MAJESTIC THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 246, 16 October 1937, Page 11

MAJESTIC THEATRE

“THE GOOD EARTH” “From a handful of dust came man.” From “the good earth” has come a drama of man, his devotion to the soil, his love, his covetousness, his courage, and his selfishness, but, above all, his dependence upon the soil of the fields for that breath of life that stays him from return to soil. On the famines and pestilences of China, Pearl Buck drew a very human drama, “The Good Earth,” from which stands out ihe magnificent character of the self-effacing, devote . O-Lan, wife of the farmer Wang. O-Lan becomes flesh and blood—just a hand. e f dust; but with a spirit divine.., mspired, in the M.G.M. film, "The Good Earth,” which commences screening to-day at the Majestic Theatre. The lilm is one which should be seen, not only because of the excellent photography and the dramatic qualities of the famine and locust scenes, but because of the lesson told in the magnificent acting of Luise Rainer. Paul Muni, as Wang, the farmer, portrays excellently the varying reactions of man to extreme poverty and wealth—the human fallibility of man as contrasted with the rocklike constancy of his humble wife. Walter Connolly, Tilly Losh, Charles. Grape win and Jessie Ralph also play prominent parts, and there are man> hundreds of Chinese in the cast. The story tells of the marriage of Wang to the slave girl O-Lan, the rise of Wang to be owner of live fields, the desperate struggle in the famine, the retreat southward and revolution. Wang and his family return to the land. Prosperity again returns, but brings with it a second wife for Wang. The clouds of locusts sweep down on the unprotected fields, but the gods are kind. There is an excellent supporting programme.