Cimarron (MGM) (1960)

“CIMARRON” ROLE TAUGHT MARIA SCHELL ABOUT AMERICA’S BRAVE PIONEER WOMEN It started in Europe, but the idea is quickly catching on in America that a vibrant, eye-filling Swiss actress just might be the world’s finest actress of the day. Maria Schell is the name. Virtually every major film festival abroad, including the annual celebrations at Cannes, Venice and Berlin, has during the past few years honored her with top acting laurels for one or the other of her performances in European films. Few of these were exposed to American audiences, other than art theatre fans, but Miss Schell’s Hollywood debut opposite Yul Brynner in “The Brothers Karamazov” brought her wider recognition in this country. Her second Hollywood appearance, with Gary Cooper in “The Hanging Tree,” helped and now she stars in what well may be the screen’s feminine role of the year. This is the leading woman’s part opposite Glenn Ford in Edna Ferber’s “Cimarron,” filmed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with Anne Baxter, Arthur O’Connell, Russ Tamblyn and Mercedes McCambridge among its other Stars. As Sabra, the city-raised bride of adventurous Yancey Cravet, Miss Schell braves a new wilderness and then pioneers its growth into a fabulous oil empire of modern metropolises. From a bride of 25, she becomes a grandmother of 65, thanks to the art istry of Hollywood make-up experts and her own remarkable acting talents. Her first film with an American historical background, “Cimarron” taught Miss Schell a great deal about the country in which she seems destined to spend more and more time. “On location in Arizona, we were on a prairie where you could look in any direction and see nothing but open land and hills in the distance,” she said. “It made me realize for the first time what the women who came into such wild country for the first time with their men, like Sabra did, must have experienced. They must have been wonderful, brave-hearted women. “What truly amazed me though was how recent all this exciting history of your country is. You know, in Arizona we were visited one day by an elderly Indian, wearing his feathered head-dress and beaded Indian clothes. He introduced himself as Robert Geronimo, and I was told later that he is the only living son of Geronimo, the famous Apache chief. He was born in 1889, the same year that the scenes we were filming, of the big Oklahoma land rush, took place. “He pointed to some hills nearby and said these were the same hills from which his father had led raids on the white man. Just think, that was less than 100 years ago, yet it was almost the beginning of history in your West. It would be like things that happened 800 years ago in Europe.” BIRTH OF AN EARLY WEST NEWSPAPER Maria Schell registers her surprise at Glenn Ford’s first editorial in their newspaper, the Oklahoma Wigwam, in this scene from ‘*Cimarron,”’ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s spectacular film version of Edna Ferber’s novel. Looking on is Henry (Harry) Morgan, the paper’s printer. Recreating the great land rush of 1889 and the opening of the Oklahoma Territory, ‘*Cimarron”? was filmed in CinemaScope and color, partly on vast locations in southeastern Arizona. The big picture has a cast of 368 speaking roles. Still 1763-78 Cimarron Mat 2-B MOVIE MAGIC AGES “CIMARRON” STARS It was a case of movie make-up magic at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when “Cimarron” stars Glenn Ford and Maria Schell aged forty years and then, abruptly, shed thirty of them. It was all in the course of a day’s work for the stars in their roles as Edna Ferber’s hero and heroine, Yancey Cravet and Sabra, in the epic story of the opening of the early West. Scenes directed by Anthony Mann in the morning depicted Ford and Miss Schell at the time of the opening of the Oklahoma Territory in 1889. After lunch, the stars were made up to appear in their sixties for scenes which switched to 1929. Their final scene for the day, after another trip to the studio make-up department, found the years falling off them as the setting went back to the turn of the century. 4 BIGGEST FIGHT GLENN FORD EVER TOOK ON! One of the most realistic fights since William Farnum tangled with Tom Santschi in “The Spoilers” took place in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s ‘“Cimarron” in a six-minute, knock-down, drag-ont battle in which Glenn Ford defeats a crowbar-wielding Vic Mor row and two henchmen. To heighten continuity, Director Anthony Mann filmed the fight with two CinemaScope and color cameras. He also threw out the Marquis of Queensbury rule book and permitted the foursome to let fly with fists, spurred boots and leather harnesses in the exciting brawl. Telling the story of the opening of the Oklahoma Territory, one of the most dynamic events of American history, “Cimarron” is based on the famous Edna Ferber novel, with much of the picture filmed on location in southeastern Arizona. SPECTACULAR LAND RUSH WHICH OPENED UP OKLAHOMA TERRITORY The great land rush which opened up the Oklahoma Territory in 1889 is a highlight of MetroGoldwyn-Mayer’s big CinemaScope and eolor picture, ‘‘Cimarron,” based on Edna Ferber’s novel. Thousands of settlers on horseback and in covered wagons race for homesteads in the exciting sequence, which was filmed on location in southeastern Arizona. Shown in insert are Glenn Ford and Maria Schell, who head a cast of 368 speaking roles in the spectacular drama of American pioneer days. Still 1763 3-E with insert 127 Cimmarron Mat 3-A FILMING EDNA FERBER’S “CIMARRON” IN ARIZONA CALLED FOR BIGGEST AMERICAN LOCATION TREK IN MGM'S ENTIRE HISTORY Hollywod’s filming of Edna Ferber’s epic story, “Cimarron,” has brought to vivid recollection one of the most incredible events of American history. This was the first great land rush opening a wild Indian country, now known as Oklahoma, to thousands of landhungry settlers. The event, re-enacted with authenticity in the new Metro-GoldwynMayer motion picture, with Glenn Ford and Maria Schell heading an all-star cast, was a spectacular episode unprecedented in the annals of the land settlement anywhere in the world. Culminating years of legislation, 11,000 quarter sections of 160 acres each were thrown open to homesteaders in an area known as the Unassigned Lands in the heart of what was the original Oklahoma, a word meaning “red people’ in Choctaw Indian language. Settlers came to the designated starting line in covered wagons, buggies, delivery carts and fancy surreys. Some rode race horses which they had brought from afar to enhance their chances. Others were on cow ponies, mules, even bicycles. Many were on foot. More than a few sneaked across the starting line at night ahead of the Anne Baxter, as the colorful Dixie Lee in ‘‘Cimarron,”’ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s _ spectacular film version of Edna Ferber’s novel of the great land rush of 1889 and the opening of the Oklahoma Territory. Still 1763-34 Cimarron Mat 1-B starting gun to reach choice lands sooner. Thus was inspired Oklahoma’s nickname as the “Sooner” State. The land rush itself was followed by an unbelievable growth leading to organization of the area as the Oklahoma Territory eleven months later and to statehood in 1907. Wherever the settlers congregated, tent villages sprouted overnight on the barren prairie. Quickly these mushroomed into wild frontier towns. Nor did the flamboyant nature of the era end there. Discovery of oil brought wealth and power beyond the settler’s boldest dreams. Wooden towns suddenly were transformed into brick cities and just as quickly into modern metropolises. Miss Ferber dramatically utilized the entire era, covering a span of 40 years, as the background for her love story of Yancey and Sabra Cravet. So does MGM in its new motion picture, with Glenn Ford playing the adventurous Yancey and Swiss star Maria Schell as his city-raised bride who braves the new wilderness with him. “The picture posed many unique challenges because of the magnitude and variation of its settings,’ veteran Producer Edmund Grainger said. “If there was one challenge bigger than the rest, however, it was the land rush.” Grainger and Director Anthony Mann selected a 20,000-acre prairie of two adjoining ranches in southeastern Arizona as their filming location. Additional roads were cleared over the area for trucking of immense quantities of equipment, and headquarters were established in Tucson, 50 miles distant. More than 500 wagons, museum pieces of every size and description, were collected in Hollywood, restored to the best condition possible for the rough work ahead, and delivered to the location via train in 50 boxcars. Caravans totaling 35 trucks carried extensive camera, sound and _ lighting equipment, a wardrobe of 3,000 costumes and thousands of “props.” Fifty horses, many of them trained to take spills without injury to themselves or riders, also were transported from Hollywood to join 650 horses recruited from throughout the southwest. To handle them, 170 of the best horsemen in the area and in Hollywood were hired as wranglers. When filming began in Arizona, the movie troupe totaled 1,000 persons. The movement of equipment and personnel from Hollywood was the biggest within the United States in MGWM’s history. HUNDREDS OF ACTORS ON “CIMARRON” SETS “Cimarron,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s spectacular film version, in CinemaScope and color, of Edna Ferber’s classic novel, called for more “big” scenes than any other MGM picture of the past ten years other than “BenHur.” Starting with a troupe of 1,000 on location in Arizona, for the reenactment of Oklahoma’s historic land rush of 1889, scenes calling for from 200 to 500 players include the starting line camp sequence preceding the land rush, the stampede of settlers to the Government Land Office to file their claims, the first appearance of Osage as a rowdy frontier town and its later appearance through four decades as it grows into a modern metropolis. Two of the biggest sequences in size of crowds and of sets depict Osage in 1898, when Rough Rider heroes return from the Spanish-American War, and in 1906, when Osage has become the center of Oklahoma’s fabulous oil empire. “Cimarron” has a total of 368 speaking roles in an all-star cast headed by Glenn Ford and Maria Schell. Glenn Ford, as the adventurous roustabout Yancey Cravet, in “Cimarron,” Metro-GoldwynMayer’s spectacular film version of Edna Ferber’s novel of the great land rush of 1889 and the opening of the Oklahoma Territory. Maria Schell stars opposite Ford in a cast of 368 speaking roles. Still 1763-121 Cimarron Mat 1-D