The Grapes of Wrath 1940 Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) has just got out of prison for murder and is hitchhiking to his family's farm in Oklahoma. Along the way, he meets an old acquaintance, Casey (John Carradine). Casey is also the priest who baptized Tom but left the ministry because he lost his faith. Casey tells Tom that drought, sandstorms, and new farming and banking practices are destroying the once fertile Oklahoma. When they arrive at Tom Joad's farm together, they find that Joad's family is preparing to emigrate, as the bank has taken over their farm as well. At dawn the next day, the Joad family of twelve are loaded into a wrecked truck with all their belongings and sent to the "Promised Land" in California.