Cimarron

I know this gets VERY maligned these days as one of the very worst winners ever of the Best Picture Oscar, especially considering 'The Front Page' was the definitive best of those nominated that year, at the 4th Academy Awards ceremony (and that great films such as 'City Lights', 'Morocco' and 'Frankenstein' didn't even get nominated), but if you can take away Richard Dix's horrible overacting (I can't believe he was even nominated for Best Actor that year!) and uneven, sometimes lethargic or indifferent pacing and direction, certain scenes really pack a wallop, I'm glad that I watched it, and it's certainly not the worst Best Picture Oscar-winner I have seen thus far (that would probably be 'Shakespeare in Love', if I recall correctly, but I would love to watch all of them, just to be sure), and in some ways, I even tend to prefer it to the 1960 remake by Anthony Mann, even though I adore films I have seen that he's directed (although I'm not the biggest Glenn Ford fan in the world, so that probably evens things out). Irene Dunne is a delight, as always. Though it certainly could have used a better editor (a good 30-40 minutes could have been sliced off, and no one would be the wiser), it certainly deserves at least one watch, especially if you're a history buff and want to see a decent depiction of how the Midwest was won.

This movie was a wonder of it's time ... for sets, for realism and for a great supporting cast. The problem with the film is the main character, who turns out to be the worst, most self-centered egotist ever captured on screen. And we are supposed to idolize him. He betrayed everything that the Code of the West stood for , but as i want to avoid spoilers, you'll just have to believe me on that. But we are supposed to applaud him. I felt sorry for Irene Dunne, made to play this jerk's wife. Later in her life Dunne openly admitted she could not stand Yancey's behavior. She noted that in real life, no woman would—or should—tolerantly wait around for a man who vanishes for years at a time without a word just to chase adventure. Dunne grew frustrated with how submissive and long-suffering Sabra was required to be. Dunne felt the movie forced her into a dated archetype of the "stoic pioneer wife" who exists merely to suffer beautifully while the husband gets all the glory, glory that she felt Yancey never actually earned as a family man. So this is a movie that glorifies a self-serving, incredibly greedy (for personal glory) and incredibly irresponsible character played in a grand-standing, almost operatic style by Richard Dix, who never felt real for even a split second on screen.