Cimarron
Short description
Cimarron follows Yancey Cravat, a restless newspaperman and lawyer who takes part in the 1889 opening of Oklahoma Territory and claims land there, moving his wife Sabra and their family from Wichita. In the boom town of Osage he becomes a leading citizen, but settled life quickly chafes, and he leaves his family behind to seek new adventures. His repeated absences force Sabra to fend for herself, and she grows into a prominent figure in her own right, eventually building the newspaper into an influential voice as the territory moves toward statehood.
Wesley Ruggles directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Howard Estabrook. Made by RKO Radio Pictures on a budget of one million dollars, it earned roughly the same amount worldwide. Richard Dix plays Yancey, with Irene Dunne as Sabra; Estelle Taylor, Nance O'Neil, William Collier Jr. and Roscoe Ates are among the twenty-five credited cast members. The film sits between Ruggles' The Plastic Age and Slightly Dangerous.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 5.8 from about 7,700 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.5 from 156 votes. The critics' rating of 5.3 from thirty-three reviews places it slightly below both audience scores, indicating a muted reception overall despite the film's scale.
What's left behind the scenes
- A record sum of $125,000 was paid for the rights to adapt the literary source.
- Yancy Cravat, the character played by Richard Dix, was modeled after Temple Houston, a lawyer—the son of Sam Houston, whom Dix later played in the 1939 film “Man of Conquest.”
- The filming of the scene illustrating the land run in Oklahoma in 1889 took a whole week. 5,000 extras and 28 camera operators participated in the work.
- One of the first sound films, almost all of the action of which takes place outdoors. For the filming, RKO Pictures studio purchased almost 4 square kilometers of land in California, where the film's artist Max Ree (1889-1953) built sets of a Wild West town depicting a fictional city in Oklahoma during the so-called 'land rush' of 1889.
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