An interesting effort to follow the success of writer Pearl S Buck's The Good Earth (which won two Oscars when filmed in 1937). Two screenwriters, Marguerite Roberts and Jane Murfin, toiled mightily to compress another vast Buck novel about China into something under two and a half hours actual running time, but it still seems a bit unwieldy, even when controlled by two directors. Katharine Hepburn, emoting fiercely with eyelids taped down, is always worth watching, however, especially in the film's extraordinary final tableau. Walter Huston, Akim Tamiroff and particularly Agnes Moorehead also do good work.

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