Cimarron
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Movie Reviews of Cimarron
Movie Review: America's Ideals Displayed!
Summary: 4 Stars
"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.
Movie Review: A classic novel of the old west
Summary: 4 Stars
There are several versions of this novel as movies;
I remember seeing a color version from the 50's.
The acting is very good and this history of the US
government selling off Indian land after they had been relocated
there in the past as being the most worthless land they could think of at the time?
Yancy Cravat is an restless newspaper editor who with his family
moves Oklahoma after failing to get a plot in the 1889 government land rush.
He is successful, but is still not satisfied with staying in one place.
His wife runs the newspaper in his absence and after her son's marriage to an Osage
princess, comes to realize Yancy's idea for Indian ( Native American) rights
were the future of the west.
The death of Yancy in a new oil field in the 30's brings to a close
a saga of 40 years on the American frontier.
The movies is good, but one gets a feeling that some of the detail in the
novel is lost.
Movie Review: "The Devil's Cabaret" is on this disc!
Summary: 4 Stars
There is another reason to pick up this DVD: the inclusion of the pre-Hays Code short film "The Devil's Cabaret." This short was created as a vehicle for comedian Edward Buzzell, but the highlights are the sequence with secretary Mary Carlisle (who is amiably daffy and cute to boot), and the extended "nightclub from Hell" sequence where girls strip off their clothes and happily sell their souls to the Devil. This is a vintage reminder of how racy the times were before the government piddled on the party.Movie Review: Great technical achievements with stereotypes galore
Summary: 3 Stars
Often, in the early talkies, you'll notice what you thought were sane actors talking to inanimate objects instead of their fellow castmembers. Of course, what they were really doing was talking into the hidden microphones, but the whole image can be quite a hilarious spectacle to the unknowing audience. 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 film is very impressive when taken in the context of its technical achievements. The shots of the opening of the Oklahoma Land Rush, and the Land Rush stampede itself 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. Yancey goes after one hair-brained scheme after another while his long-suffering wife Sabra (Irene Dunne) must come up with ways to clothe, feed, and house herself and their children. Sometimes Yancey's adventures keep him home, other times they take him away for years at a time. It's all the same to Yancey as long as he is in the midst of excitement of some sort. 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 rendition of Cravat's servant Isaiah. The stereotypes are truly jaw-dropping. For example, in one scene Isaiah gets very excited when Yancey points out a cart full of watermelons at his new home. It makes you wonder how the actor portraying Isaiah felt about this, how the filmmakers felt about this, and how the audience felt about this sort of material back in 1930. Honestly, what were they thinking?
The extras on this DVD are stingy. There's a vintage color musical short - `The Devil's Cabaret' - which is a very strange musical number with an even stranger pre-code storyline, and 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 was more entertaining than the movie. The second extra feature is a classic cartoon - `Red-Headed Baby' - that runs six minutes. It's an early Merry Melodie that focuses primarily on a Baby toy that Santa is building. After Santa goes to sleep, the toy sings a song for the other playroom toys. The animation has that primitive charm that is trademark Merry Melodie, but as a whole there is nothing really special about it. 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.
Movie Review: a hard to find movie worth seeking out
Summary: 3 Stars
one of the first best picture oscar winners, this was (appallingly) the only western to win until "unforgiven". like other adaptations of edna ferber novels, the source material is too sprawling to work, but its fascinating in its (for the time) relatively compassionate views towards race and towards "working girls". richard dix is pretty wooden as the male lead and irene dunne gives little early evidence of the glory that was to come, but as usual in this type of film there are wonderful performances in smaller roles. also, the scene depicting the beginning of the land rush in 1889 is spectacular, and one wishes a certain mr ron howard had studied this sequence before he made that crappy tom & nicole thing. a historical curiosity maybe, but i enjoyed myself nonetheless.