History Film / OurDailyBread

One day a man named Chris Larsen (John Qualen), who was trying to make it to California along with [[Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath many other desperate people]] during the Depression, has his car conk out right in front of the Sims farm. Luckily for John, Chris is a farmer, and John offers to let him stay rent-free in return for helping John work the farm. John, inspired, puts out signs advertising for people that have trades to come and work on the farm. They wind up establishing a "community where money isn't important", where everything goes into "one common pot". However, their socialist farming commune soon faces two problems: sexy Sally (Barbara Pepper), who wanders onto the commune and tries to lure John away, and a severe drought that threatens to destroy their crops.

* WantedPoster: Louie, the taciturn truck driver, is a fugitive convict, as he reveals by showing his own wanted poster. He winds up turning himself in so the commune can collect the $500 reward and buy food to tide themselves over until the harvest.

''Our Daily Bread'' is a 1934 film directed by Creator/KingVidor. John and Mary Sims are two of the many people struggling in New York City during TheGreatDepression, facing eviction threats from the landlord and exchanging their possessions for meat while John desperately searches for a job. One day Mary's Uncle Anthony comes to their shabby little apartment and offers them a chance to work on a farm that he owns. With no other options, John and Mary jump at the chance and go off to the country, but they are city folk and out of their element on the farm.

One day a man named Chris, who was trying to make it to California along with [[Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath many other desperate people]] during the Depression, has his car conk out right in front of the Sims farm. Luckily for John, Chris is a farmer, and John offers to let him stay rent-free in return for helping John work the farm. John, inspired, puts out signs advertising for people that have trades to come and work on the farm. They wind up establishing a "community where money isn't important", where everything goes into "one common pot". However, their socialist farming commune faces two problems: sexy Sally, who wanders onto the commune and tries to lure John away, as well as a drought that threatens to destroy their crops.

''Our Daily Bread'' was a [[DoingItForTheArt labor of love]] for director Vidor, who wrote his own story as a sequel to his all-time classic ''Film/TheCrowd''. After MGM declined to produce the film, Vidor raised the money himself and released it through Creator/UnitedArtists with the support of Creator/CharlieChaplin.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The community John builds on the farm--no private property, everything going into a common pot, everyone working together and sharing the proceeds equally, one big boss to run everything--is ''communist''. It's actually pretty amazing that Vidor got this film made and distributed in America in 1934. The film bears an obvious debt to Soviet propaganda films, specifically the 1930 silent classic ''Film/{{Earth|1930}}''.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The community John builds on the farm--no private property, everything going into a common pot, everyone working together and sharing the proceeds equally, one big boss to run everything--is ''communist''. It's actually pretty amazing that Vidor got this film made and distributed in America in 1934. The film bears an obvious debt to Soviet propaganda films, specifically the 1930 silent classic ''Film/Earth1930''.

* WantedPoster: Louie, the taciturn truck driver, is a fugitive convict, as he reveals by showing his own wanted poster. He winds up turning himself in so the commune can collect the $500 reward and buy food to tide themselves over until the harvest.
* YourCheatingHeart: John has an affair with Sally.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The community John builds on the farm--no private property, everything going into a common pot, everyone working together and sharing the proceeds equally, one big boss to run everything--is ''communist''. It's actually pretty amazing that Vidor got this film made and distributed in America in 1934. The film bears an obvious debt to Soviet propaganda films, specifically the 1930 silent classic ''Film/{{Earth}}''.

* LargeHam: ''The Crowd'' was a silent film but James Murray still managed to deliver a more subtle performance than Tom Keene did in this movie. Keene's overacting is one of the film's major drawbacks. Keene would explore the other extreme of motion picture art a quarter of a century after this film, when he appeared in ''Film/PlanNineFromOuterSpace''.

''Our Daily Bread'' is a 1934 film directed by Creator/KingVidor. John and Mary Sims are two of the many people struggling in New York City during UsefulNotes/TheGreatDepression, facing eviction threats from the landlord and exchanging their possessions for meat while John desperately searches for a job. One day Mary's Uncle Anthony comes to their shabby little apartment and offers them a chance to work on a farm that he owns. With no other options, John and Mary jump at the chance and go off to the country, but they are city folk and out of their element on the farm.

* LargeHam: James Murray was acting in a silent film but he still managed to deliver a more subtle performance than Tom Keene did in this movie. Keene's overacting is one of the film's major drawbacks. Keene would explore the other extreme of motion picture art a quarter of a century after this film, when he appeared in ''Film/PlanNineFromOuterSpace''.
* {{Sequel}}: To ''The Crowd'', but with different actors. Eleanor Boardman did not appear, probably because her movie career was over anyway (she hadn't made a film in three years) and possibly because she was now King Vidor's ex-wife. Vidor found James Murray, who by this point was an alcoholic hobo, and offered him a chance to star in the movie, but Murray turned Vidor down flat. Not long after he was found drowned in a river, cause unknown.

* CapitalismIsBad: The film isn't excessively strident, but the message is obvious. In a meeting of the farm workers, one suggests a democratic form of government for the farm, but that's dismissed as what got America into The Great Depression in the first place. At the foreclosure auction, a capitalist fat cat right out of Soviet propaganda--overweight, dressed in a suit, chomping on a cigar--tries to buy the farm, but after the workers silently threaten him with a hangman's rope, he clams up, and the workers buy the farm themselves for $1.85.

* LargeHam: James Murray was acting in a silent film but he still managed to deliver a more subtle performance than Tom Keene did in this film. Keene's overacting is one of the film's major drawbacks. Keene would explore the other extreme of motion picture art a quarter of a century after this film, when he appeared in ''Film/PlanNineFromOuterSpace''.
* {{Sequel}}: To ''The Crowd'', but with different actors. Eleanor Boardman did not appear, probably because her movie career was just about over anyway (she hadn't made a film in three years, and would make only one more in 1935), and possibly because she was now King Vidor's ex-wife. Vidor found James Murray, who by this point was an alcoholic hobo, and offered him a chance to star in the movie, but Murray turned Vidor down flat. Not long after he was found drowned in a river, cause unknown.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The community John builds on the farm--no private property, everything going into a common pot, everyone working together and sharing the proceeds equally, one big boss to run everything--is ''communist''. It's actually pretty amazing that Vidor got this film made and distributed in America in 1934. The film bears an obvious debt to Soviet propaganda films, specifically the 1930 silent classic ''Film/{{Earth}}''.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The community John builds on the farm--no private property, everything going into a common pot, everyone working together and sharing the proceeds equally, one big boss to run everything--is ''communism''. It's actually pretty amazing that Vidor got this film made and distributed in America in 1934. The film bears an obvious debt to Soviet propaganda films, specifically the 1930 silent classic ''Film/{{Earth}}''.

* CapitalismIsBad: The film isn't excessively strident, but the message is obvious. In a meeting of the farm workers, one suggests a democratic form of government for the farm, but that's dismissed as what got America into The Great Depression in the first place. At the foreclosure auction, a capitalist fat cat right out of Soviet propaganda--overweight, dressed in a suit, chomping on a cigar--tries to buy the farm, but after the workers silently threaten him with a hangman's rope, he clams up, and the workers buy the farm themselves for less than two dollars.