The Good Earth, 1937 (Grade C+)

Director: Sidney Franklin, Victor Fleming, Gustav Machatv
Awards?  Yes-- Academy Awards for Best Actress and Best Cinematography --plus other nominations
Cast: Paul Muni; Luis Rainer; Walter Connolly; Tilly Losch; Charley Grapewin; Jessie Ralph; Soo Yong; Keye Luke; Roland Lui; Suzanna Kim

sez says: surprisingly well done for its time--and for the topic at the time it was done. An epic of a farmer who suffers but eventually grows wealth and is lured away from the land by the finery available to the rich.  He finds his way back to what really maters in the end-- his land, his wife, his sons, his community. It is a long film--and it does drag in a few places, but it is an epic--and it needs the time to tell the tale. It is a little awkward to see Anglos made-up as Asians -- sort of like white folks in black-face.  But it was 1937--and that the story was made into a movie featuring Chinese people was probably a step forward.  I enjoyed seeing this --but I wouldn't put it on my 'to see again' list. Grade C+