This is a musical with some marvelous Rogers & Hammerstein songs, but they are mere accoutrements for Agnes DeMille's sagebrush ballets. Every step is artistically perfect. The result is magnificent for choreography students and dance afficienados but tremendously slow for the rest of us. Rod Steiger is much too affected in his role. Gordon McRae is adequate,, but Shirley Jones and Eddie Albert come off as most memorable in an impressive, albeit overstuffed, cast. Altogether, this is great art, dance, and music, but a so-so movie.
