Dance historian Grace Robert praises the ballet in her book "The Borzoi Book of Ballets". She singles out the characterizations in particular, noting that they are "definite and well-rounded" and that all of them are seen in terms that are "balletic". She points to the pursuit of the gangster as an especially effective moment. On a darkened stage, several figures with flashlights perform "grand jetée" (leaps). The beams of light and flying figures create an effect "dramatic out of all proportion to the simplicity of the means employed." The ballet was popular in South America when it was performed there in 1941 by an American company assembled by Lincoln Kirstein. Writing in 1949, Robert noted that only the score survived at that date but a suite arranged from it was heard occasionally in concert or on the radio.