The Green Pastures (1936)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Directors:

Marc Connelly
William Keighley

Writers:

Roark Bradford (novel) and
Marc Connelly (play)

Release Date:

27 January 1937 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

God, heaven, and several Old Testament stories, including the Creation and Noah's Ark, are described supposedly using the perspective of rural...

Plot Keywords:

God | Pulitzer Prize Source | Color In Title | Black Cast | African American

Cast

Rex Ingram	...	Adam / De Lawd / Hezdrel
Oscar Polk	...	Gabriel
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson	...	Noah (as Eddie Anderson)
Frank H. Wilson	...	Moses / Sexton (as Frank Wilson)
George Reed	...	Mr. Deshee / Aaron
Abraham Gleaves	...	Archangel
Myrtle Anderson	...	Eve
Al Stokes	...	Cain
Edna Mae Harris	...	Zeba (as Harris, Edna M.)
James Fuller	...	Cain the Sixth
George Randol	...	High Priest
Ida Forsyne	...	Mrs. Noah
Ray Martin	...	Shem
Charles Andrews	...	Flatfoot / Gambler (as Chas. Andrews)
Dudley Dickerson	...	Ham

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Vitaphone

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1936) | Finland:K-16 (1945)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The original Broadway stage production won the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on Feb. 26, 1930 at the Mansfield Theatre in New York and ran for 640 performances. Juanita Hall, who later played "Bloody Mary" in both the stage and film versions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic South Pacific (1958), appeared in the original 1930 stage production of "The Green Pastures".

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the scene where Noah is loading animals onto the ark, four sheep are shown entering instead of the prescribed two of every animal. However, Genesis 7:2 of the Bible says that Noah was to board two of every "unclean" animal and seven of every "clean" animal. Sheep are considered "clean".

Quotes:

Gabriel: Gangway for the lord god, Jehovah!

Movie Connections:

Version of "BBC Sunday-Night Theatre: The Green Pastures (#9.37)" (1958)

Great movie

I watched this movie late at night with a bunch of munchkins and wondered why more of the adults didn't come watch it with us... It is a unique, well-made, unassuming, enjoyable, surprising, well-told "story." I say "story," because it is a description more than a tale of one way to conceive of the "Lawd of heaven." Gotta love the southern accents. They did a great job and left me rethinking the way I thought of things and smiling as I thought of the way they portrayed it all. It was also curious to me to see how society's perception of music, race, and Sundays has changed, but how some things never change.

Favorite quote... by "The Lawd" - "I'm going ta make me a miracle"