This Earth Is Mine ** (1959, Rock Hudson, Jean Simmons, Claude Rains, Dorothy McGuire) – Classic Movie Review 10,911

‘I want you… no matter what the price or penalty!’

Claude Rains as Rock Hudson’s grandfather? That’s the kind of half-brained idea that propels director Henry King’s soapy 1959 Universal International Pictures Technicolor and CinemaScope movie This Earth Is Mine, a saga of Napa Valley California vintners during Prohibition.

Patriarch Philippe Rambeau (Rains) believes in the old values, but John Rambeau (Rock) just wants money and is ready to deal with bootleggers and supply Chicago gangsters with the valley’s wine. Enter John Rambeau’s illegitimate English first cousin Elizabeth Rambeau (Jean Simmons), who arrives in California in 1931 to visit her aunt and uncle, only to find her future determined with a pre-arranged marriage to Andre Swann (Francis Bethencourt). Instead, John Rambeau romances Elizabeth, though he has just made vineyard worker Buz Dietrick (Cynthia Chenault billed as Cindy Robbins) pregnant.

Violence, gunplay, wildfires, lies, blackmail, conflict and of course romance ensue.

It is a good cast, Rains especially holds the attention, though Hudson and Simmons are fine, and the movie looks pretty with all that Napa Valley California vineyards scenery in Technicolor and CinemaScope. But everybody has bitten off far more than they can chew of a lump of something that is not terribly appetising anyway. And, though there is plenty of plot and passion, it is long and draggy as it runs 124 minutes.

Casey Robinson’s screenplay is based on Alice Tisdale Hobart’s novel The Cup and the Sword.

Also in the cast are Dorothy McGuire as Martha Fairon, Kent Smith as Francis Fairon, Anna Lee as Charlotte Rambeau, Ken Scott as Luigi Griffanti, Augusta Merighi as Mrs. Griffanti, Francis Bethencourt as Andre Swann, Stacy Graham as Monica, Peter Chong as Chu, Geraldine Wall as Maria, Alberto Morin as Petucci, Penny Santon as Mrs Petucci, Jack Mather as Dietrich, Ben Astar as Yakowitz, Dan White as Judge Gruber, Lawrence Ung as the Chauffeur David, Robert Aiken (as Ford Dunhill) as Tim Rambeau.

This Earth Is Mine is directed by Henry King, runs 124 minutes or 95 minutes (cut), is made by Vintage Productions and Universal International Pictures, is released by Universal Pictures (1959) (US) and Rank Film Distributors (1959) (UK), is written by Casey Robinson, shot in CinemaScope by Winton C Hoch and Russell Metty, produced by Edward Muhl (executive producer), Casey Robinson and Claude Heilman, scored by Hugo Friedhofer and designed by George W Davis, Alexander Golitzen and Eric Orbom.

The song ‘This Earth Is Mine’ (music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Sammy Cahn) is sung behind credits by Don Cornell.

It was costly, at $3.5 million, and fared moderately with $3.4 million (estimated US and Canada cinema rentals).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,911

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