The classic Buck novel gets the epic Hollywood treatment. It features beautiful cinematography and includes an impressive scene of a locust invasion. However, the film is too melodramatic and the acting is hammy. The characters are not well developed and it turns into a soap opera and goes on much too long. Muni, certainly a capable actor when given a role suited to his talents, seems miscast here, looking silly in Chinese makeup. Rainer, looking like Meryl Streep in "Sophie's Choice," plays Muni's wife as pathetic and depressed, almost shell-shocked, a one-note performance that won her a second consecutive Best Actress Oscar before she faded to obscurity.
Review of The Good Earth
