Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

158 CELLULOID secondly by The Virginian, while thirdly, at the height of the craze for pioneer films, there comes Cimarron, a giant among giants, a film which despite its many glaring faults stands head and shoulders above its fellow-pictures. For the story of Cimarron, Edna Ferber, the author of the novel from which the film is adapted, took one of the most romantic incidents in American history — the throwing open to settlers of the barren territory that was destined within a few years to become the flourishing state of Oklahoma. As her hero, she chose Yancey Cravat, a poet, a lawyer, an editor — a fighter with Indian blood in his veins who could at will quote Milton. For her heroine, there is Sabra Cravat, the courageous, loyal, conventional wife of Yancey. And for a background, the terrific rise of the city of Osage, a composite name for many Oklahoma cities — amongst them being Pawhuska, Tulsa, Guthrie, Muskogee, Pawnee, Ponca City and Omulgee. It is noon of April 22nd, 1889. Thousands upon thousands of men, women and children are gathered beneath the blazing sun on a square of clay desert, astride their horses, ponies, mules, donkeys, cattle — sitting on carts, buggies, wagons, bicycles, every sort and description of vehicle — waiting in tense excitement for the sound of a rifle-shot which will release them in a storming, raging stampede into the race for their share of the new lands. As far as the camera can reach there are rows and rows of horses and wagons, luggage and bundles, all that each and every man possesses. Amid them rides Yancey, eager to plunge forward in order to seize for his own a certain strip