1930-31 – Richard Dix
Cimarron
I’m having a difficult time with Richard Dix’s performance in this movie, and here’s why. This is my third time watching this movie, and each time I see it, I like his character less and less. In light of that, one might ask how his performance of the despicable character was executed. But the film doesn’t portray him as a bad person. They seem to set him up on a pedestal, showing how he was the most noble and forthright character in the whole movie, and the way Dix played Yancy Cravat seemed to confirm this stance.
The problem is that Richard Dix’s performance was like a steamroller that turned all the nobility written into the character into that of a simple bully, a jerk, and a terrible husband and father. So I have to question, was there really any other way for him to play the part? Did Richard Dix competently play the part as it was written, or could he have been a little less heavy handed in his acting to soften the character of Yancy so that I wouldn’t dislike him so much? In other words, Dix’s acting made me think of the character as an ass, and I don’t think I was supposed to feel that way. The filmmakers wanted me to think of him as the noble hero.
So I have to conclude that it was the way the character was written, and not the actor’s fault, that I didn’t like him. Richard Dix did just fine. He had been an actor in the silent era, and successfully made the transition to the world of talking films. Unfortunately, he still had some of those over-exaggerated mannerisms and facial expressions that he’d learned. There was one scene, however, where this worked to his advantage. When Yancy learned that new Oklahoma territories had been opened for settling, his conflicted desire to stay with his family, and his need to be a free pioneer was well-played, and Dix sold the scene without any dialogue.
I also have to applaud the final scene in which Yancy returns to Osage, a weathered old nameless man who sacrifices his life to save some oil workers. It was a brief scene, and he was almost unrecognizable under all the old-age makeup, but Dix made me feel for Yancy, despite my dislike of the character. The sacrifice didn’t excuse the character’s shortcomings, but it did strengthen his nobility… a little.