The Good Earth
Starring: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly
Director: Sidney Franklin
The film: 'Foreign film productions with Chinese settings and characters are to us in China, with close knowledge of the Chinese, nearly always lacking in accuracy, and an occidental portrayal of an Oriental nearly always fails to convince. That is where The Good Earth is different.'
So said The China Mail a day after the film's Hong Kong premiere on November 18, 1937. Three years in the making, this adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about rural life in China was originally intended to feature Chinese actors throughout.
In fact this was stipulated in a list of conditions issued by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs when it gave the go-ahead for filming and distribution on the mainland, but eventually - and with official approval - the leading roles all went to western actors.