Give Us the Earth!

People must help the land produce crops, according to the agriculturalist at the center of this documentary about helping Mexican farmers make the best use of the land and farming techniques.

"You're poor because the land is poor," he tells the people that he and his wife are helping to plough the land.

The whole idea of the documentary is to demonstrate the "good neighbor policy" that was dramatized many times during the '40s between the United States and Mexico. This is amply demonstrated in the course of the documentary which shows the husband and wife team extending a hand to neighbors who want to learn the new techniques so they can grow beans and other produce to feed their families.

Summing up: Not dumb, as someone else suggested in his review, but an uplifting look at neighbors helping neighbors in rural farm areas that needed assistance to work the land.

United Nations names Dr. Spencer Hatch as special advisor to the food and agricultural conference. The news reaches Hatch by pigeon. Some may blame backwards people, but he sees it as backwards land where nutrients have been striped from the soil. He starts farming with his new plants and new methods. He entices his neighbors to institute better processes.

This is a "Theatre of Life" short. The narration does get a bit too much. It's an old white guy lecturing everybody. Some of it feels condescending. The doctor is sincere, but this presentation is not doing him any favors. On the plus side, this may have inspired some people to do charity work around the world. Their hearts are in the right place.

This old documentary was made to help poor farmers with no formal education make a better life for themselves.

Spencer Hatch narrates and plays himself as a YMCA advisor helping some Mexican peons get better crops off their land by rotating crops and using contour plowing.

It's one of the THEATER OF LIFE shorts directed by Gunther von Fritsch, and like most of the, it's shot wild with a narration that tells you what's going on. Carlos Carbajal is in charge of the camera, although von Fritsch seems to have shot a few scenes; it's a handsome effort and well deserves its Oscar nomination.

The producers probably meant well, and the American couple involved gave a lot of their resources and time to help the community improve their lot. As someone pointed out, the Mexicans gave North America a lot of our ground fruits as well as Cacao.