Cimarron (1931)

Onto 1932 and the 4^th Academy Awards. This year, Cimarron became the first film to be nominated for seven different awards. However, it only came away with Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Art Direction. It was also the first western to win Best Picture.

Directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, the film centers around the settling and statehood of Oklahoma.

The film opens in 1889 with Yancey Cravat with hundreds of others looking to settle a plot of land as the Oklahoma Territory opens to settlers. Yancey has his eye on a decent plot, but is outfoxed by a woman named Dixie Lee. However, he still brings his wife, Sabra and son,, to the boom town of Osage, opening up a newspaper and becoming the town’s lawyer. At the town’s first church meeting, Dixie Lee shows up again, much to the consternation of other well to do women of the town as she is a former woman of the night.Once the town is established however, the Cherokee Strip opens up and Yancey finds himself wanting to pioneer again. He goes, leaving Sabra with his son and newborn daughter. During his absence, Sabra becomes prominent through the upkeep of the newspaper.

Once Yancey comes back, he finds Dixie Lee on trial for prostitution. He succeeds, but ends up distancing his wife from him.

Yancey again leaves in search of adventure. By 1929, Sabra has turned the newspaper into a prominent publishing company and becomes an Oklahoma congresswoman.

Unfortunately this film is riddled with problems. It makes the mistake of unleashing any and all action in the first few minutes of the film with the land rush and after that, the film just becomes uninteresting and boring. Dixie Lee shows up a grand total of four times in the film and her scenes don’t even feel like they’re a part of the movie. It’s a subplot that should have been its own movie. As for the main plot, it goes in so many different directions that I feel the movie should just pick one and stick with it. With Dixie Lee and the other aspects, the film could very well have been four different movies. Apart from Irene Dunne, the acting is so overblown and hammy that it felt like Richard Dix was going to eat the set. Also I’m left wondering why the film is named Cimarron. It’s the name of Yancey and Sabra’s son, but he barely shows up in the film and has virtually no important role other than marrying an Indian chief's daughter. 

I will say that though the film itself is uninteresting, the pacing is fine and the visuals are pretty good.

Why did this win best picture? Most likely because it involved progressive politics concerning Native Americans and the development of the nation.

Final Call: Mostly hammy acting with an uninteresting plot that should have been a couple different movies. Definitely not making my top 10. On the other hand, I liked Wings better than this.