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Bookmark this pageThe Good Earth (1937)
Director: Sidney Franklin
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
'Who wants to see a picture about Chinese farmers?' asked LB Mayer of his production chief Irving Thalberg. Thalberg had asked the same question about a Civil War picture called Gone With the Wind. The answer in both cases was millions, but in the case of The Good Earth the reasons are quite bewildering. A kind of 'Lychees of Wrath', it's a typically lumbering, cautious, overblown Thalberg project, saved by Rainer's genuinely moving, Oscar-winning portrayal of Chinese peasantry, and by an immensely spectacular storm of locusts. Thalberg died during the production, and Mayer accorded him a special tribute on the credits, the only time that the name of the last tycoon appeared on a film. (From the novel by Pearl Buck.) ATu.Author: ATu
User reviews of this film
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- PETER BENEDICT said...
- Posted on Jan 18 2010 16:16 This film is one of the great neglected classics. The plot is shamelessly melodramatic and none the worse for it. Genuinely gritty scenes of peasant life, morally ambiguous characters, stunning set pieces such as the plague of locusts and the most terrifying riot sequence outside Eisenstein. Imaginative, erotic, heartrending, spectacular and with the most restrained use of soundtrack music in any Hollywood movie. A gem.
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Cast & crew
Director: Sidney Franklin
Producer: Irving Thalberg
Cast: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly, Charley Grapewin, Jessie Ralph, Tilly Losch, Keye Luke full cast
Genre(s): Epics
Duration: 138 mins
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