Cimarron (1960)

Simply A Masterpiece

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This film starts out strongly with the Oklahoma Land Rush. This film rendition of that event is visually stunning and manages to depict the hopes and the sorrows of pioneer life. The scene of hundreds of pioneers on wagons and horseback, and even walking, is one of the more impressive movie depictions of an historic event that I have ever seen.Then, as Glenn Ford and his wife (Maria Schell) settle down to run a newspaper, the focus of the film changes to another bold topic -- racial prejudice against Indians and Jews, both in the community and by the wife. Make no mistake, this is not simply a good White against bad Indian type of western film. This is about racism.In my view, this is one of Glenn Ford's better roles, and certainly one of the finest productions he was ever in. Although I had liked Glenn Ford a lot when I was younger, I had forgotten just how good an actor he was. Here he shines with the Metrocolor highlighting the scenery. Maria Schell, whom I do remember only slightly, is quite good as the wife. Anne Baxter's role as the scheming owner of a brothel...well, it almost seems as if her character is stuck out there with little to do, other than to facilitate the plot...probably not fleshed (pardon the pun) out that well. Arthur O'Connell is good and solid, as always. Most of the other character actors here play utilitarian roles.The film is longish -- 147 minutes, yet, for me, it didn't seem to lag at all. Not being familiar with the novel, the ending was a surprise.Recommended.

I did not see this when it was new. I remember thinking that it wasn't worth the effort then. It is less worth it now.Its device is its scope, both in time and size. There are not one but two land grabs. it spans 25 years and much attention is spent on the theatrics of the sets. It must have been a strange year for this to have done well. At least we can value it to the extent that its success for Columbia made the scope of Lawrence of Arabia possible for MGM.The story here is only there to support a celebration of settlers of Indian territories and to pull out a specific type which we are to admire as an ideal, an ideal American.He is a champion of justice and a man of action. His adherence to certain principles punishes him. He is a proponent of civil rights here coded as Indian rights. What's not to like?Well. He loves the adventure of the land. We get great vistas that anchor him in the place, a convention of Westerns since Ford. But he is not a man of the land, he is a city boy who likes adventure. That's this film's basic undoing of ideals.It's reflected in the parallel western convention of woman as place. This guy loves deeply but he just can't settle with a woman. We see two.When they meet, they talk of wives as mothers, companions and lovers. We are to admire that he does not need the first, is companion to nearly everyone and is deep in his love.The narrative power of this idea by itself would be weak in any package. It is even worse here because of the inept direction. We see this more sharply now because of the obsolete acting and staging styles.Ann Baxter is a pretty prostitute whose story of self is close to our hero. Though she has less screen time than the immigrant wife, we are to see her as genuine. It's really about her as the land, as the place, and why it isn't the blond wife.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

There is no mistaking the fact that Cimarron is an epic of a movie. Lots of big scenes and scenery, from land rush scenes to a New Years Eve ball. This certainly was not a cheaply made film. The story is about a man and woman who start out making their way in the new frontier and end up with distance between them because they look at things differently. It's not a bad movie by any stretch, and perhaps it is one of those movies that you really appreciate more after you've seen it and given it some time to sink in. Glenn Ford is a favorite of mine and all the other roles are well-played by the rest of the cast. While the story takes place in the Old West it's not so much a Western as a family drama that took place back then. (Don't worry, there are some fights and gun scenes, but that is not the focus of the story.) I hope it doesn't sound sexist but I can tell when something was written by a woman, as I understand was the case for the book on which this movie is based. Maybe that's why there was less violence than might otherwise have been. Hey, I like a good violent western, okay? Russ Tamblyn was a standout in a rather minor role, playing the son of a friend of Glenn Ford's. On his own from an early age he's drifting into trouble and rebuffs Ford's attempts to help him make something of himself. I thought it was one of the better roles I've seen him play - he made a very convincing young 'whiskey bellied saddle tramp' as Ford called him.I'll give this movie a six simply because the story warmed up but never got up to operating temperature, at least not for me. And hey, I want one of those hats like Glenn Ford wore back from being with the Rough Riders!

I've always liked the 1960 remake of the RKO classic Cimarron and have never understood why it gets panned by so many people the way it does. Director Anthony Mann who got fired towards the end of the film's production did a very good job with both the cast and the spectacle. The Oklahoma land rush scene was as thrillingly done as it was in the 1931 version.In fact truth be told, Glenn Ford did a better job as frontier renaissance man Yancey Cravat. Richard Dix though nominated for Best Actor in 1931 never did quite master the art of sound film and his star progressively sank lower and lower in Hollywood. Glenn is a strong heroic figure cursed with the fatal flaw of wanderlust.Truth also be told is that many different accents made up the western pioneer population. Maria Schell's German accent is most assuredly not out of place here and she holds her own with Irene Dunne's portrayal of Sabra Cravat.All the characters present in Edna Ferber's saga of the transforming of Oklahoma from territory to state made it from the first film. All of them meet during the Oklahoma land rush and while Glenn and Maria are the leads, the story of the film is what happens to all of them.One character is expanded considerably from the 1931 film. Edna May Oliver was Mrs. Wyatt who was a pioneer woman whose husband we never did meet. Here Mrs. Wyatt is played by Mercedes McCambridge who is married to Arthur O'Connell who is very important to the story. They're this hardscrabble share cropper family who get a real scrubby piece of land at the beginning of the land rush, mainly because O'Connell falls off the stagecoach right at the beginning of the land rush and Mercedes runs across the starting line and she claims the land right at the line.It turns out the land has oil and these people become the proverbial beggars on horseback. McCambridge remains unchanged by their sudden wealth, O'Connell is very much like that other nouveau rich oil millionaire that Edna Ferber created, Jett Rink. From people who the Cravats lent a hand to back in the day, O'Connell at least becomes an opponent.One character that was eliminated thank the Deity was the black kid Isiaih who hero worshiped Richard Dix in the 1931 version. In 1960 that kind of racial stereotype would not have been tolerated.The cast includes also such fine people as Anne Baxter, Edgar Buchanan, Russ Tamblyn, Vic Morrow, Aline McMahon, Robert Keith, Charles McGraw, all ably filling out parts from the original version. The land rush scene is every bit as good as the first time around.I'm at a loss as to why this film was panned the way it was. It's a very good western and fans of the genre will appreciate it.