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By
NICK ZEGARAC
The Oscar winning Best
Picture, based on Edna Ferber's novel -- Cimarron
(1931) is a trite, overly idealized tale spanning
forty years of urban progress; roughly from 1889
-- 1929. The plot begins in earnest when the
government opens up the Oklahoma territory for
settlement. Restless and fiery Yancey Cravat
(Richard Dix) claims his plot of the free land and
moves his wife Sabra (Irene Dunne) and family from
Wichita. Effortlessly bouncing from one profession
to the next; Cravat is at one time or another, a
lawyer, newspaperman, cowboy, etc. Cravat
eventually gains the respect and prominence of his
peers in the isolated boom town of Osage.
However, settling down and becoming content with
one's station in life is decidedly not in the
cards for Yancey. After establishing the town of
Osage, Yancey abandons both the town and his
family for the unabashed adventurism of the
Cherokee Strip, a move that forces Sabra to
reassess her loyalties, defy her husband's
wandering heart and take on the respectability and
prominence of a great citizen herself.
Emerging at the dawn of the sound era, the film is
maudlin by today's standards and full of stagy set
pieces that are static and not terribly
compelling. But the production values are
colossal. The land rush sequence alone took a week
to shoot, employing some 5,000 extras, 28
cameramen, 6 still photographers and 27 camera
assistants. Although both the sequence and the
film received glowing reviews upon its release,
Cimarron holds the dubious distinction of being
the only Oscar winning Best Picture to ever lose
money on its initial release -- $5.5 million when
the dust had settled on the accounting ledger.
Warner's DVD transfer on Cimarron is quite
adequate given that the film is pushing the 90
year benchmark. Having said that, age-related
artifacts, including long vertical scratch marks
running through a good length of the running time
are somewhat distracting. A lot of the picture
appears softly focused, either by choice (soft
focus, poorer film stock, etc.) or through the
ravages of time. The overall characteristic of the
image is one of soft light, to dense dark gray.
There are no deep blacks or brilliant whites in
this transfer. Still, the overall characteristic
is one of smooth appeal that is easy on the eyes.
The audio is mono and suffers from the inherent
shortcomings of all early sound recordings --
appearing quite unnatural and flat.
I am really at a loss to explain why Warner Home
Video has labeled this DVD a Special Edition since
apart from their usual sterling commitment to
bringing classic movies to the forefront in
respectable looking transfers, there are NO
special features to speak of on this disc -- not
even an audio commentary -- but rather a pair of
short subjects, which is pretty much par for the
course of their most recent output. |
