IMDb > The Good Earth (1937)
The Good Earth
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The Good Earth (1937) More at IMDbPro »


IMDb Holiday Movie Guide

Overview

User Rating:
7.9/10   1,730 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 8% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Talbot Jennings (screenplay) and
Tess Slesinger (screenplay) ...
more
Contact:
View company contact information for The Good Earth on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
6 August 1937 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
China . . . . Land of unrest . . . tomorrow they may Starve !
Plot:
The story of a farmer in China: a story of humility and bravery. His father gives Wang Lung a freed slave as wife... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
Won 2 Oscars. Another 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(5 articles)
Music: Review:The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms / The Good Earth
 (From The AV Club. 14 September 2009, 10:00 PM, PDT)

The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth
 (From PasteMagazine. 8 September 2009, 6:00 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
A Blockbuster That Retains Its Magic more (43 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Paul Muni ... Wang Lung
Luise Rainer ... O-Lan
Walter Connolly ... Uncle
Tilly Losch ... Lotus
Charley Grapewin ... Old Father
Jessie Ralph ... Cuckoo
Soo Yong ... Aunt
Keye Luke ... Elder Son
Roland Lui ... Younger Son
Suzanna Kim ... Little Fool
Ching Wah Lee ... Ching
Harold Huber ... Cousin
Olaf Hytten ... Liu - Grain Merchant
William Law ... Gateman
Mary Wong ... Little Bride
more
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Runtime:
138 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Black and White (Sepiatone)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification:
USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | West Germany:12 | UK:A | South Korea:All | Sweden:15 (DVD rating) | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #2584)
Filming Locations:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
For the second year in a row, Luise Rainer won a Best Actress Oscar, becoming the first performer to win two Academy Awards and the first to win two Oscars in two years. more
Goofs:
Continuity: Unexplained sequence of events or possible error in continuity. Toward the beginning of the film, Farmer Wang walks to the Great House to meet his bride, O-Lan. He is carrying a basket. It appears to be empty. As he enters a market, the farmer declines to buy peaches. We don't see him purchase goods or trade for anything. We don't see him filling the basket. However, the next scene shows him at the door of the house with a full basket. Later, he does buy peaches. At this point, however, we're still not made aware how he has money or silver. more
Quotes:
O-Lan: When I go back in that house, it will be with my son in my arms. I'll have a red coat on him... and red flower trousers... and a hat with a gilded Buddha and tiger-faced shoes, and I'll go into the kitchen where I spent my days as a slave and into the great hall where the old mistress sits with her pipe, and I'll show myself and my son to all of them.
O-Lan: [Smiles, contented] Hmm.
Wang Lung: Well... Now, I... I haven't heard you speak so many words since you came to this house.
more
Movie Connections:

FAQ

How closely does the movie follow the book?
Who is Irving Grant Thalberg, the person to whom this film is dedicated?
Is "The Good Earth" based on a book?
more
21 out of 24 people found the following comment useful.
A Blockbuster That Retains Its Magic, 5 April 2003
10/10
Author: felixoscar from New York, USA

Sure, 65 years have passed since Thalberg's last production was filmed. But fellow IMDB members, come on, this movie is surely one of the masterpieces of the 30's! It is a 10.

This was the first movie I saw at New York's Museum of Modern Art, around 1970 (I was a teenager). Expensive looking yet with scenes of such poverty, masterfully photographed, often thrilling, and always engaging, to me it was MGM movie-making at its best. What did audiences feel when they glimpsed a locust attack, the person by person destruction of a mansion, the horrific poverty and then the splendor of wealth.

Last week, those watching the Academy Awards had a glimpse of the "senior" Oscar winner in attendance, Luise Rainer. How grand to see an actress who arguably delivered one of the most masterful, haunting performances in history electing to return for a celebration.

Ok, so she should not have won the year before (Great Ziegfeld), but don't blame Luise. Talkies were only a decade old when this was released, and her dialogue limited. But as Olan, her use of visual and vocal is memorable.

Large scale and touching, what more could a movie lover want!

Was the above comment useful to you?
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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Good Earth (1937)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
A couple of things the censors must not have approved.... BoomerMovieFan
Best Line! Makes me cry. profprimbud
Podcast on 'The Good Earth' Filmrob
Based on La Terre profprimbud
Paul Muni's hairline carrie-284
Beautifully shot... clarencejr
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