In 1957, after paying $300,000 for the film rights, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios made Something of Value into a film starring Rock Hudson as Peter, and Sidney Poitier as Kimani. It was praised by critics for the stars' performances and its evenhandedness; Bosley Crowther of the New York Times thought it just missed being a great motion picture. He faulted it for its sentimentality and conventionality. To him, it appeared too similar to an ordinary cowboy and Indian movie, and he also believed that too much of the film was shot in a studio rather than in the wild, thus accentuating its lack of realism.