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Ranking 1931 Best Picture Nominees

The fourth year for the Academy Award for Best Picture is a horrible one. It includes movies released in the second half of 1930 and the first half of 1931. Most movies on this slate are not even passable and only a couple are solid. In terms of the genres, we got a western, an adventure flick, a drama, a screwball comedy and a children’s flick. So that diversity is quite welcome. But the films themselves are so weak that this truly is the worst slate in the Academy’s history.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

4. Cimarron

I haven’t seen East Lynne as the movie is unfortunately impossible to find, but Cimarron truly is the worst nominee from this slate and the fact that it won in the end just goes to show how clueless the Academy can be. The movie aged terribly, it’s horribly archaic, incredibly slow and boring to watch plus its characters are uninteresting and the acting is mostly mediocre. It definitely is phenomenally shot, but other than that, the movie is a giant, dated bore and one of the worst Best Picture winners ever.

3. Trader Horn

I am all up for diversity in these slates and for adventure movies getting nominated for the big Oscar. However, I did not sign up for this. Yes, Trader Horn is frustrating to watch despite great production quality, terrific cinematography and some great adventurous scenes here and there. But the movie is so incredibly racist that it’s difficult to watch for modern viewers plus the structure is bad, the acting is so-so and of course the added plot is so archaic and stupid that the movie was better off as a documentary.

2. Skippy

Skippy is the only one of two solid movies from this year’s slate of nominees. It’s far from a great movie as it’s annoying in its second half and some of the characters plus the child acting here is beyond overrated, but this is still a sweet, endearing children’s flick which has a couple of very moving scenes here and there, solid characterization and particularly effective beginning and ending. It is based on a comic strip which makes it a rare such movie nominated for Best Picture.

1. The Front Page

The Front Page disappointed me as I expected a hilarious screwball comedy and what I got was far from funny with only a couple of amusing moments here and there. The film’s also too loud with too much yelling. But, there is no denying the power of its plot which is thematically rich as it explores the dangers of fake news long before today’s time when such news are going rampant in the United States. Thus the film is very relevant today, even more so than before. Adolphe Menjou and Pat O’Brien’s chemistry is excellent too and the two share the best sequences in the film. So it’s only solid, but clearly the best nominee from this horrible slate.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

City Lights – This is clearly the best film from this period and the fact that it wasn’t even nominated for one Oscar just goes to show the Academy’s uncalled for hatred toward Charlie Chaplin. City Lights is one of his sweetest, most romantic offerings with one of the best, most heartwarming endings in the history of cinema.

Dracula – I personally prefer Frankenstein, but it came later in the year so it wasn’t eligible here. Dracula is still a solid horror flick with an iconic performance from Bella Lugosi and particularly effective cinematography and sets. It’s a solid enough film that it would have been better than most of this year’s nominees.

The Public Enemy – I am not a big fan of gangster films, but this one is a solid effort and particularly impressive in James Cagney’s terrific performance and of course a couple of memorable dark scenes. This period was very weak for films so I had to include the movies that aren’t great, but just solid with only the first movie above being worthy of the award itself.