Review and Analysis of the 4th Academy Awards

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Review and Analysis of the 4th Academy Awards

The 4th Academy Awards are by far the worst up to this point and probably the worst awards ever in the history of the Oscars. It encompassed films released in the second half of 1930 and the first half of 1931. Many of the best films of the year were entirely snubbed and we ended up with dated mediocrities for the most part. The slates for most of the categories are frustratingly weak and do not represent the true bests from this period.

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Cimarron Movie Review

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OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION

This is a horrible year for the Best Picture category. I have not seen East Lynne as that film is almost impossible to find, but of the four other nominees, none are good and only a couple are solid movies. Both The Front Page and Skippy are solid and effective, albeit far from the best examples of their genres. But Trader Horn is a racist, dated mess and of course the winner Cimarron is an extremely dull, highly archaic movie that rightfully ranks as one of the worst Best Picture winners ever. You can read my full ranking of the nominees here.

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BEST DIRECTOR

Wesley Ruggles of course was nominated for Cimarron and naturally that nomination is highly undeserved as his movie’s a mess. Josef von Sternberg’s nod for Morocco is also baffling as that is one of his weakest efforts. And don’t get me started on Clarence Brown whose A Free Soul is a giant, unappealing disaster. Lewis Milestone’s nod for The Front Page, on the other hand, is solid as is the eventual winner Norman Taurog who directed Skippy so well.

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BEST ACTOR

If the previous categories are a mess, this one is even more so. Lionel Barrymore basically won for a supporting, very short role in A Free Soul and he even wasn’t that great to begin with. But there wasn’t a supporting category back then so he got the Oscar. Adolphe Menjou’s performance is deservedly nominated, but Jackie Cooper wasn’t that good in his film and of course Richard Dix was pretty mediocre in Cimarron and he only got the nod because of the “strength” of the film.

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BEST ACTRESS

I unfortunately could not find to watch Min and Bill anywhere so I cannot possibly comment on whether or not Marie Dressler deserved to win an Oscar for it. But having in mind that she’s always excellent, I suspect she deserved it. Marlene Dietrich is iconic in Morocco, but the performance itself and the role are far from great. As for Norma Shearer and Irene Dunne, both of them are reliably strong in their roles, but the bad movies drown their efforts successfully.

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Image result for the dawn patrol

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BEST ORIGINAL STORY

I haven’t seen The Dawn Patrol so I do not know if it deserved to win here. In fact, I haven’t seen any of the nominees here apart from The Public Enemy which was solidly written. This is another pretty weak category.

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Cimarron Movie Review

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BEST ADAPTATION

This is another mediocre slate. Yes, Skippy definitely was well adapted from the comic to the big screen, but Cimarron was horribly adapted from almost every aspect so its win here is simply terrible.

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Cimarron Movie Review

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BEST ART DIRECTION

I would definitely say that Cimarron’s win here is deserved as this is the only strong aspect in that mediocrity of a film. Of the other nominees, I’ve only seen Morocco which got another nod this year for unbeknownst reasons to me.

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Tabu Movie Review

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BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Cimarron and Morocco are okay nominees, but thankfully Tabu won and deservedly so as that film is absolutely splendid to behold with gorgeous cinematography and a great use of its island locations.

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BEST SOUND RECORDING

This award goes to the studio and this time it went to Paramount. It’s weird that it did not go to RKO which holds the Best Picture winner this year, but Paramount won for some reason.

In the end, this was an absolute disaster of a year for the Academy Awards. None of the slates are remotely good and only a couple of movies here deserved their nominations with the majority being undeserved, dated messes. It’s probably the worst ever year for the Academy that thankfully will never be trumped.