The Good Earth

Producer Irving Thalberg, the young filmmaking genius known as “Hollywood's Boy Wonder,” died tragically young at the age of 37, just as production was wrapping up on this epic adaptation of Pearl Buck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about life in China. Consequently, the film was dedicated to Thalberg—and what a fitting monument it proved to be. Produced for a then-whopping $3,000,000, The Good Earth spared no expense in creating a believable Chinese countryside out of MGM's Culver City back lot and surrounding environs. The film chronicles the story of Wang Lung (Paul Muni), a simple farmer who takes O-Lan (Luise Rainer) for his wife in an arranged marriage and builds a family and a farm, only to abandon both after becoming showered with wealth. Fate eventually intervenes, and Wang learns a lesson about what is truly important. Director Sidney Franklin, not known as a master stylist (and with good reason), occasionally allows the pace to flag, but The Good Earth boasts several elaborate, powerful sequences—including a violent storm, the pillaging of a Chinese village, and, most memorably, the devastation caused by a plague of locusts—and incredibly skillful performances by a mostly Occidental cast with Asian makeup. German-born actress Rainer won her second consecutive Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the humble, dignified, and loving O-Lan, while Muni, an actor prone to over-emoting, hits every note here with perfect pitch. Long and (by today's standards) sometimes turgid, The Good Earth nonetheless remains an extraordinary achievement, one that belongs in any collection of classic movies from Hollywood's Golden Age. DVD extras include the vintage musical short “Hollywood Party,” and a “Supreme Court of Films Picks the Champions” newsreel. Highly recommended. (E. Hulse)