the good earth is a 1931 award winning classic novel by pearl s. buck. the novel suffered a poor adaptation by others to the broadway stage and only ran 54 performances and closed. with better fortune the novel was brought to the big screen by mgm in 1937 and was much better received. the movie program features the characters, scenes from the movie, background about the author. the movie starred luise rainer and paul muni. the program has been affixed to brown construction paper and is therefore been downgraded.