Best Pictures #45: 1930-31 (4th) Academy Awards: My Pick for Outstanding Production

by A.J.

Best Pictures #45: 1930-31 (4^th) Academy Awards 

My Pick for Outstanding Production

According to 85 Years of Oscar by Robert Osborne, by the time the 4^th Academy Awards for films released in the Los Angeles area between August 1^st, 1930-July 31^st, 1931 was held on November 10^th, 1931, the awards had gained notoriety beyond the Hollywood community. Winners were still announced to the press before the ceremony, but the time between the announcement and the ceremony was shortened. There seems to be a greater consistency in categories and nominees from the previous year’s awards. The Academy Awards were beginning to fall into a nice groove, though there was still a hiccup or two to work out. Norma Shearer, Best Actress winner at the previous year’s Oscars for The Divorcee, was chosen to present the Best Actress award at the 1931 ceremony. However, she was also a nominee. The uncomfortable and awkward situation of Shearer announcing her own name as the winner was thankfully avoided when Marie Dressler won for Min and Bill. To prevent this type of situation from happening again, at the next year’s Oscars, and every ceremony since, the previous winner for Best Actress would present the award for Best Actor, and vice versa. 

The Outstanding Production nominees do not feel as diverse or exciting as the nominees from the previous year (1929-30). Cimarron and Trader Horn are certainly the biggest and most ambitious productions of the nominated films. Both are about (white) men overcoming wild, untamed lands. The difference between the two films thematically is that Cimarron is about a man conquering and taming a frontier, while Trader Horn is about a man existing and surviving in, but not changing, a wild exotic land. Neither treats the native peoples of those lands well. Both Yancey in Cimarron and Horn in Trader Horn treat the native people well but the overall view of Indians and tribal Africans, respectively, is severely lacking by today’s standards. It likely didn’t even cross the minds of most people at the time. Both films are the type of big budget epic productions that the Academy tends to acknowledge (Trader Horn’s sole nomination was for Outstanding Production), and sometimes honor (Cimarron was the big winner of the night). Cimarron has an edge over Trader Horn because while Trader Horn is simply a big adventure, Cimarron is a dramatization of recent history, Hollywood style. It is the story of the founding of Oklahoma, a state that was hit especially hard by the Great Depression. It is a story of triumph; history told the way grandparents tell their small grandchildren. It’s hard to keep in mind that the time span of Cimarron, from the Land Rush to 1929, from the Old West towns of wood to modern cities of steel and concrete is a period of only 40 years. Many people that were alive at the time of the film’s opening scene in 1889 were likely still around to see the film in 1931. 

I can only speculate on how East Lynne factored into that year’s decision on a winner. It is a period adaptation of a stage play and novel with good performances (according to reviews of the time) and costumes that, obviously, could not go without note. 

The Front Page sticks out amongst the nominees because it is the only subtly subversive film of the bunch. It makes witty social commentary on politics  and the media, showing likely authentic portrayal of both. 

My Pick for Outstanding Production of 1930-31: Skippy

I wasn’t expecting it, but Skippy is easily the film I enjoyed the most of the five Outstanding Production nominees and the one I would most readily watch again. I wasn’t expecting a film with a sentimental, dated tone to have such affecting pathos, especially coming from such a young actor. Jackie Cooper remains the youngest Best Actor nominee at 9 years old. Skippy, the adaptation of a comic strip about a privileged, but mischievous boy, becomes more than a light children’s/family movie as the story progresses.

The Great Depression had fully reared its ugly head by 1931, but none of the Outstanding Production nominees portray the Depression or its effects except for Skippy, though the film does so indirectly. Skippy spends his time is Shantytown, where his new friend Sookie lives. He has no prejudices or reservations about the kids that live in the shacks of Shanytown or spending his time there. Skippy is quick to offer Sookie $3 for the license fee to keep his dog. When his parents stop him from cracking open his piggy bank, he puts his mischievous mind to good use to try to raise the money for his friend. The comic strip on which Skippy is based began in 1925 well before the Depression but I’m sure that the conditions of Shanytown were not dissimilar from those many Americans found themselves in after 1929. Also, I’m sure that Shantytown conjured up the sights of Hoovervilles, a term coined in 1930 to described the shacks people found themselves living in under the term of President Hoover.

Skippy had gags that made me laugh and effective emotional moments that tugged on my heartstrings. It also has a positive message, and, I hope, got across the idea that helping people down on their luck, as Skippy does, should be second nature, as it is to Skippy. This is undoubtedly a simple and sentimental film with scenes and aspects that are undeniably dated, but more than enough of the film works for me now, as I’m sure it did for audiences back then. 1930-31 was not a very strong year for its Best Picture nominees, but Skippy is the film most worth watching and mostly likely to still entertain and connect today. Unfortunately, Skippy is a rare film and is not available on DVD/Blu-ray or streaming services but airs occasionally on TCM. If you should come across it in the TCM schedule I certainly recommend watching this enjoyable and rare classic film.