a European illegal immigrant (Jean Porter) whom Ford had encountered earlier while trying to sneak a ride on a truck. Conte takes the group to a hobo camp where they meet the gregarious professor (a delightful Raymond Walburn) who becomes the father figure of the group. Of course, not everybody they encounter is as nice as these folks, but they deal with the nefarious tramps in ways to protect each other, particularly the vulnerable Porter.
The film takes several twists and turns both comic and dramatic, and becomes amusing when Walburn encounters an old love (Margaret Wycherly) who runs a dive bar they visit. Wycherly announces she only wants a man who can protect a helpless woman, but it is obvious who will wear the pants in that family. Tragedy strikes one of the members of the group, while Ford finds out that his dream house is closer to disaster house, basically a shack in the middle of nowhere. But hopes, while dashed, are never destroyed, and like Jane Darwell's Ma Joad, the people keep going'.
Post depression America hadn't fixed everything, even two terms into Roosevelt's presidency, and this drama looks at the plights of a modernized America filled with planes, trains and automobiles where only the rich could fly, the poor had to hop trains or trucks to travel, and even a beat-up jalopy was better than no car at all. This reminds the audience to don't stop believing, never give up on dreams, and just because you are given a sow's ear instead of a silk purse doesn't mean that you can't find a silver lining at the end of the rainbow. Dreams really do come true, as one lost little country girl sang in 1939.