And the Winner Is — 1931

Our family is working our way through Oscar winners and whichever nominees take our fancy. Also as they are available, since the early films can be hard to find. We began in January 2023 with Cimarron from 1931, which won Best Picture for the 4th Academy Awards.

When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat claims a plot of the free land moves his family there. Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage.

Once the town is established, Yancey is restless again and goes to explore the wilderness while his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself. She soon becomes prominent in her own right.

This 1931 movie swept the Oscars and they did a good job. It is dated in some ways, of course, being 92 years old. That being said, it also was surprisingly progressive for the time. There were some elements that would now be called racist but there were also distinctly pro-woman, native American, Jewish, and mixed marriage elements.

We enjoyed the dynamic between the husband and wife, with neither being perfect - he keeps abandoning the family to go off adventuring, while she falls prey to the conventions that keep parts of society down. Both influence the other for good.

Interestingly, Edna Ferber patterned Yancey on Sam Houston's youngest son who had all Yancey's best attributes without the wandering off element.

No other movies from these Oscars were available. We were glad this movie was so enjoyable. Our rating - 3-1/2 stars out of five.