This Earth Is Mine

Soap operatic romantic tosh of an unusually high order thanks mainly to the superlative direction of Henry King working, as he so often did, with sub-standard material. The setting is the California vineyards, the period Prohibition and this film, based on a novel by Alice Tisdale Hobart, is clearly a forerunner of such television series as "Dallas" and "Dynasty" with Claude Rains as the ruler of this empire, Dorothy McGuire, his ambitious daughter and Rock Hudson and Jean Simmons his grand-children who are in love with each other, (don't ask!).

It's the kind of film that attracted star players and did the business back in the late fifties with quality usually taking a backseat to quantity but King was something of a master at this sort of thing imbuing the ridiculous plot with a seriousness it didn't warrant. Rains and McGuire and, to a lesser extent, Simmons take the acting credits while Hudson just seems to be having a good time in the sure and certain knowledge he won't be winning any Oscars if he keeps making movies like this. No classic, then, but a very sturdy entertainment nevertheless.

The story of This Earth Is Mine is very interesting, and it marks a new topic not yet seen in films as of 1959: wine. While Sideways has brought a new love of wine to modern audiences, back in 1959, moviegoers didn't know their way around wineries. It must have been extremely exciting and educational to see the inside of real wineries: casks, caves, tasting rooms, etc. Filmed on location, this movie brought an up close view of Napa to the rest of the country. Beringer, Stags' Leap, Paul Masson, Beaulieu, Mayacamas, Inglenook, Schramsberg, and eight other Napa Valley wineries let Hollywood add authenticity to this movie.

Claude Rains plays the patriarch owner of a Napa vineyard. I love seeing Claude in such a meaty role nearly thirty years after The Invisible Man. When he talks about his love for the land and the history in the soil, it brings tears to his eyes (and to ours). His daughter Dorothy McGuire (with an excellent, completely believable performance) is devoted to his care and to working the land, especially because her childless marriage to Kent Smith is fraught with problems. Kent has an illegitimate son with the invalid Anna Lee: Rock Hudson. And when the long-lost granddaughter Jean Simmons moves to Napa, she might go against her better judgment and fall for the rebellious Rock.

Doesn't that sound interesting? And that's just the beginning. This is one gigantic soap opera with double-crosses, deceit, forbidden love, secrets, passion, and violence. Set during Prohibition, it's fascinating to see what a family winery handles their situation. I look at it as a story of loyalty, sometimes tested, broken, and kept. If you like sweeping sagas, you've got to check this one out. 1959 was a contentious year, and the Members of the Board here at Hot Toasty Rag reluctantly didn't include This Earth Is Mine with a Best Picture nomination. It really is a wonderful movie, though, and if there were less competition, it certainly would have been honored.

This is a most attractive movie featuring a stunning cast.It has a haunting quality that left me thinking and wanting to view it again.Jean Simmons and Dorothy McGuire play their parts with absolute conviction and both ladies look lovely too.Claude Rains is superb and Rock Hudson gives a star performance in a challenging role.I love so many films made at Universal in the late 50's and early 60's;nice photography,costumes,make-up,hair etc. David Allen (New Zealand)

The patriarch of a winemaking dynasty in 1931 Napa Valley welcomes his pretty young granddaughter from England--she thinks she's there for a visit, but her grandfather is plotting to marry her off to a cousin in order to absorb vineyard holdings and keep the winery in the family for future generations. Meanwhile, another cousin has an eye for the girl, though he's in the middle of a devil's bargain between Chicago gangsters and bootleggers ("modern dealings") due to the current Prohibition, all behind the old man's back. Wooden adaptation of Alice Tisdale Hobart's novel "The Cup and the Sword" is an exposition-heavy soaper full of hotheads spouting off, and Rock Hudson explaining everything to Jean Simmons (and to the audience) to keep her up to speed on the cast of characters, their functions and relationships to each other. If this story were to work at all, Hobart's book should have been thrown out or rethought altogether. There are too many people here with different agendas, too much conniving and manipulation, and melodrama as thick as a wine vat full of rotting grapes. Casey Robinson is responsible for the pedantic screenplay, which isn't much better than director Henry King's execrable staging (check out that welcoming dinner for Simmons, with everyone at one long table facing a swimming pool). The film, which gets off to a poor start with an awful theme song composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, has been produced with considerable polish, and it certainly benefits from Claude Rains' performance as grandfather Phillipe. Otherwise, overwrought and occasionally laughable. *1/2 from ****

This is not available on video, as far as I can determine, and if it does eventually become available, be sure that the CinemaScope ratio is reproduced. Winton Hoch and Universal-International's master of the color cameras, Russell Metty, did some fine location work on this one, having been granted access to over a dozen properties in northern California's world-famed Wine Country. Their work made the use of Technicolor and CinemaScope more than worthwhile.

The story is a bit pulpy but it's not that badly spun out and, surrounding Mr. Hudson, U.-I.'s all-time box-office draw, there are some fine actors, including Dorothy McGuire, the always regal Claude Rains (playing an autocratic patriarch), and the lovely Jean Simmons, fresh from a number of above-the-title roles in Twentieth-Century Fox CinemaScope costumers. Hugo Friedhofer underscores the plot's halting progress with his usual taste and finesse. I'd forgotten he had written this score (I did see it first-run.) until a broadcast some time ago on American Movie Classics (failing, once more, to "letterbox" it. Wish I could sue them. One thing is for sure...I make a point to avoid purchasing anything offered by the advertisers who now clutter up their broadcasts ad nauseum.) Friedhofer's contribution lifts this film into the Class "A" category, something that cannot be said of many U.-I. releases during the Fifties.

When this film was about to be released a friend and I, up from southern California for a brief vacation in San Francisco, suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a stop on a press junket for this film. There, just a few feet away from where we stood, was Mr. Hudson towering over the diminutive Miss Simmons. I recall the patience they exhibited as they posed for numerous pictures, while answering reporters' questions. If there was any security around for the stars' protection, we weren't aware of it...a far cry from what we might observe in these paranoid times.