Best Actress: Luise Rainer II
I'm cranky that I had to rewatch this one.
Does The Good Earth have any fans? I'm curious.
If Luise won the Oscar the previous year for a telephone call, what got her this Oscar? Starring in that year's epic? Playing an offensive caricature of a Chinese woman, all the while her eyelids are taped back?
The intentions were there to make The Good Earth with an Asian cast, but in the end, all the Asian actors are playing supporting roles while all the major roles are played by white actors in yellowface. And the reason? According to Irving Thalberg, who died in the midst of production and received a dedication in the film's credits, audiences weren't ready to support a movie starring an entirely Asian cast.
Nevermind that there were successful Asian actors out there and myriads waiting to be discovered that could have used this film as a springboard into Hollywood. Nevermind that The Good Earth novel was a bestseller that won the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize and has never been out of print since its initial publication.
Nope, we 'needed' to see Paul Muni and Luise Rainer as Wang and O-Lan. Luise would win her second Oscar for 'carrying' the film with her grounded, emotional acting. Still offensive.
And if the crop of actresses Luise was nominated against the previous year was stacked, consider who she was nominated against this time: Irene Dunne again (The Awful Truth), Greta Garbo (Camille), Janet Gaynor (A Star is Born) and Barbara Stanwyck (Stella Dallas).
I've seen all the nominated performances for this year and you mean to tell me that voters chose Luise over any one of these other actresses? Performances that are studied and lauded and critically acclaimed 88 years later? Honestly, write their four names on pieces of paper, tape them to a dartboard, throw a dart at it and give the Oscar to whoever you hit. I'm not really a Barbara Stanwyck fan (don't come for me, I just can't connect!) but I'd give it to her for Stella Dallas in a heartbeat.
Miss me.
DID I LIKE THE GOOD EARTH? That's a hearty, emphatic No. Is there anyone out there that likes this movie? I'm not sure if they should even get a pat on the back for making it; it's not made with Asian stars, it was offensive then and it's offensive now, and it's hard to separate Luise from it. She, and the rest of the white cast, contribute so much to what makes this movie awful.
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Did you like The Good Earth? What are your thoughts on Luise Rainer's second and final Oscar win?
Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here.
To answer your question as to does anyone even like this film, my grandmother does. I recall her saying it competed with Rebecca and The Adventures of Robin Hood as her favorite movie. I have little clue why. It's stately Oscarbait and the yellowface is just ghastly. About the only thing I recall finding impressive was the locust sequence.
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame Anna May Wong was not cast. She lobbied hard for the part and was a fine dramatic actress.