Cimarron
1960  NR  WESTERN  2h 27min
CAST— Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, Anne Baxter, Arthur O’Connell, Russ Tamblyn, Mercedes McCambridge, Vic Morrow, Charles McGraw, Henry (Harry) Morgan, Edgar Buchanan, Robert Keith, Aline MacMahon, David Opatoshu, Mary Wickes
MUSIC— Franz Waxman  DIRECTOR— Anthony Mann  BASED ON— Cimarron (novel), by Edna Ferber

     Vivid account of one family’s struggle through the years in the American West. Glenn Ford plays a restless jack-of-all-trades whose credits include gunfighter, cowhand and attorney. When he marries he begins to figure a new life for the two of them; the U.S. Government is offering free land in the territory of Oklahoma to the first settlers to claim it. Ford wants a piece of the action so he and his wife travel to the territory and (in an impressive human stampede) claim their land. But their story has barely begun. They acquire a newspaper business and make a go of that. But Ford is feeling rather restless. He decides to leave his family, come back into the picture after five long years, run for governor, and then leave his family again when that falls through. A fine story is muddied by Ford’s erratic behavior, leaving his character totally inaccessible. Not quite a classic, but a fine film nevertheless (despite the complaints).
OUR RATING— ** ½
ORIGINAL— Cimarron (1931)