 According to Peter Hays 1991 book "When the Lion Roars", when MGM  studio boss Louis B. Mayer (qv) learned of production chief  Irving Thalberg (qv)s desire to film Pearl S. Buck (qv)s novel  about Chinese peasants, he told him, "The public wont buy pictures  about American farmers, and you want to give them Chinese farmers?"  Opposed by Mayer, Thalberg had to appeal to Nicholas Schenck, the  chief executive of MGM parent Loews Theaters Inc. and President of  MGM, to make the film. Permission was given, but Thalberg never  lived to see the film completed. This is the only film that bears a  Thalberg producer credit.