Cimarron

1960 "The Story Of A Man, A Land and A Love!"
6.4| 2h27m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 01 December 1960 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

The epic story of a family involved in the Oklahoma Land Rush of April 22, 1889.

Genre

Western

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Director

Anthony Mann

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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Cimarron Audience Reviews

SunnyHello Nice effects though.
Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
JohnHowardReid The logistics of "Cimarron" are exciting enough. At the time, it ranked second only to "Ben Hur" for the highest number of speaking roles, 368, in M-G-M's history. Its locations in south-eastern Arizona also involved the largest movement of M-G-M equipment and personnel ever undertaken in the United States.Unfortunately, impressive statistics do not in themselves a gripping picture make. This film certainly scores in production values, but falls down badly in entertainment.True, the action scenes are bravely and handsomely staged. But the film is not content merely to reproduce and perhaps go one better than the similar showdowns in the original "Cimarron:. It has attempted to refurbish the basic story in overblown detail. But the story itself was slight to begin with. And, let's face it, its two main characters are not all that colorful. Both Yancey and Sabra are little more than stereotypes. Despite his best efforts, Mr. Ford's charm wears pretty thin over 2¼ hours. As for Miss Schell, she is a long-suffering bore. Surprisingly, the original itself ran 131 minutes. But pacy playing and vigorous direction made short work of it all. In this remake on the other hand, thanks to overwritten dialogue, over-emotive acting from Miss Schell and lethargic direction in its domestic scenes, 136 minutes becomes very tedious sledding indeed.
Spikeopath Cimarron is mostly directed by Anthony Mann and written by Arnold Schulman. It's based on the Edna Ferber novel of the same name and was previously made into a film in 1931. It stars Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, Anne Baxter, Harry Morgan, Russ Tamblyn, Mercedes McCambridge and Lili Darvas. Franz Waxman scores the music and Robert Surtees is the cinematographer. It's a CinemaScope production, filmed in Metrocolor and exterior locations were shot in Arizona.--At high noon April 22, 1889, a section of the last unsettled territories in America was to be given free to the first people who claimed it. They came from the North, they came from the South and they came from across the sea. In just one day an entire territory would be settled. A new state would be born.They called it Oklahoma--With changes from both the novel and the 1931 film, Cimarron 1960 was a big budgeted production. With a huge cast and a running time to match, it was expected to be an epic winner for MGM. It wasn't. For although it has undoubted qualities to please the keen Western fan, it has just too much flab on its belly to let it run free. On the plus side is Surtess location photography and Anthony Mann's ability to stir the blood by way of his action know how. The highlight of the film, and certainly a Western fan's must see sequence, is that of the actual "land-rush" that forms the narrative starting point of the film. A stunning collection of crashes, bangs, death and heartbreak are put together by Mann and the heroes that form the stunt team. Sadly the bar is raised so high so early in the film, it's all down hill from there for expectation and actuality. With the last third of the film laborious in the extreme as an ill equipped Maria Schell attempts to carry the dialogue driven heavy load.The story is a good one, and Schulman's adaptation doesn't want for trying to reach epic horse opera status. But it's just not a fully formed whole, it comes out as a small group of fine scenes slotted into a gargantuan story of no real distinction. How else can you react to having sat thru two hours of film, to get to the big historical oil strike, to find the film petering out into a series of uninteresting conversations? Much of the problem can maybe be put down to problems off screen? Mann was fired towards the end of production, to be replaced by Charles Walters (High Society), while producer Edmund Grainger himself added scenes in an attempt to clarify the relationship between Yancey (Ford) and Sabra Cravat (Schell). The latter of which was without Mann knowing. This probably accounts for why the final third is so dull. The cast are mostly safe, with Charles McGraw and Aline MacMahon standing out in support slots, the latter of which excels during a graveside scene. But Tamblyn is hopelessly miscast and McCambridge and Baxter are, for different reasons, underused. Waxman scores it as more reflective than sweeping, tho the accompaniment for the "land-rush" sequence is boisterous and uplifting, while hats off to the nice costuming by Walter Plunkett; where Baxter, and us the viewers, benefit greatly.The great scenes make it a film for Western fans to seek out. But in the context of two of the genre's heroes in Ford and Mann, it's one to easily forget about. 5.5/10
rpvanderlinden "Cimarron" is the saga of a couple who head West for the great Oklahoma land grab and the life they carve for themselves after failing to get the piece of property they wanted (it's been snapped up by the husband's ex-girlfriend, a hooker named Dixie). More specifically the movie deals with the husband's wanderlust and penchant for taking up lost causes, which doesn't sit well with the wife, who desires security and respectability. They fight a lot and make up, and it gets tiresome after awhile. The couple is played by Glenn Ford and Maria Schell. Ford plays a man who deals with things, and one wonders how this couple ever got together in the first place. Dixie is played by Anne Baxter, but her presence in the film barely registers.There's a scene where the wife confronts Dixie in her "social parlour" (Dixie has sold the coveted land in order to pursue her former career choice, and hubby's been off adventuring for five years, and there's been no mail). After more histrionics and a torrent of tears, in a scene without much purpose, the two gals see eye to eye. One knows this because, as she exits the "social parlour", the wife is dissed by two respectable ladies, which prompts her to wiggle her you-know-what so violently I feared she'd get whiplash.This train wreck lurches ever onward in fits and starts. Characters come and go, and none of them gets the screen time to establish a real presence in the story. Sub-plots are snuffed out when characters simply fail to show up again. Even the protagonist/hero (Ford) goes MIA for a huge stretch, which finally derails the film. It feels as if a lot of scenes were cut out, making me wonder if this film was initially longer - and better - and the studio hired someone with a scythe to "trim" it. I like director Anthony Mann's more modest 50's westerns very much, but the mega-budget "Cimarron" seems to be the one that got (taken) away from him.
FightingWesterner I've seen movies that were so-so, left me feeling indifferent, or were completely boring. This one was maddeningly unsatisfying, as the first half was so good, bringing tears to my eyes, while the second half was absolutely awful.After an excellent start, including an incredible, well staged recreation of the Oklahoma land rush and a vivid account of life in a growing frontier community, Cimarron bogs down and never recovers.Glenn Ford is fantastic and likable as an extroverted dreamer, who despite many disappointments, tries to have a positive affect on the people around him, making for a very poignant hour or so, until it becomes way too apparent that the town portrayed in the movie is absolutely loaded with unpleasant characters and no matter what Ford does, his efforts always lead to terrible and unsatisfying conclusions, with no one in the film ever achieving true happiness or triumphing in any way!This eventually turns into a lame, schmaltzy soap-opera that meanders and becomes quite tedious, with Maria Schell as Ford's wife, becoming increasingly shrill, while Ford begins to drift in and out of the picture, finally disappearing for good.Instead, watch How The West Was Won, another multi-generational salute to the old west, that actually has a little triumph to go along with the tragedy or even the 1931 version of Cimmaron, which isn't that great, but is still preferable to this.