The Good Earth (1937)

Director:

Sidney Franklin
(more)

Writers:

Talbot Jennings (screenplay) and
Tess Slesinger (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

6 August 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

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...

Plot Keywords:

Farmer | Famine | Slave | Money | City

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Philip Ahn	...	Captain in Revolutionary Army (uncredited)
Philson Ahn	...	Chinese Man (uncredited)
Caroline Chew	...	Dance in Teahouse (uncredited)
Jack Don	...	Chinese Peasant (uncredited)
Chester Gan	...	Singer in Teahouse (uncredited)
Betty Soo Hoo	...	Baby (uncredited)
James B. Leong	...	Chinese Peasant (uncredited)
Lotus Liu	...	Chinese Girl Singing and Playing Mandolin (uncredited)
Bessie Loo	...	Chinese Woman (uncredited)
Richard Loo	...	Chinese Farmer (uncredited)
Clarence Lung	...	Bit Role (uncredited)
Charles Middleton	...	Banker (uncredited)
Miki Morita	...	Wang's House Guest (uncredited)
Layne Tom Jr.	...	Chinese Boy (uncredited)
Kam Tong	...	Chinese Peasant (uncredited)
Sammee Tong	...	Chinese Man (uncredited)
Iris Wong	...	Chinese Woman (uncredited)
Marcella Wong	...	Baby (uncredited)
Shirley Wu	...	Baby (uncredited)
Victor Sen Yung	...	Chinese Peasant (uncredited)

Directed by
Sidney Franklin
Victor Fleming		(uncredited)
Gustav Machatý		(uncredited)
Sam Wood		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Talbot Jennings		(screenplay) and
Tess Slesinger		(screenplay) and
Claudine West		(screenplay)
Pearl S. Buck		(novel "The Good Earth")

Produced by
Albert Lewin	....	associate producer
Irving Thalberg	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Herbert Stothart

Cinematography by
Karl Freund

Film Editing by
Basil Wrangell

Art Direction by
Cedric Gibbons

Costume Design by
Herbert Neuwirth		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Holly Bane	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Jack Dawn	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Max Factor	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Cecil Holland	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Web Overlander	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)
William Tuttle	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Dave Friedman	....	production manager (uncredited)
Frank Messenger	....	production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Hugh Boswell	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Fred Niblo	....	second unit director (uncredited)
Hezi Tate	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
A. Arnold Gillespie	....	associate art director (as Arnold Gillespie)
Harry Oliver	....	associate art director
Edwin B. Willis	....	associate art director
Tom Gubbins	....	props: China (uncredited)
F. Suie One	....	props and Chinese artifacts (uncredited)

Sound Department
Douglas Shearer	....	recording director

Special Effects by
James Basevi	....	special effects: locust sequence (uncredited)
Dave Friedman	....	special effects: locust sequence (uncredited)
James Curtis Havens	....	special effects: locust sequence (uncredited)

Stunts
Jewel Jordan	....	stunt double: Luise Rainer

Camera and Electrical Department
Charles G. Clarke	....	photographer: China (uncredited)
Ben M. Cohen	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Russell A. Cully	....	photographer: China (uncredited)
George W. Hill	....	supervising photographer: China (uncredited)
Mason Hooper	....	photographer: backgrounds and process shots (uncredited)
Walter Lundin	....	camera operator: Cedar City (uncredited)
Gustav Machatý	....	director of process photography (uncredited)
Ray Ramsey	....	camera operator (uncredited)
H.C. Smith	....	photographer: China (uncredited)
Harkness Smith	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Frank Tanner	....	still photographer (uncredited)
'Newreel' Wong	....	photographer: China (uncredited)

Casting Department
Chester Gann	....	casting: Chinese extras (uncredited)
William Grady	....	casting: Chinese extras (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Dolly Tree	....	wardrobe
Tom Gubbins	....	costumes: China (uncredited)
Eugene Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Slavko Vorkapich	....	montage
Peter Ballbusch	....	montage (uncredited)
Tom Held	....	editing staff (uncredited)
Ben Lewis	....	assistant editor (uncredited)
Charles T. Trego	....	montage (uncredited)

Music Department
Wayne Allen	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Clifford Vaughan	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Edward Ward	....	composer: additional music (uncredited)

Other crew
Donald Davis	....	stage adaptation
Owen Davis	....	stage adaptation
Victor Adams	....	stand-in: Paul Muni (uncredited)
Marian Ainslee	....	screenplay constructor (uncredited)
Pearl S. Buck	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
Marc Connelly	....	screenplay constructor (uncredited)
Howard Dietz	....	press representative (uncredited)
Jules Furthman	....	screenplay constructor (uncredited)
DuBose Heyward	....	screenplay constructor (uncredited)
James Lee	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
Clarence Locan	....	publicist (uncredited)
Frances Marion	....	screenplay constructor (uncredited)
John M. Nickolaus	....	laboratory supervisor: sepia tinting (uncredited)
Bessie Ochs	....	technical advisor: China (uncredited)
Yee On	....	supervisor of landscapes (uncredited)
'Dutch' Pettit	....	pigtail braider (uncredited)
Franz Schulz	....	screenplay constructor (uncredited)
Frank Tong	....	assistant: Harry Oliver (uncredited)
Y.S. Tsao	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
General Ting-Hsiu Tu	....	technical advisor (uncredited)

Thanks
Irving Thalberg	....	dedicatee (as Irving Grant Thalberg)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1937) (USA) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1937) (France) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1937) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1949) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1990) (USA) (VHS)
• ClassicLine (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Cinemax (2009) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1937) (Argentina) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• Theatre Guild  stage production
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment  VHS package design
• Turner Entertainment  VHS package design

Also Known As:

Runtime:

138 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | West Germany:12 | UK:A | South Korea:All | Sweden:15 | Netherlands:14 (original rating) (1937) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #2584)

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Sam Wood directed the "robbing of the big house" sequence, some retakes and other additional footage.

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.

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.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Hollywood Hist-o-Rama: Paul Muni" (1962)

"O-Lan, You Are the Earth"

What Irving Thalberg did in making this film today would never be attempted again. Making a Chinese story with occidental players even if they are of the caliber of Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Charley Grapewin, and Walter Connolly among others.

Perhaps it's partly because the story was written by a westerner, Pearl Buck who got a Pulitzer Prize for her novel in 1932. Ms. Buck, daughter of Chinese missionaries, probably brought China closer to the consciousness of America than any other person. Not the political struggles of China, but the lives and toil of the every day people we find in The Good Earth. Unfortunately later on, Pearl Buck became an apologist for the Kuomintang China of Chiang Kai-Shek in all its virtues and excesses. The rest of her literary output never matched The Good Earth.

In The Sundowners there is a great description of comparing China to Australia by Peter Ustinov. When asked the difference, Ustinov said China was very big and very full and Australia was very big and very empty. That's what you see in The Good Earth, China very big and very full of people, more than she can deal with at times.

The Good Earth tells the story of Wang Lung (Paul Muni) as a young man who purchases a wife from a large house where she was a slave. The woman O-Lan (Luise Rainer) bears him two sons and sees him through all the good times and bad they have, drought, famine, revolution, and a climatic locust plague.

Luise Rainer won the second of two consecutive Oscars for portraying O-Lan. She may have set some kind of record in that it has to be the leading player Oscar performance with the least amount of dialog. Everything she does practically is done with facial expressions, her performance could have been on a silent film with very minimal subtitles. I think only John Mills in Ryan's Daughter had fewer words and he was playing a mentally retarded man.

Muni is not always appreciative of how supportive she is in that male dominated culture. Rainer helps in the field, bears and raises the kids, does the housework. When Muni becomes a man of property he takes a Chinese second trophy wife who causes him a lot of grief. Still Rainer stoically bears it all. Still Muni is not a bad man and it's a tribute to the film and his acting and Buck's writing that you don't hate him and the culture gap is bridged.

We've got a group of oriental players now who do more than just Kung Fu movies. I'm surprised The Good Earth of all films has not been remade at this point. I'll bet the Chinese government would even let some American company do it on an actual location.

Till then we've got this great classic to appreciate and enjoy.