Year: 1931
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Country: US
Language: English
Cimarron is an early 30's Pre-Code Western picture directed by Wesley Ruggles. Based on the novel Cimarron by Edna Ferber, the film adaptation would be RKO's most expensive production to date. It would win "Best Picture" at the Academy awards, being one of two "Best Picture" winners that the studio would produce. It is also one of the few Westerns to ever receive that honour.
A newspaper editor (Richard Dix) settles in an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife (Irene Dunne) at the end of the nineteenth century.
RKO Radio Pictures premiered Cimarron at the RKO Palace Theatre in New York to much acclaim. Soon after it would sweep the nation and receive great critical success, but unfortunately the extremely high budget and ongoing depression made the picture not as financially successful as it could have been. Nowadays Cimarron is fairly dated; very few people can understand why the film won over Chaplin's City Lights.
Filled with racism, sexism, and many politically incorrect notions that tend to frequent early historical epics, Cimarron is quite dated with how it depicts First Nations peoples. The picture does have a good heart however, as it at least makes an attempt to condemn the mockery of minorities. The slow meandering pace and uninspired narrative make it hard to sit through this 2hr epic, but the acting is above average & the set-pieces, costuming and cinematography really do give Cimarron an epic feel.
Cimarron is an extravaganza, but there are a vast number of "epics" that have aged better than this. The soundtrack isn't the most satisfying and the dialogue, although may have been lost due to time or have been a victim of its time, seems to have been poorly recorded. It's fun in moments, but overall I found myself bored halfway through.
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