MovieChat Forums > Cimarron (1961) Discussion > What was with Maria Schell's old age mak...

What was with Maria Schell's old age make-up?

posted 10 years ago by 35541m
2 replies | jump to latest

At the end of the film Maria Schell (Sabra) looks about 70 years old. But we are only in 1914, 25 years after the land rush which opens the film (1889). She presumably starts the film in her early twenties so should only be about 50.

The newspaper editor's wife magically reappears at the end of the film (after having walked out after his early death) and doesn't look any older than she did at the beginning of the film. She now looks younger than Maria Schell.

And in the last scene Sabra is holding a telegram informing her that her husband has died in WW1. Yet, America didn't enter the war until 1917 and, in any case, Glenn Ford's character would have been at least in his mid 50s by then (or in his 80s if he has aged as badly as Sabra) so how on earth did he even get enlisted?

Is there some Brechtian touch I am missing here or is this just poor filmmaking?

[–] Sid-Blitzen 8 years ago

I thought it was unusual Mrs Pegler being alive at the end, and seeming no older than in 1889, and Yancy being able to serve in the First World War at his age. Unless it was some non-combatant role that brought him near enough to the front to get killed?

[–] jdw50 7 years ago

The allies weren't always too choosy about who joined their army; that's war for you. The USA didn't enter the war until late, but Yancey could, for instance, have signed up with Canada's forces. (As it happens, Ford was Canadian.)

As for the make-up, yes, it didn't look as if they'd sat down to work ot how old the characters should be. I will say, though, that people aged quicker in those days; life was harder.