The Sea of Grass

Although dabbling with western themes in such classics as “East of Eden” and “Viva Zapata!” this Hepburn/Tracy pairing is Elia Kazan’s only true contribution to the western genre. What begins as a fine, innovative take on the homesteader/cattlemen battle from a female perspective, ends in excessive melodrama and negligable emotional impact.

“The Sea of Grass” is really two films in one. The first featuring Hepburn, is nearly a masterpiece. An honest, daring attempt to tell a woman’s story on a cattle ranch, the mood is subtle and riveting. Of course Hepburn and Tracy have extraordinary chemistry, but the script is clever—-making it’s point without any dramatic bickering or flair so typical of the great duo.

They get married at 6:00am, Tracy whispering in her ear: “You’ll be the first woman in the territory ever to get married in her sleep.” A brilliant statement on the status of women in the old west. Hepburn realizes quickly that the country and the grass means more to her husband than the people in it. And there are other gems, like this more familiar song that rings true regardless: “Why do women insist on loving men for what they want them to be rather than what they are?”

The photography is breathtaking. Tremendous depth of field inside the house walls, gorgeous vistas outside. Cinematographer Harry Stradling (“Johnny Guitar,” “A Streetcar Named Desire”) provides a number of unforgettable sights.

Scene stealer Edgar Buchanan is at his best here as Jeff the Cook, a gruff man in touch with his feminine side. It’s really the same role he plays in “Penny Seranade” and he darn near stole that film as well.

Everything is going great, and then the film dissolves. For some reason Kazan and the writers decide to send Hepburn away. It is her film, her story, and suddenly she disappears, leaving the film to Tracy and her newly, magically aged children, played by Robert Walker and Phyllis Thaxter.

The second half of the film is a very typical, very ordinary western, with a disenchanted young man (Walker) rebelling against his family, raising hell and eventually going there. All we hear of Hepburn is a couple of letters and a few seconds of footage with her in heavy-wrinkled makeup. Finally at the film’s conclusion she returns to deliver what is unquestionably the picture’s worst speech.

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