Cimarron (1931)

Cimarron (1930)**

RKO Radio Pictures
Director: Wesley Ruggles

While you may never have heard of this film, in 1931 it was huge! RKO Radio Pictures put up 1.5 million for this picture, including building an entire town set in Encino, CA. As usual though, the depression kept this big budget movie from turning a profit (remember 1930's The Big Trail) though it was well received. Cimarron was the first film to get more than six Academy Award nominations and took home three (Outstanding Production, Best Writing: Adaptation, and Best Art Direction). The film pairs silent movie great Richard Dix and the newly signed Irene Dunne in this adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel of the same name. Dunne was actually discovered while starring in the theater version of Ferber's Showboat and stared in it's own movie adaptation just a bit earlier in 1930.

Cimarron has all the makings of a great western but ends up being a decent drama. As an analogy for the whole movie, the first scene is an exciting Oklahoma land grab while the last scene is the unveiling of a statue in the city. Cimarron is a taming of the wild west flick that ends up taming the movie-goers excitement. Yancy Cravat (Dix) is a man searching for adventure and takes off from Wichita to the Oklahoma frontier. Being a lover of excitement, he leaves for most of the second half of this movie. We then rely on the strong will of his wife Sabra (Dunne) to carry on in Yancy's absence. Sure there are some questionably stereotypical scenes involving minorities but in general nothing with a hateful spirit. Huge sets and a great script makes it clear why it received such praise at the time, though if you are looking for classic western Cimarron is not for you.