Cimarron (1960)

Re-make of the 1931 Oscar best picture winner of the same title, I think this movie was probably made chiefly as a delayed reaction to the tremendous success of another Ferber novel based film, Giant. Here we have the opportunity for wide screen color, it would have been neat to have this actually filmed in Oklahoma, but much of the movie is obviously a set. The story follows the basic contours of the original film but there are significant enough differences in that it makes me curious how the original novel read. I however will not be reading the original novel because I still find the story to be boring, just as I did with the original film. There is not enough energy in this film, Glenn Ford, as was the case with Four Horseman of the Apocalypse two years later is too old for his part, and Maria Schell is just not capable of the holding the thing together. The movie touches upon some of the Faber social consciousness aspects that are done so well in Giant, and the basic story structure is sound enough, but it just doesn't succeed in making things interesting. Also what's up with Arthur O'Connell's arc, it looked like they were going to turn Tom Wyatt into something of a bad guy towards the end of the film, and then chickened out. The whole movie feels diluted like a watered down cola, very below director Anthony Mann's usual standards. Tepid. **