Sea of Grass (1947)

Plot: Based on the Bestselling Western Novel. A hard-headed New Mexico Rancher with 70,000 acres, battles his soft-hearted St. Louis wife and small-farmers.
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Walker, Melvyn Douglas, Edgar Buchanan
Best Quote: They make impressive, admirable still pictures every few minutes, but they are about as convincing as waxworks. The one, always fabulously dressed, suffers prettily and, because they are very rich, with ladylike restraint; the other endures in heavy dignity, looking older than Adam. The story may have been a good idea, but it never comes off. There are such great gaps in it that it is hard to understand how it can seem so long. - New Republic

Sea of Grass sorta reminded me of the 1st Act of Giant.
A tough Cattle Baron goes "back east" and gets a upper-class city girl who tries to soften and civilize him. The difference is, the rancher never gets softened until the very end, and the girl has an illegitimate child and leaves her husband for 10 years.

The 2nd Worst Tracy-Hepburn movie

Extremely popular at the time, it hasn't aged well.

• We expect beautiful technicolor Western landscapes, and we get B&W process shots and studio backlots/sound stages. 
• We want some real Western supporting types, and we get dreary Melvyn Douglas and oddball Robert Walker.  The only bright spot is Edgar Buchanan. 
• We need a Western Lead with some macho energy And we get subdued, 47-year old Spenser Tracy. I can buy Hepburn as the big-city girl gone West, but I've never bought Tracy as a Western Rancher. He's too much of a 20th Century Suit-and-tie man. 
• We want some fast-paced action - and we get slow-motion soap-opera. The second hour really drags. As for Eli Kazan, he considered Sea of Grass his worst picture, the one he was least proud of. 

So, why did MGM choose these Actors and Director Kazan?
Partly, they were under contract. But mostly because MGM saw this as a Woman's Picture. Its especially why Kazan, the New York City director of "A Tree grow in Brooklyn"  was chosen to for this Western.  The movie really revolves around Hepburn and her struggles.  Tracy's just the taciturn, macho rancher, who changes little.  And you have to give the MGM Suits credit - their approach won at the 1947 box office. Sea of Grass was one of the Hepburn-Tracy's biggest grossers. Incredible is as it may seem,  Hepburn's Top hits of the 1940's were State of Union, Sea of Grass, and Dragon Seed - in that order!

Best Scene:      Hepburn arrives at the Train Station and sees her new Home.

Worst Scene:   Anything with Melvyn Douglas.  What a Drip!

Summary:  Justifiably considered a dull, overly long, mediocrity.  Its not enough to have great talent, a movie needs energetic direction, a good script, and and appropriately cast actors. Rating 2 of 4