As the Earth Turns

Not exciting, not engrossing, but still interesting for its clear-cut characters involved in daily life.

That life is being lived, or at least survived, in the frozen wastes of Maine ... and in fact the very first scene is snowy wintertime, with a temperature of 12 below zero.

To those of us used to sunnier climes, perhaps it is a puzzle just why anyone would want to be in any place that suffered through those kinds of winters; and that anyone could enjoy such winters is, honestly, beyond me, and I spent some three winters in North (brrrrr) Dakota.

Even more puzzling to us erstwhile desert-dwellers is that anyone could actually FARM such an environment.

In truth, though, that is part of what makes this movie as interesting as it is.

There really is a ring of truth: So many of the people do not, in fact, want to be farmers in snowy Maine, and that is the basis of some of the conflict that makes up this drama.

Most of the players are almost unknown today, although IMDb listing shows Shirley Temple in an unbilled bit. I didn't see her, but I'll look harder next time.

Despite their lack of fame, they show acting ability, and are nearly all thoroughly believable in this worthwhile film.

Last I heard, "As the Earth Turns" is available on YouTube, but for some reason in two parts and you will have to search for both. I hope you do.

The title is a farming joke! This is the story of an immigrant family, trying to make a go of it in Maine. But it never really gets going... we see the ups and downs of farm life. Sons that go off to get educated and may or may not come back to the family home. Barns burning down. Hard work and sadness. This one never picked up steam... just kind of slowly moves along. Right at the very end, finally some emotions and magic. And that's the end. Should have started with that much earlier. Yawn. Directed by Al Green. Low budget thing for Warner Brothers. Green also made Copacabana (Groucho) and Dangerous (B. Davis).

In rural Maine, the Shaw family has their struggles as they farm the land. There are familial issues abound. Jen Shaw (Jean Muir) takes care of the family while younger sister Doris will do anything to leave for the big city. They are surprised by the arrival of new neighbors, the Polish immigrant family Jankowskis, in the dead of winter. It's a struggle for them. Their musical eldest son Stan (Donald Woods) falls for Jen.

In other times, this would be a family daytime soap like Little House on the Prairie. I don't know if it works as a romantic drama. I do like it when the romance eventually gets somewhere. The most dramatic scene may be shooting the cow. There is also an air of artificiality as the interior stage serves as the fake farm land. It feels like a stage play. The limitations do give this a sense of isolation. This is old-timey and rather plain especially for modern tastes.

There is nothing much new in this story of poor farmers in Maine: their trials and tribulations, their hopes and dreams and the Polish family that bought the abandoned farm down the road. However, the performances are excellent. Jean Muir is luminous as the hard-working drudge who wants something more without quite understanding what, William Janney is her brother who is working his way through college and Donald Woods is as good in his miscast role as he can be: he is supposed to be Polish and a violinist, but his faking is as mismatched to the music as can be. Good thing that what he really wants to be is a farmer! But despite the excellence of the acting,it's largely repetitious of characters again and again: the kids are tired of the hard work, the father is understanding, the mother is shrill and grasping and so forth. After a while, it's a little too much.

Fans of star watching should keep a sharp eye out: Shirley Temple is listed on the IMDb as having her last uncredited role in this, the same year she became the biggest star at Fox. Interestingly, I was unable to spot her, nor is she listed in the AFI Catalogue as appearing here. If you do see her here, please let me know where.

Despite AS THE EARTH TURNS being a pretty dull little film, I am actually glad the studio decided to make it. That's because although the subject matter is tough to make exciting, it's a nice historical portrait of a way of life that has long since disappeared. AS THE EARTH TURNS is the story about some farmers who had extremely hard lives, as they lived in the very inhospitable center of Maine. Filled with snow and very low temperatures, the film did a great job showing just how tough life was for these people as well as how incredibly boring life could be for these farmers--with the nearest "town" many miles away and nothing much to do to keep yourself from going stir-crazy during the long, hard winters.

As for the technical merits of the film, it's decent, though there are absolutely no stars in this Warner Brothers film. This isn't a bad thing, as stars would have distracted from the message. Overall, the beginning of the film was exceptional but the rest of it awfully episodic and tedious. Watchable and mildly interesting to the right audience.