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The Good Earth Overview:

The Good Earth (1937) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by Sidney Franklin, Victor Fleming (uncredited), Gustav Machatý (uncredited) and Sam Wood (uncredited) and produced by Irving Thalberg and Albert Lewin.

SYNOPSIS

Excellent, painstaking adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's 1931 tome about a Chinese peasant family whose rise to wealth nearly destroys them, save for the saintly O'Lan. The special effects and the cinematography are wonderful, and Rainer won the second of her consecutive Oscars for Best Actress. This was Thalberg's last production and is dedicated to his memory.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Academy Awards 1937 --- Ceremony Number 10 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActressLuise RainerWon
Best CinematographyKarl FreundWon
Best DirectorSidney FranklinNominated
Best Film EditingBasil WrangellNominated
Best PictureMetro-Goldwyn-MayerNominated
See More Oscar Winners

The Good Earth BlogHub Articles:

The Good Earth (1937, Sidney Franklin)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 1, 2019 From The Stop Button

For maybe the first ninety minutes of The Good Earth, it seems like the most interesting thing to talk about is going to be how the filmmakers were able to make the lead characters in the film appear sympathetic while they were being, frankly, un-American. It makes sense, since the main characters a... Read full article

The Good Earth (1937, Sidney Franklin)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 1, 2019 From The Stop Button

For maybe the first ninety minutes of The Good Earth, it seems like the most interesting thing to talk about is going to be how the filmmakers were able to make the lead characters in the film appear sympathetic while they were being, frankly, un-American. It makes sense, since the main characters a... Read full article

The Good Earth (1937, Sidney Franklin)

on Apr 1, 2019 From The Stop Button

For maybe the first ninety minutes of The Good Earth, it seems like the most interesting thing to talk about is going to be how the filmmakers were able to make the lead characters in the film appear sympathetic while they were being, frankly, un-American. It makes sense, since the main characters a... Read full article

The Good Earth (1937, Sidney Franklin)

on Apr 1, 2019 From The Stop Button

For maybe the first ninety minutes of The Good Earth, it seems like the most interesting thing to talk about is going to be how the filmmakers were able to make the lead characters in the film appear sympathetic while they were being, frankly, un-American. It makes sense, since the main characters a... Read full article

The Good Earth (1937) (2)

By Beatrice on Sep 23, 2013 From Flickers in Time

The Good Earth Directed by Sidney Franklin Written by Talbot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Claudine West based upon the novel by Pearl S. Buck 1937/USA Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Repeat viewing Unidentified laborer: I don’t know but it has something to do with food. Something about MGM’s worthy... Read full article

See More The Good Earth Articles

The Good Earth Quotes:

No Quote for this film.
The Good Earth Facts
Chinese-born Anna May Wong desperately wanted the role of O-Lan. Being a close friend of author Pearl S. Buck helped. She tested for the role, but producer Irving Thalberg was unsatisfied. Also, since Paul Muni, a Caucasian actor, had already been cast in the lead, Thalberg knew he couldn't cast Wong as Muni's wife. The Hays Code prohibited actors of different races from playing husband/wife couples on film. (This was to avoid offending white audiences in the segregated American South, where there were laws against mixed-race marriages.) Thalberg offered her the "vamp" role of Lotus, but a distraught Anna May turned it down.
James Stewart, who worked as a contract player at MGM in the 1930s, tested for, and almost got, the part of Wang Lung.
Irving Thalberg envisioned casting only Chinese actors for the movie, but gave up the idea because there were not enough suitable Chinese actors.
The play by Owen Davis and Donald Davis, based on Pearl S. Buck's novel, opened in New York on 18 October 1933 at the Guild Theater with Claude Rains and Alla Nazimova in the lead roles and ran for 56 performances.
The first time that Irving Thalberg's name appeared onscreen. The movie - the last one he produced - was dedicated to him "as his last great achievement."
See More Facts about The Good Earth >>