Cimarron (1960 film)

Cimarron
Directed by	Anthony Mann
Produced by	Edmund Grainger
Written by	Arnold Schulman
Starring	Glenn Ford Maria Schell Anne Baxter Harry Morgan
Music by	Franz Waxman
Cinematography	Robert Surtees
Editing by	John D. Dunning
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	December 1960 (1960-12)
Running time	147 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	approx. $20M (US)

Cimarron is a 1960 western film based on the Edna Ferber novel Cimarron, featuring Glenn Ford and Maria Schell. It was directed by Anthony Mann, known for his westerns and film noirs.

Ferber's novel was previously adapted in 1931; that version won three Academy Awards.

Cimarron was the first of three epics (the others being El Cid and The Fall of the Roman Empire) Mann directed. Despite high production costs and an experienced cast of western veterans, stage actors, and future stars, the film was released with little fanfare.^{[citation needed]}

Background

The 1950s brought renewed interest in Edna Ferber's works. Show Boat, which had already been filmed in 1929 and 1936, was adapted in a highly successful film in 1951. So Big, which had previously been filmed in 1932, and Giant followed in 1953 and 1956, respectively. In 1960, MGM and Warner Bros. competed to film Ferber novels, Warner producing Ice Palace from a later novel, and MGM remaking Cimarron. These marked the end of the Ferber adaptations, at least until 2008.

The remake of Cimarron saw many changes from both the novel and especially the 1931 film of the same name. With the Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum, the script, written by Arnold Schulman, took a kinder approach to Native Americans. Schulman gave the people more dignity and recognized that they were losing land that was rightfully theirs through the 1893 land rush that was the film's centerpiece. He also introduced several minor characters, such as journalist Sam Pegler (Robert Keith) and Wes Jennings (Vic Morrow), a prominent member of the Cherokee Kid's (Russ Tamblyn) gang.

In Anne Baxter's memoir, Intermission,^[1] it was implied Ford and Schell were very close during filming but had fallen out by the time of the Oklahoma premiere in late 1960, for "ugly private reasons", and were not on speaking terms.

Reception

In 1961 the film was nominated for Best Art Direction (George W. Davis, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Hugh Hunt, and Otto Siegel) and Best Sound (Franklin Milton),^[2][3] but failed to win either. While the 1931 adaptation is arguably the better and more successful of the two, the 1960 remake receives more attention and is still broadcast on television.

Cast

• Glenn Ford as Yancey Cravat
• Maria Schell as Sabra Cravat
• Anne Baxter as Dixie Lee
• Harry Morgan as Jessie Rickey
• Russ Tamblyn as The Cherokee Kid
• Lili Darvas as Felicia Venable
• Arthur O'Connell as Tom Wyatt
• Mercedes McCambridge as Mrs. Sarah Wyatt
• Vic Morrow as Wes Jennings
• Robert Keith as Sam Pegler
• Aline MacMahon as Mrs. Pegler
• Charles McGraw as Bob Yountis
• David Opatoshu as Sol Levy
• Edgar Buchanan as Judge Neal Hefner
• Mary Wickes as Mrs. Neal Hefner

References

1. ^ Anne Baxter (1976) (Hardback). Intermission: A True Tale. G.P.Putnam's Sons, New York. p. 196. ISBN 0399115773. 
2. ^ "The 33rd Academy Awards (1961) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/33rd-winners.html. Retrieved 2011-08-22. 
3. ^ "NY Times: Cimarron". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/87266/Cimarron/details. Retrieved 2008-12-24. 

External links

• Cimarron at the Internet Movie Database
• Cimarron at AllRovi