Cimarron (1931)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Wesley Ruggles

Writers:

Edna Ferber (novel)
Howard Estabrook (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 February 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Tagline:

World's Mightiest Show!

Plot:

A newspaper editor settles in an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife at the end of the nineteenth century.

Plot Keywords:

Oklahoma | Newspaper | Frontier | Land Rush | Newspaper Editor

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Richard Dix	...	Yancey Cravat
Irene Dunne	...	Sabra Cravat
Estelle Taylor	...	Dixie Lee
Nance O'Neil	...	Felice Venable
William Collier Jr.	...	The Kid
Roscoe Ates	...	Jesse Rickey (as Rosco Ates)
George E. Stone	...	Sol Levy
Stanley Fields	...	Lon Yountis
Robert McWade	...	Louis Hefner
Edna May Oliver	...	Mrs. Tracy Wyatt
Judith Barrett	...	Donna Cravat (as Nancy Dover)
Eugene Jackson	...	Isaiah

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Filming Locations:

Jasmin Quinn Ranch, near, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

According to Anthony Holden's book "Behind the Oscar" (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), R.K.O. lost $5.5 million (approximately $58 million in 2003 dollars, when factoring in inflation) on the movie despite its winning a Best Picture Academy Award.

Quotes:

Sabra Cravat: Did you have to kill him?
Yancy Cravat: No, I could have let him kill me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table (1987)

A Sprawl

This is a sprawl -- like Ferber's novels themselves -- and it remains unshaped, a chronicle rather than a constructed narrative. That said, the dusty scenes where the town of Osage rises effectively parallel the early efforts of Hollywood to construct a new medium. The awkwardness actually works as as kind of subtext once the family has moved from "civilized" Kansas to the territory. (Incidentally, no one has mentioned that the great 1943 musical, "Oklahoma," deals with the same history). Dix is a silent screen star -- over-acting, overly gestural, over-posturing -- caught in a new world of sound. That tension works less well, but the issue of Yancy's taking off for years at a time is simply not resolved. Where has he been when he returns after a five year absence? No one says, but, perhaps more strange, no one asks. Dunne's character grows up, shedding her prejudices, thus giving Oklahoma "permission" to join our Union, with its "liberty and justice for all." This one is worth watching for historical purposes, not so much for entertainment. Estelle Taylor, Jack Dempsey's wife, also a holdover from the silents, is good here, though seen too seldom and not given a potenitally intriguing link to Yancy. His interest is purely altruistic and that strains credulity.