The Sea of Grass

In this rather talky piece set on America's frontier , a St. Louis woman (Katharine Hepburn) marries a New Mexico cattle baron , Col. James B. 'Jim' Brewton (Spencer Tracy) who is seen as a tyrant by the townsfolks . This western starts with St. Louis resident Lutie Cameron (Katharine Hepburn) marrying New Mexico cattleman after a brief courtship . When she arrives in "Salt Fork" she meets her recent husband and she learns that results to be an ambitious magnate owner who exects force to keep homesteaders off the government owned land he uses for grazing his cattle , the so-called Sea of Grass . Then Lutie, rebelling against the tyranny of his hubby . As she finds herself torn between her children (once grown-ups : Robert Walker , Phyllis Thaxter) and husband. Spencer Tracy Cattle baron . . ruthless, rugged! Katharine Hepburn. Fiery . . . Fascinating gal from St. Louis! Robert Walker. Gun-shooting and gambling fool! Melvyn Douglas. He knew women! Soft words, Soft looks! .It takes only one indiscretion to fill a woman's life with adventure, danger and heartache! . Big As Its Stars!

This "MGM" stirring drama Western with plenty of lyric images deals with victory of civilization and defeat of feudal spirit represented by a proud land baron who is deemed by the locals to be a tyrant .However , being more a soap opera drama than a typycal Hollywood Western . It contains some impressive and spectacular scenes on the raid with lots of riders towards homesteaders wagon train and cavalry arrival , though using some rear-screen projections and vast stock of process footage , especially when Spencer Tracy is riding on horseback .The picture is full of largest-of-life characters with awesome interpretations from the nice cast . Pandro S Berman's lusty effort that bears a certain resemblence to epic Western : King Vidor's Duel in the Sun (1946) a classic film of the 40s and over-budgeted movie in almost 5 million . The Sea of Grass (1947) starred by the great Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy team has the performance acting honours whisked from under its nose in this enjoyable drama and the guilty is the early deceased actor Robert Walker . Sensational main cast as Spencer Tracy playing the stubborn cattleman at his best , and Katharine Hepburn as the obstinate wife who has difficulty reconciling her husband's beliefs and passions with her own . All of whom backed by magnificent secondary cast , such as : Melvyn Douglas as the suitor who falls for Lutie/Hepburn , Robert Walker as rebellious and violent son , Phyllis Thaxter as the good daughter , Harry Carey is effective as a friendly doctor , Robert Amstrong of King Kong , Morris Ankrum as a honest solicitor , Edgar Buchanan , James Bell , Ruth Nelson , Robert Barrat , Russell Hicks , Trevor Bardette , among others .

It displays a moving and emotive musical score by composer Herbert Stothart . As well as atmospheric and adequate cinematography in black and white by Harry Stradling Sr , shot on location in the Great Plains. Elia Kazan directs with his customary force , though overtalking and packing some flaws and shortcomings , getting big success at box office . In fact , this was the most profitable of all the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn films . The stunning director Elia Kazan made notorious and successful films . As ¨Pinky¨ (1949) , was one of the first films in mainstream Hollywood to address racial prejudice against black people. ¨A streetcar named Desire¨ (1951), an adaptation of the stage play which he had also directed , received 12 Oscar nominations, winning four, and was Marlon Brando's breakthrough role. In 1954, he directed his biggest hit : ¨On the waterfront¨ (1954), a film about union corruption on the New York harbor waterfront. In 1955, he directed ¨John Steinbeck's East of Eden¨ (1955) , which introduced James Dean to movie audiences.

The Sea of Grass (1947) rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable but inferior than other Elia Kazan films.

Considering that Sea of Grass is helmed by a director who's not familiar with the western milieu it's amazing that it comes off as well as it does. Elia Kazan is so much better in an urban setting like On the Waterfront. Yet Tracy and Hepburn do make this work on some levels.

John Wayne in McLintock and Spencer Tracy in Sea of Grass have the same view of the prarie. Both films take the side of the cattle rancher as opposed to the farmer. Certainly other films like Shane make the farmer the good guy. But events here show that Tracy was right about the prarie as his arch rival in politics and love, Melvyn Douglas, ruefully points out.

Tracy and Wayne also have spousal problems, although certainly Wayne handles his with a tad more humor. One thing that Maureen O'Hara does and Katharine Hepburn doesn't is share his vision of the prarie. She befriends the farmer family nearby and that is what causes the rift between her and Tracy.

McLintock is a comedy and Sea of Grass is a western soap opera. Kazan was lucky in casting folks like Edgar Buchanan and Harry Carey who knew their way around a western. Robert Walker was taking some tentative steps toward a similar role in Vengeance Valley. He only appears in the last half hour of the film as the kid with dubious paternity, but you will remember him.

Katharine Hepburn would have to wait another 28 years before doing another traditional western in Rooster Cogburn. Eula Goodnight is certainly light years from Lutie Cameron. Colonel Jim Brewton though is the same type cattle baron as G.W. McLintock.

I think the film is more for fans of soap opera than for fans of westerns. And certainly it's for fans of Spence and Kate.

"The Sea of Grass" showed up on cable recently and out of curiosity, we watched it, based on the great director at the helm, and the cast involved in it. Unfortunately, Elia Kazan wasn't up to the task of directing the Conrad Richter novel about the post pioneering days. In fact, this film sort of falls flat as neither Mr. Kazan, or its stars, show any semblance they were much interested in the project.

One would imagine that to bring together Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn to play the leading roles would inspire the rest of the cast, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. The film is, by no means, a total failure, on the contrary, but there are no sparks in it to keep the viewer interested.

As someone remarked in this forum, we don't get anything from the Colonel and Lutie in the way of love, from the start. For the romance they were living on the sly, the stars don't light up for the camera to give us a hint they are in love in real life. The only one that shows any spunk is Melvin Douglas, who as Brock, can't hide his love for Lutie. The supporting cast is good, with some excellent minor performances by Phyllis Thaxter, Edgar Buchanan, Ruth Nelson, James Bell, and the rest.

Watch "The Sea of Grass" if there's nothing better playing at the same time.

This movie is tough to love. Partly this is due to the setting of the film (nothing but grasslands as far as the eyes can see), but most of it is because the two main characters are so flawed and unlikable. In some ways this unlikability is good, as too often Hollywood films of the 30s and 40s present people in a "black/white" fashion and people who fall somewhere towards the middle are seldom seen. However, such "gray" characters are tough to bond with or care about, so I can understand why the film makers generally avoided this. Katherine Hepburn seems like a good character through much of the film, but midway through it, she shows a self-centeredness that make it tough to really see the tragedy in her life. Her initially living with the cruel and lawless Tracy is unforgivable, but her having an affair and then leaving her kids (one the bastard) with Tracy and not seeing them for almost 20 years make her very, very tough to like. Tracy, on the other hand, does stay to care for his kids--but in a very self-serving fashion. He is an emotionally constricted and yet over-indulgent father. As a human being, he's a lot worse--killing or nearly killing farmers because he saw the plains as his own personal property. The central message that eventually these farmers contributed to the destruction of the plains is lost--Tracy's not fighting against the farmers due to any love of nature or a desire to preserve the land. No, he's just a greedy rancher that will do ANYTHING to keep the land without fences.

Despite the problems with the characters, the film is exquisitely filmed--with some of the more beautiful camera shots I've seen in a long time. This film is worth seeing, but not one I would recommend you rush to see.

Young woman in 1880 St. Louis marries a cattle-baron who wields a powerful, occasionally unpopular and unfeeling hand. The couple settles into their New Mexico ranch-house, where she soon has a child, but the days and weeks of loneliness get to her and she shares in a flirtation with the smitten local attorney. Conrad Richter's novel becomes somewhat misbegotten vehicle for Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, though the stars do make valiant attempts to lend believability to these characters. Richter's story is full of stop-and-start melodrama, which nearly sabotages the central relationship (particularly since screenwriters Marguerite Roberts and Vincent Lawrence have given all the best dialogue exchanges to the supporting players, many of whom ultimately fare better than the leads). Melvyn Douglas works very simply with Hepburn and they have an easy rapport; Robert Walker (as the grown son Douglas fathered with Kate) brings along a nice swagger; Edgar Buchanan (as the cook) and Harry Carey (as the local doctor) have seldom been so endearing. It's difficult getting a handle on Tracy's reserved, unimpressed Colonel. Blank-faced and slack jawed, Tracy puts a great deal of thought into this complicated man but walls himself up from the audience in the process. Hepburn, in her early scenes, radiates nervous warmth and good will, but turning her into a black-wearing drudge filled with regrets was probably a mistake. Overlong, not particularly satisfying...yet the film has something. It's handsomely-made, reasonably well-paced and is certainly unusual coming from this high-powered star-duo. **1/2 from ****