THE GOOD EARTH (1937) B/W 138m dir: Sidney Franklin

w/Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly, Tilly Losch, Charley Grapewin, Jessie Ralph, Soo Yong, Keye Luke, Roland Lui, Suzanna Kim, Ching Wah Lee, Harold Huber, Olaf Hytten, William Law, Mary Wong

From The Movie Guide: "Classic melodrama. Muni, in a powerful role --- another marvelous offbeat characterization --- is a simple rice farmer who weds Rainer, a kitchen slave, in an arranged marriage. Through incredible labor, Muni and Rainer make their little farm into a success, allowing Muni to buy many more rice fields and to prosper. They produce three children, and all seems promising until severe drought turns the land into an unyielding crust. ...

"Rainer is overwhelming as the self-sacrificing O-lan and deservedly won an Oscar for Best Actress, beating out Greta Garbo in CAMILLE and accomplishing the seemingly impossible task of winning back-to-back statuettes, having received the same award the previous year for THE GREAT ZIEGFELD.

"This superlative adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Pearl Buck novel was three years in the making; it was [Irving] Thalberg's last production, which he personally oversaw. He had never taken a film credit and died before THE GOOD EARTH was completed; to honor this young, driving force, who was responsible for a string of majestic films, [MGM studio head Louis B.] Mayer had the following inserted in the credits of THE GOOD EARTH: 'To the memory of Irving Grant Thalberg we dedicate this picture, his last great achievement.'

"Thalberg sent George Hill, a talented but alcoholic director, to China to get background footage and gather important props. Hill's wife, Frances Marion [an important figure in early Hollywood and the first woman to win a writing Oscar, for THE BIG HOUSE}, went along to do research since she was originally slated to write the screenplay. Hill and Marion returned with more than two million feet of background footage, some of which was used in the released film. Victor Fleming, who replaced Hill, grew ill during production and had to be hospitalized. (The same thing happened to Fleming when he was at work on GONE WITH THE WIND three years later.) With costs mounting, Thalberg brought in Sidney Franklin to replace Fleming.

"There are several great sequences in THE GOOD EARTH, not the least of which are the terrifying mob scenes in which the palace is ransacked. The most astounding scene, however, is the invasion of the locusts. Hundreds of extras, Muni, Rainer, and family in the lead, took to the jeopardized fields to combat the pests which blackened the sky, frantically digging fire lanes, disorienting the insects by banging gongs, then beating them with shovels, feet, and hands. Every known photographic gimmick up to that time was employed in the locust invasion scene. The Chinese location footage was used as a backdrop, closeups of the locusts on a miniature soundstage were intercut, and special effects paintings were inserted on the film to produce a startling montage of the menace."

From the Cinesocial website (www.cinesocialuk.com), this 2017 review of the film by Jason Day:

"What constitutes ‘racist’ cinema?

"Is it the blockbusting, rabble-rousing, Ku Klux Klan membership encouraging The Birth of a Nation (2015) with its giddying depictions of white actors in black-face make-up running amok in post-Civil War America, hell bent on nothing more than raping wilting white ladies and sitting in Congress with their feet on the desks?

"Or the equally blockbusting, romantic Civil War epic Gone With the Wind (1939) with its more genteel representation of servile black people (played by actual people) and perfume scented depiction of this the antebellum period of America as missed and fleetingly ‘gone with the wind’ itself?

"Perhaps it is more subtle than that; despite its pretensions, more modern race relations dramas such as The Help (2011) and The Butler (2013), despite being more ‘right on’ and progressive with their politics, only seem able to do this by relying on the history-honoured, servile nature of non-white people to make a social point.

"The Good Earth, the mighty, multi-million dollar epic cinema adaption of the Pearl S. Buck novel that was the brain-child of multi-million dollar movie impresario Irving Thalberg’s final production (though he didn’t realise it; he died before the movie was finished) can be added to this discussion.

"A film about Chinese peasants in turn of the century China, the principal roles are all filled by Caucasian actors, two of them (Rainer and Losch) being Austrian. They all have pale faces and, most embarrassingly (at least to modern viewers) feature heavy eye make-up to ‘Asian-ise’ them.

"Such films are divisive to watch in the 21st century and, for a reviewer, difficult to praise for their relative cinematic worth, given their decidedly un-PC stance.

"I don’t agree with the casting here as there were good, Chinese actors performing in American movies who could have easily essayed these performances (Sessue Hayakawa and Anna May Wong to name the biggest two).

"But we have to see such productions in context. In 1936, when this movie was being prepared, blockbuster American movies were directed squarely at the social and political orthodoxy, namely white Americans. It was not unusual to see such actors cast in the roles of non-white Americans.

"Paul Muni and Luise Rainer, both white and big name actors at the time (both had recently won Academy Awards for appealing and tremulous performances), were actually good choices for these roles, within that prejudiced, but accepted, movie production system of the time.

"Despite Muni’s wooden, heavy turn as Wang-Lun, an almost mute Rainer nabs the acting honours as his much put upon wife, eventually killed by the hardships of life. Her frail, pallid, high cheek-boned features perfectly suit the part of O-Lan, the wife who is as good as the earth that frames the narrative.

"Rainer is the ‘Gaia’ of Thalberg’s spectacle, more than repaying the producer’s faith in her. Despite her lack of ‘Oriental’ looks, there is something in her porcelain pallor that befits this role.

"She declined it originally but accepted on his insistence, which, ironically, destroyed her career. The public and critics, who had rejoiced in her chatty, effervescent turn in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), that netted her first Best Actress Oscar, turned a cold shoulder to her after she won again, the first instance of concurrent Oscar wins.

"After a few more paltry roles in American films, her Hollywood career was over and she became the greatest casualty of Oscar success. She didn’t act again in movies until The Gambler (1997).

"However, what the coaching and diction lessons she was given do not hide is her heavy Austrian accent. 'Shay is a feemale chy-uld. With Smawl-pox!' she intones at one point, in cloying, gravely Teutonic tones.

"There are some spectacular set-pieces, most notably the raid on the Governor’s house that sees O-Lan almost trampled to death and the locust plague. Director Franklin injects some pretty harsh images (dead people half buried in the unrelenting sands whipped up by the barren land; skeletons and dead dogs being picked at by vultures) that is a surprise the censor passed the film uncut, but good that they did. It leavens the high melodrama."

Besides Rainer's Best Actress Oscar, THE GOOD EARTH also won for Best Cinematography (Karl Freund). It was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, and Editing (Basil Wrangell).