Cimarron (1960)

Anthony Mann had become one of the major directors of westerns and fast-paced cinema. But such a belief is questioned by this over-acted, over-produced, badly written film. It is said that Mann left the film and was replaced by Charles Walters, who, obviously, was not a man for this kind of film. Even the large-scale land-rush scene is pure 'piffle'. The script is a mish mash of every cliche in the book. I do see the somewhat vague parallel to Ferber's later 'Giant', but the film of that book was a masterwork; this one is the bottom of the ladder. Glenn Ford is caught with every cliche. Wonderful Maria Schell is all 'smiles' and semi-smiles and poor! Perhaps the worst acting, and worst writing, is saved for Anne Baxter, looking and acting as if she was still being DeMille-d in 'The 10 Commandments'. Plot holes are everywhere, and logic is nowhere is sight. The opening song, under the credits, paves the way for awfulness that follows it for its interminable length. It can't really be attributed to Mann. Only MacMahon has a good moment, and not even McCambridge, O'Connell,Keith, Tamblyn, etc. can offer assistance.

Though the 1931 version of Edna Ferber's 1929 novel is not any good, yet we make allowances for it owing to the times in which the movie was made. It seems to be trying to say prejudice is bad, but makes its point with stereotypes of African Americans, Jews, and Native Americans, often set up to show how enlightened Yancey is and what a great guy he is for coming their rescue. Yancey is also supposed to be enlightened when it comes to women, hence his defense of Dixie Lee, but this is done at the expense of women like Sabra, making her out to be narrow minded. And so, we handicap the movie for when it was made, making allowances for both the style and content.But when watching the 1960 remake, we lose all patience. To take an extreme example for comparison, we are glad to have "Birth of a Nation" (1915) as a document revealing the racist attitudes of the times, and as such, we watch the movie with fascination. But that does not mean we want the movie remade today, even if we could do it better, so to speak, by making it with sound, in color, and in widescreen.Perhaps the land rush for the Unassigned Lands in Oklahoma in 1889 begged to be filmed in color and in Cinemascope, but that could have been depicted in an entirely different story. Placed within a remake of "Cimarron," however, it is simply wasted. Some of the misogyny is eliminated by simply eliminating Yancey's bigoted daughter and by eliminating the persecution and trial of Dixie Lee. The African American stereotype is avoided by eliminating the boy who sneaked away with Yancey and Sabra early in the 1931 movie. However, Sol Levy is still depicted as the stereotypical Jew who is a helpless victim, which allows Yancey to play the savior.In my review of the 1931 version, I said that Yancey Cravat is an irritating character played by a bad actor, Richard Dix. In this 1960 version, Yancey is played by a much better actor, Glenn Ford, but he is just as irritating as ever, if not more so. However, the 1960 version makes apologies for him by having Sabra tell him she never wants to see him again when he refuses to accept the appointment as governor, instead of simply having Yancey abandon her again the way he did in the 1931 version.The melodramatic death of Yancey in the oilfield is eliminated, with Yancey dying in the First World War instead. A more modestly sized statue of Yancey appears at the end of the 1960 version, though with Yancey still towering over the Native American he is helping up.

For all Glenn Ford Fans, this is a must see, his great horsemanship is legendary, playing a man living by his own code of ethics in a day when greed over land, oil, and money transformed the American West into a industrialized and mechanized part of this country. This is what killed the cowboy, the Indian, and the farmer towards the end of the 19th century. Glen Ford should have got the Oscar for his performance, as well as an Oscar for Maria Schell who played his wife. The portrayal of the Oklahoma Indians is subdued at best, every time it surfaced in the film it was pushed to the side and made sublime, like we should already know their plight...however the leading character Yancy, was a champion for their causes, education, land struggles, and civil rights...the screenplay just leaves that part hanging and sporadically tosses in small talk concerning the Indians leaving any understanding up to the viewers own research.... Being a movie over 90 minutes I understand why this was not covered, it would take a whole other film to cover it, and another time... another time

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!