Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

CIMARRON 163 Thereafter the film holds its pace for a while, alternating high-spots like the shooting of Lon Yountis during the church service and the killing of " The Kid," with more sentimental scenes between Sabra and Yancey. Yet from this point onwards, our interest begins to wander as Ruggles slowly loses the main thread of his theme and becomes lamentably entangled ip. the relationship between Sabra and her husband. ,ylJntil Yancey's first departure from Sabra, when he rides away to the opening of the Cherokee Strip country, the relentless storming of Cimarron catches our breath. We are held by the onrush of the theme, by the dominant personality of Richard Dix as Yancey, and by the fierce reality of the surging background material. We are able to feel the spirit of this growing town and to understand the amazing mixture of humanity that has brought it into being. We are seized with a fervour of excitement for the building of this new state and participate in the achievement of these raw human beings. For the first half of Cimarron we are convinced of good cinema, and can swear that this perpetual movement of images and sound and dramatic strength is the movement of real film..^ The return to ordinary movie comes gradually, being spread over the sequence when Yancey reappears to play his hero's part in the trial of Dixie Lee. For a moment, perhaps, we still believe that Cimarron will end on a great note of drama, that Yancey will leave Sabra for the woman whose virtue he is defending. It is not clear from this scene that Yancey is pleading with such charming eloquence on Dixie's behalf for