Evening star., 1944-06-01

Lndb saves MISS OHara from a. Dand
of attacking Indians. He Is Just the
kind of simple son OF the range who
would appeal to a pretty Eastern
girl like that and almost before the
Indian has bit the dust they are
in love. The romance follows the
commoner- princess pattern down to
the least detail, the triangle element
introduced by the use of Miss
Darnell in the role of Indian maiden
who loves Cody madly and in vain.
These goings-en- consume consid-
erable time and footage In. Buffalo
Bill" but he was a stout fellow with
q lot of other and more active things
to do. The picture makes q great
deal, too. of his participation in the
Indian wars of the period. He is
presented not only as a frontiers
man who understood and synpa-
thized, with the Indians in their
relations with the robber barons Of
the East, but as one who could be
forced into opposing them with
arms when they became too unruly.
Sherman's picture. quite plausibly.
finds its most sweeping and tenn
pestuous spectacle In the battle of
War Bonnet Gorge, the decisive de-
feat Of the tribesmen which won for
Cody the Congressional Medal of
Honor. The original may have
lacked the pageantry of the conflict
in the picture, and it may even have
lacked the violence, but Sherman
paipably was out to make d super
spectacle and made one.
On its way to the final phases of
Buffalo Bill's career as Snowman.
the Palaces picture pauses-to the
point of dawdling--to recount his
part in the development OF the
sport Of bison hunting from which
he got his picturesque name in the
literature Of adventure. A lot Of
stress Is laid upon the fact that
Cody was deeply sympathetic with
the Indians in their charge that the
meat supply was wantonly DESTROYED
IN the defamation Of the bison. but
1t Is somewhat incidental to the fact
that the sport looks good in movie.
The climactic episodes In the
screen play based upon Frank
Winch's story Of Cody are those
devoted to his experiences as a
Snowman. He and his wife had
separated, his robber baron enemies
had made him the butt Of Nations
wide ridicule, his son died tragically
he was reduced to the humiliation
OF taking job as q side-show freak
when his newspaperman pal, Ned
Buntline, rescued him with the idea
of going into the wild west circus
business These were among the
most dramatic things In the life Of
the old scout hero.G but they CONF
prise 2 relatively small part Of the
total film Of Cody's life. !.
rs asat #r*
T4ere is very little chance for
inspired acting In the screen script
upon which 10th Century-Fox,s
large cast works In Buffalo Bill =
McCreA's impersonation in the title
role implies that Cody was some-
thing OF dramatic fellow, less,
however, than the stature of the
picture would indicate. Miss O'Hara
makes an ornamental somebody of
Louisa Cody and Miss Darnell does
the same for Dawn Starlight. the
Indian maid who loved so futilely.
Neither has much opportunity to do
more, not nearly SO much as Thomas
Mitchell in the role OF Cody,s re-
porter pal and biographer, nor An-
thony Quinn as the passionate
young Indian warrior, Yellow Hand.
What few passages "Buffalo Bill"
devotes to comedy are those center
ing around Edgar Buchanan, who
plays conventional Army sergeant.