Motion Picture Herald (Oct-Dec 1956)

GIANT Warners-George Stevens — Bigger than Texas ( Color by WarnerColor ) George Stevens7 production of the famous novel, “Giant77 by Edna Ferber, in the production of which Henry Ginsberg was associated, is far and away the best and the biggest of all the George Stevens productions that have dis tinguished the motion picture medium That is saying a very great deal, and It is saying that "Giant" is far better than the great producer-director's intimate biography on the family, in "I Remember Mama," and that is so because in "Giant" he performs that unmatched wizardry again and much more. It is saying also that "Giant" is far better than the Stevens production, "Shane", widely regarded as the definitive Western, and this is so, too, for in "Giant" he defines quite as incisively and sometimes by the same potent methods that extensive portion of the American West that is Texas. And although comparisons as such are perhaps generally invalid, in this special and particular instance the comparisons are rather internal in that they serve here to measure by his own highly developed standards the heights of producer-director greatness to which Stevens has carried "Giant." In rich, warm, human terms, in its magnificent sweep and scope, in its tremendous utilization of the new technical capabilities of the screen, in its almost startling color this bids fair to shatter box office records here, there and everywhere. "Giant" is also the biggest, as well as the best, of the George Stevens productions that, collectively, earned for him, in 1953, the supreme honor in the power of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to bestow, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. No man earns this award with one picture. It is reserved for persons whose work over a period of years has contributed substantially to the advancement of the art and science of the over the long years, it is thus meant, in unmistakable terms. motion picture. In some of its years the Academy has found no worthy receiver for this award. A few have received it twice. "Giant" may add its producerdirector's name to this rare category. "Giant" is big in many important respects other than its 197 minutes of running time. It is big in theme, in cast, in the sweep of its 30-year story, and in setting. The setting is Texas, the Texas of halfmillion-acre cattle ranches, the Texas of tax-favored oil barons, the Texas of intolerance and of tolerance, of 1923 and of 1956, not all good, not all bad, but all intensely human, the strong and the weak alike, as caught in the searching glare of the Ferber pen and the Stevens camera. The Ferber pen and the Stevens camera uncover a good deal of Texas that isn't referred to in the Texas song hits and by Texas orators, but they also find for the defense in a considerable quota of instances. The decidedly best-selling Ferber novel of several years ago, but of recent patron recollection, is brought to the screen by way of a splendidly organized screenplay by Fred Guoil, who was assistant director of "Shane", and Ivan Moffat. It covers some 30 years in the lives of Rock Hudson, owner by right of inheritance of a halfmillion-acre Texas ranch, and Elizabeth Taylor, socialite daughter of a Maryland aristocrat, and of their children and children's children. Like all of the Ferber novels, and most of the Stevens films, the story travels in Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and Mercedes McCambridge in a scene from "Giant." GEORGE STEVENS, producer-director many channels, carrying sub-themes and secondary plots along as it makes its measured way from carefully backgrounded beginning to a reasoned, plausible, satisfying finish. It is for a Ferber book and a Stevens film to detail the story, and for no synopsist with a proper respect for their craftsmanship to undertake it. The production by George Stevens and Henry Ginsberg presents a numerically tremendous cast headed by Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and the late James Dean. It asks much of each and each delivers. Miss Taylor, required by her role to age 30 years, gives her usual alert, effectual performance in the earlier years of her role, and then displays a new artistry in meeting the sterner demands of parenthood and grandparenthood. Hudson, called upon for the first time to handle a role flecked with fault as well as valor, lays firm hold on a top rung in the ladder of fame. Dean, whose presence in the cast doubtless will account for a great turnout of young folks, lives up to his past performances in the youthful phase of his portrayal, but is less convincing, later on, as a drunken oil king. Possibly the most memorable of the ( Continued on -page 18) 16 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, OCTOBER 13, 1956