Almost immediately, it becomes apparent that The Good Earth is the kind of film that should come with a disclaimer at the beginning explaining how insensitive the casting of this film really is. That doesn’t happen, of course, but this kind of disclaimer would have softened the blow of seeing white actors playing the two Asian lead roles as well as many of the secondary ones. The sad reality is that in 1937, it was not deemed necessary to cast accurately to the character’s race. From a marketing sense, it made sense, too, as people went to the movies to see their favorite actors and actresses; the studios counted on that to turn a profit. When watching a movie like this one, you can either let this casting ruin the experience or acknowledge that it was wrong, but a sign of the times, and move on, watching the film as if seeing it back in the day with a different mindset.
The Good Earth feels at times like a Biblical allegory where prosperity brings with it pride and selfishness. Inevitably, a plague comes and strikes down the prideful until they are humble again, then prosperity returns, and the cycle begins all over again. The film opens in northern China with Wang (Paul Muni), a poor farmer who is getting married to O-Lan (Luise Rainer). Wang has a small amount of farmland but through hard work manages to earn enough to expand his property even as his family grows. But then a famine comes, and suddenly, everyone is starving. The neighbors begrudge Wang and his family, viewing him as wealthy even though he is as bad off as they are now that no crops are growing. He feels pressured to sell his land for mere pennies, but O-Lan steps in and refuses to let him part with it, suggesting they move south for work and wait out the famine.
Further south isn’t much better, as everyone is looking for work, and the family continues to starve. When a revolution breaks out, O-Lan barely escapes alive, avoiding the firing squads while managing to secure a small bag of jewels stolen during a raid on the palace. When word gets out that there is once again rain in the north, she uses those jewels to travel back home and regain their prosperity, keeping just two pearls for herself to cherish. Now that Wang is a very wealthy man again, he begins to neglect his hard-working wife and lust after another woman, Lotus (Tilly Losch), whom he makes his second wife because she is young and beautiful, and his first wife has grown old and ill. O-Lan, who has always had a low self-image, says nothing, even as he takes away her one prized possession, the pearls, and gifts it to Lotus. Then, like a plague out of the Old Testament, locusts come and threaten to destroy all the crops all over again.
Paul Muni is once again a chameleon in the role of Wang. This is the same actor who wowed us as Émile Zola and again as Louis Pasteur. He is once again unrecognizable in the role of Wang. While this is undoubtedly yellowface, it’s not done in a way to illicit disrespect for Asian people in general. He is not speaking in Pigeon English, exaggerating an Asianaccent the way Mickey Rooney did in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. What Muni is doing here is about as respectful as it can be and still be utterly wrong. There is some makeup and wigs used to help hide that the actor is Caucasian, but it’s not over the top. The same can be said for Luise Rainer, who inexplicably was awarded a Best Actress Oscar for a part that really doesn’t stand out as anything special. She had won the previous year, too. Over the years,the decision to award her for The Good Earth has become a controversial one.
The film is based on the novel by Pearl S. Buck. That novel won her a Pulitzer Prize and contributed to her winning a Nobel Prize for Literature. It aided Americans in the 1930s in seeing the Chinese people through sympathetic and empathetic eyes thanks to the realistic depiction of the farmer Wang and his wife O-Lan. This would help prepare the Americans to consider the Chinese as allies in the inevitable war with Japan. Pearl S. Buck was writing from her own firsthand experience observing Chinese village life, having grown up in China as the daughter of American missionaries.
In 1932, this novel was adapted for the stage by the father-and-son team of Owen and Donald Davis. This stage performance was ambitious but ultimately failed, running less than sixty performances before being shuttered up. Five years later, a film version, based on the play, was released to far better reception. Irving Thalberg, head of production at MGM Studios, produced the film and, like most pictures going through the studio at the time, he was hands-on with it. It would be his last feature as he died suddenly of pneumonia at the age of only 37. This film has a dedication at the beginning of it to Thalberg for his contributions, listing it as his “Last great achievement.”
Pearl S. Buck wanted the film cast entirely with Chinese actors. Thalberg felt the same way but ultimately conceded that audiences in the 1930s were not ready for a film cast like that. An Asian actress was approached to play the role of O-Lan, but by that time, Paul Muni was already cast, and the Hays Code prohibited depicting an interracial relationship, even if the white actor was playing an Asian character. This didn’t, however, stop the casting of Soo Yong as the Chinese aunt who is married to white actor Walter Connolly in the film. Anna May Wong, originally suggested for O-Lan, was then offered the role of Lotus but turned it down because of the casting. She felt that being the only prominent character played by an actual Chinese actress was problematic considering that Lotus was the only non-sympathetic character.
The film is far more favorable towards the Chinese than the novel is. This is due in part to a decision to film at least some of the movie in China. The Chinese government refused to allow the filming unless changes were made to portray their people in a better light. Most of the actual footage shot in China was mysteriously lost when it was shipped back to the United States and ended up being reshot in California. Rumors exist that MGM released a different version of the film in China than what everyone else got, but those rumors are just that, rumors.
The film we have today is an intriguing one to watch, but it is not without problems. The casting is the biggest one, but as I mentioned above, it was par for the course in those days and still happens from time to time. The film is just too long, feeling bloated during the extended sequences when Wang takes the family south. There is no reason this film needs to be over two hours long. Some judicious trimming in the middle would have really helped with the pacing. O-Lan is also a weak character that we are supposed to sympathize with,but she never stands up for herself in a way that would get us on her side. She just lets life, and her husband, trample all over her, and after a while, I no longer cared.
The Good Earth should have been better than it ultimately is. It’s far from terrible, and there are some really good moments in it. O-Lan killing the oxen to feed the family is a powerful moment early on, and the swarm of locusts near the end is impressive to watch. But the overall feel of the film is off far too often, and Wang treats his wife so poorly, even though it is her time and time again who saves the family. By the time he realizes this, she has passed on, and it’s too little, too late. I wanted to like this one more than I ultimately did. It came so close to being a great film but just misses hitting that target.
Academy Award Nominations:
Outstanding Production: Irving Thalberg and Albert Lewin
Best Director: Sidney Franklin
Best Actress: Luise Rainer (won)
Best Cinematography: Karl Freund (won)
Best Film Editing: Basil Wrangell
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Release Date: January 29, 1937
Running Time: 138 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Paul Muni and Luise Rainer
Directed By: Sidney Franklin with Victor Fleming and Gustav Machaty uncredited
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