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Rating:  - A Creaky Western Saga
It's hard to believe this 1931 relic won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wesley Ruggles' clumsy production of Edna Ferber's "Cimarron" survives only as a curio. The western saga opens with a rehash of the Oklahoma land-rush sequence from William S. Hart's 1925 classic "Tumbleweeds" and goes downhill fast. Richard Dix's cartoonish portrayal belongs in the School of Bad Acting, but Irene Dunne makes the most of her first starring role. In retrospect, "Cimarron" might have worked better as a silent film.
Rating:  - Early Irene Dunne in Classic Western
This is a sprawling epic version of Edna Ferber's novel. It starts with the original Oklahoma Cimmaron land rush (1889) and ends in during the height of the oil rush (1930).
This is a great movie about the a part of US history that most people have only heard breifly about. And like Ferber's more famous book Show Boat, this film takes on civil rights - this time the rights of native Americans and the rights of women (Sabra is elected to Congress.) It even touches slightly on anti-semitism.
This also marks the second film for Irene Dunne. While she will have better roles in the future, this film shows her raw talent.
My big question is why haven't they restored this film? There are constant scratches throughout the film and certain scenes are shakey. This can be corrected with today's computer technology. This film won three Academy Awards including Best Picture, Screenplay and Interior Decoration. Plus Dix, Dunne, director and cinematographer received nominations. (This was massive because there were only 8 categories that year!!)
DVD EXTRAS -
Short Subject - The Devils Cabaret (1930) - this is a sixteen minute early color short subject (actually red is the only color in it because it was the easiest to produce.) The novelty is in the color technique not the actual short.
Cartoon - Red Headed Baby (1933) - this is a six minute Merrie Melodies cartoon that takes place in a Santa-esque toy factory.
Rating:  - Great technical achievements, but lacking in other areas
Cimarron was an early talkie that made great strides in sound, allowing natural interaction between the cast and a more natural movement of the camera, allowing the filming of some truly spectacular scenes.
The shots of the Oklahoma Land Rush stampede involve ground-breaking sound and cinematography that make it one of the most realistically shot scenes up to that time. Other well filmed scenes include those of Osage's dusty streets with the camera tracking the main characters as they walk along while hundreds of extras bustle about them, showing the life of a busy boom town shortly after the land rush. Unfortunately, this is pretty much where my praise of this film ends.
This film stars Richard Dix as Yancey Cravat, a man who was born under a wandering star. Unfortunately, that didn't stop Yancey from taking a wife and having children, it just stopped him from taking any responsibility for that same wife and children. Through the years, Yancey chases one hair-brained scheme after another while his long-suffering wife Sabra (Irene Dunne) takes responsibility for the newspaper Yancey started but abandons time and again. Sometimes Yancey's adventures keep him home, other times they take him away for years at a time. The film focuses on Yancey's adventures, while the whole time I'm wondering what Sabra is up to. In modern times, her story is much more compelling and sympathetic.
Richard Dix's performance is quite hammy by modern standards. You'll find yourself laughing in places that were not intended to be funny by the film's creators, and in spite of your laughter, you'll still find Yancey to be completely unlikeable. He would make a great politician in the 21st century - he is very apt at doing one thing, saying another, and still finding time for splendid oratory. The worst thing about this film, which was not unusual for its day, was the stereotyped rendition of Cravat's servant Isaiah. For example, in one scene Isaiah gets very excited when Yancey points out a cart full of watermelons. Usually I can put this sort of thing in the context of the times in which the film was made, but this material really goes the extra mile in being cringeworthy.
There are two extras on the DVD. First there's a vintage color musical short - `The Devil's Cabaret' - which is an example of something that could only have been done pre-code. At "Satan & Co., Inc.", the Devil is upset because too many people are going up to Heaven rather than down to Hades. He gives his assistant, Mr. Burns the task of getting more people to his domain. In front of a nightclub, Mr. Burns invites a crowd of people to come inside to "The Devil's Cabaret" and be entertained. After they enjoy songs and dancing, the people go willingly to Hades. To me, this early Technicolor short was more entertaining than the movie. The second extra feature is an early Merry Melodie cartoon entitled `Red-Headed Baby'. There are no extras related to the film itself.
Remarkably, this film won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1931. Even more remarkably, Richard Dix was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in this film. Less remarkably, Irene Dunne was nominated for Best Actress for her performance, in spite of the lack of depth of the examination of her character in the film. There are two reasons to watch this film (a) To see the very good technical achievements it featured in sound and cinematography (b) To see the very bad things about it including Dix' hammy performance, the stereotypes that were common in films of that era, and the fact that in the early twentieth century nobody apparently thought that the long-suffering Sabra was doing anything other than her duty as a wife in spending most of her time waiting for her husband to come home from his misadventures.
This release of "Cimarron" is just a repackaged version of the previous DVD release. If you have that DVD and are happy with the packaging, there is no reason to buy this version.
Rating: - America's Ideals Displayed!
"Cimarron" (1931) won three Oscar & had four nominations more, IMHO deservedly. Even if we regard it with modern eyes and some characters seem cartoonish as Isaiah's presentation, nevertheless the boy is endowed with the same pioneer spirit as Yancey Cravat and with the same heroic mettle.
The whole film is an epic poem to America's best ideals: independent pioneer spirit, equality for all creeds, equality for all ethnic groups, equality of opportunities for everybody, freedom for all well-meaning people, press freedom and tolerance for sexual behavior.
The story follows the life and deeds of Yancey Cravat and his family in Oklahoma territory and his struggle to publish an independent newspaper, presented in significative episodes from 1889 till 1930.
Richard Dix playacting may give the impression of overacting but the viewer should take into account that at 1931 role-play was still strongly influenced by silent-movie stereotypes and all in all he gives a vivid characterization of the hero.
Irene Dunne gives a very much sober interpretation; however both of them were nominated to Best Actress and Best Actor Oscar award.
For film-loving people the whole opening sequences of Oklahoma Land Rush are just glorious, full of action and stamina not to be usually seen!
I think this movie deserves, in justice, to be called a classic. Enjoy it!!!.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
Rating: - An historical curiosity, perhaps, but little else
My girlfriend suggested we start NetFlixing movies that won the Best Film Oscar, hence my introduction to this odd little time capsule from the '30s.
This is a film that has not aged well, and let me be clear that I am not referring to things such as its cinemetography, but to its story and character portrayals. There actually is very little plot in this, but it seems to be more of a prolonged character study of the main character, Yancy. Sadly, this is one of the weakest features in the film, as the character is such an unbelievably larger-than-life superman that I found myself at first unable to take him seriously and eventually actively disliking him.
Yancy actually reminded me of Captain Kirk, for not only does Richard Dix's over-the-top overacting forshadow Shatner, but Yancey is somehow a master of all trades and situations that he insists on handling himself. The bank's getting robbed? Yancy springs into action and single-handedly stops them. Someone needs a spontaneous sermon? Yancy's the man to give it. Who will come to the (legal) defense of an unjustifiably persecuted strumpet? Yancey's your man. Et cetera, ad nausium. Despite all this (ahem) positive aspects, Yancy is shown (by today's standards) to be an insensitive husband with the attention span of a gnat on crystal meth.
In all honesty, one of the reasons the film held my interest was I was curious to see if Yancy would get any kind of "come-uppance." Sadly, he doesn't, which makes me think that the producers intended him to be the seriously-taken hero. I'm actually curious to know how he was received by audiences back in the time, if they hated him as much as I did.
The film is also racist in its portrayals of African and Native Americans (as well as the one Jewish character in it) though these can probably be excused (though NOT forgiven) as products of the times. You can also say it's somewhat mysogynistic, as Yancy's long-suffering wife is shown to humbly obey and deal with him demurely with almost no sticking up for herself. Again, I'm mildly interested to know if contemporary audiences would have been as put off as my girlfriend and I were.
Not recommended, except perhaps as an historical curiosity.
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