I first witnessed this marvelous adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s novel in grade school; it was shown to illustrate the culture, history and conditions in China. Although the film was immensely popular at the time of its release in 1937, and while film historians such as Leonard Maltin award it ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ reviews, this epic production has for various reasons been relegated to the cinematic closet like an old photo album of people and events long since forgotten.
Perhaps that is because of its casting: Paul Muni and Luise Rainer are cast as the proud Chinese farmer Wang Lung and his faithful, long-suffering wife O-Lan. Earlier in these pages I described the controversy surrounding Caucasian actors portraying ethnic characters, particularly Charlie Chan. This is one of those movies that critics of Hollywood’s long-standing practice of casting non-ethnic actors often name as a chief offender. Not just because of Muni and Rainer, but also due to the presence of performers like Walter Connolly, Charley Grapewin, Jessie Ralph and Tilly Losch in supporting roles. While Hollywood’s usage of white actors to portray Chinese characters was unfortunate and disingenuous, it is a historical fact.
Furthermore, Paul Muni, and especially Luise Rainer, are absolutely terrific in the film. Rainer won her second consecutive Academy Award for her performance. Even though Connolly and Grapewin are miscast (and Muni felt himself miscast), their presence does not diminish the film’s impact.
The Good Earth was the last big project on which producer Irving Thalberg toiled; he died six months before the movie’s exhibition. It is dedicated to his memory. It was a grand and expensive production: five hundred acres of prime San Fernando Valley farmland was turned into Chinese-style farms and crews were sent to China for second-unit footage. Its budget approached $3 million and yet it secured a half-million dollar profit.
Its story is deceptively simple and episodic, following a Chinese couple as they tend a farm, lose it to famine, try again and succeed, discover the trappings of wealth and face catastrophe once again. The catastrophe is in the form of locusts, and the sequence in which the farmers attempt to burn sections of their crops to force the invading locusts away remains a marvel of movie magic almost seventy years later.
Yet the true beauty of the film resides in the central characters of Wang and O-Lan. How their relationship changes as they endure poverty and the specter of starvation, only to alter even more as they unexpectedly reverse their fortune. The reversal of fortune reveals Wang’s weakness and selfishness, while O-Lan continues to suffer quiet indignities. It is O-Lan who collects audience sympathy and it is her spirit that dominates the film.
The Good Earth is a great film, one which in my opinion should not be ignored or neglected because of objections about its casting. It predates The Grapes of Wrath, but but movies illustrate the deplorable conditions of poverty, the feelings raised by losing one’s home and the importance of maintaining strong family relations. It’s a winner. My rating: ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰. (6:1).