Thursday, May 23, 2013

Cimarron - 4th Best Picture Winner


Cimarron - 4th Best Picture Winner
1931
#50

Starring:
Richard Dix
Irene Dunne

Directed By:
Wesley Ruggles

1930 - 31 Academy Awards:
Winner:
Outstanding Production
Best Writing, Adaptation
Best Art Direction

East Lynne
The Front Page
Skippy
Trader Horn


So here's what I know before I watched it. It's a western. According to the sleeve it was a book by a woman. (Edna Ferber) First Western to win BP. Released in 1931. And sounds incredibly boring. I'm not the biggest fan of Westerns...
And I thought this was about a horse? Oh right...different movie.

Wow. This is boring. Like very. Oh and let's not forget the black mammie and nappy haired child with the heavily broken and slangged speech and "dirty" "Injuns" and the beginning of every Western trope out there...
Oh and he lead actor with so much makeup on he looks like a woman. Hell he's got on more makeup than the real woman do!
Oh and they named their son Cimarron...
Oh and I'm not sure if that guy was a dark Caucasian or a Hispanic...
And the "whores" going to church and being talked about...
Because yes its possible to shoot someone when the gun never goes 6 inches from your hip...
And the "whore"  is trying to redeem herself...

Now our lead runs off on the adventure of claiming land, not happy with the world he has with the wife and kids...
Leaving her to write and run the newspaper
And apparently he joined the Army at some point. Helped liberate Cuba.
Now he's the noble hero defending anyone's honor. Just got home now he's defending the local "whore" from the small minds of the town.

Apparently there isn't anything this man cant do...
Oh and hes got three stripes and a diamond. Hes got to be at least a sergeant now too I think?

Jump a head from 1898 to 1907

Now we have the oil drilling
The daughter is a brat
The son is horror of horrors dating the hired "Injun" girl and intends to marry her
Our hero is running for governor
And wont endorse any plan to take the land and oil from the Indians

He even wants to give the "red man" citizenship and the right to vote!

Now its 1929
His name is still on the masthead but he hasn't been around for years and doesn't write home. He's still off on adventures
Oh but now the Mrs has become a State Congresswoman!

One good line here at the end - the old lady that was always the gossip and bragged about her ancestor that signed the Declaration once again tells the Jewish man about that as to why he wasn't considered for a spot on the committee because he wasn't from a historical family. His retort?
"One of my ancestors, named Moses, he wrote the Ten Commandments!"

And while she is in the city there is an accident at the oil rigs and an old drifter that works there is killed....they call him "old Yan" - she runs to him realizing that it is her husband, dying heroically to the end.

Honestly the plot here is just the wife dealing with the dude's comings and goings. Not really much of an actual plot. So how the heck did this win best picture? About the only good part of this whole film is showing just how strong she is. Dude was a lousy husband more concerned with his own adventures than the welfare of his family.


The best part of the whole movie? The other things included on the disc, which I assume are connected to the movie in some way, though I'm unsure as to how, though most things I find it just seems like they were randomly combined.

A Merry Melodies cartoon - Red Headed Baby 
Porky Pig before he was Porky! All about toys that come to life. A doll that sings Red Headed Baby. (The negative here is the black face doll. But that was acceptable at the time.)


There is also a short on the disc - "The Devils Cabaret"
Very surreal. The devil lamenting too many people going to heaven and not coming down to them. He sends his representative up to earth to attract more people with the "evils" of "hot music" and "the devils toys" and dancing. Not much survives to be known about this short, other than it was apparently taken from a never-produced musical. 


Both of these are pre-Hayes code. No would the 2nd short EVER have been allowed after that until I'd gather sometime in the 50s or 60's when people started to criticize the censuring of the arts. I really like it and then to think it came from 1931? Wow. Mind blowing! One wonders what else would've been produced had Hollywood not had a bout of morality. And its in early two-tone Technicolor too! 

What's sad is that while both of these are on YouTube, there is only one copy and I'm sure not many people know about them. Sad to see such gems from movie past so forgotten.

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