"THE PLAINSMAN"; De MILLE'S WESTERN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 71, 10 April 1937, Page 17

"THE PLAINSMAN"; De MILLE'S WESTERN

The genius of Cecil B. De Mille to his native America in "The Plalnsman," a tensely dramalio and inspxring spic of America in the making, which has just arrived in New Zealand for release by Paramount. Heretofore coneerned mainly with periods in world history which marked the beginnings of tremendous changes through the xise of Christianity, the influence of ancient Eome, the pxvotal meeting of the East and Western Europe engendered by the Crusades and other forces of equal import in world history, De Mille now turns his unique talents to the ten important years between the end- of the Civil War and Custer's dramatic stand at Little Big Horn, the' decade that marked the beginning of Western- expansion. "The Plainsman" is a niasterful tribute to the men who made this possible. All the colourful characters known and loved by America for the past two generations come td life again in this pageant of empire-building. "Wild Bill" "Hickok, masterfully portrayed by Gary Cooper; "Calamity Jane," played by lovely Jean Arthur; "Buffalo Bill," enacted by James Ellison; General Custer, played by John Miljan;. the famous Indian chiefs "Bitting Bull," "Yellow Hand';' and "Pain'ted Horse"; President. Lincoln and his wartime cabinet, are all included in this film. There are also hundreds of Cheyenne Indians, borrowed from the Tongue River Reservation, Several troops of cavalry, provided by the U.S. Government and the State of Wyoming, gamblers, frontier characters and settlers, all assembled and masterfully merged into a film which is as big as the mighty background it portrays. . The massacre of Beecher 's Island and "Little Big Horn," where .a, •whole IJ.S. Cavalry regiment was wiped out by the Indians, have been . f aithfully reproduced, providing one of the finest battle scenes ever filmed, ' | Others in the elaborate caSt are Helen Burgess, a newcomer to films, who plays the role of Mrs William A. Cody, Paul Harvey, Victor Varconi, FuZzy Knight, George Hayes and a ecore of other wfellknown performers.