1931 Oscars
- Louisa Eggleton
- Oct 16, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 3
Best Actor
Lionel Barrymore – A Free Soul as Stephen Ashe
Jackie Cooper – Skippy as Skippy Skinner
Richard Dix – Cimarron as Yancey Cravat
Fredric March – The Royal Family of Broadway as Tony Cavendish
Adolphe Menjou – The Front Page as Walter Burns
My choice = James Cagney.
Lionel's performance was brilliant, but it was only a few minutes of shining light. Cagney's performance was through the whole movie. Cooper was great. I wasn't impressed with any of the other nominees for Best Actor for this year. A strong year for the ladies, though!
Best Actress
Marie Dressler – Min and Bill as Min Divot
Marlene Dietrich – Morocco as Amy Jolly
Irene Dunne – Cimarron as Sabra
Ann Harding – Holiday as Linda Seton
Norma Shearer – A Free Soul as Jan Ashe
Yep. I feel the Academy got it right for this one!! She was amazing! Ann Harding and Marlene Dietrich were worthy nominees.
Best Picture
Cimarron – William LeBaron for RKO Pictures
East Lynne – Winfield Sheehan for Fox Film Corporation
The Front Page – Howard Hughes for United Artists
Skippy – Adolph Zukor for Paramount Pictures
Trader Horn – Irving Thalberg for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
My choice = The Public Enemy. Yep, The Public Enemy wasn't even nominated, but it was my favourite film of the year.
My top three movies of the year were 1) The Public Enemy, 2) Morocco, and 3) Min and Bill.
Worst Picture
Trader Horn (and it was nominated for Best Picture!). Racist, long, boring, and only memorable for being the movie I wish I could forget. 5.2/10
Best Director
Norman Taurog – Skippy
Wesley Ruggles – Cimarron
Clarence Brown – A Free Soul
Lewis Milestone – The Front Page
Josef von Sternberg – Morocco
I love the way that Sternberg puts a movie together. I think he is fast becoming one of my favourite directors. Taurog shouldn't have won. The movie didn't have enough gravitas or anything special to win.
Best Original Story
The Dawn Patrol – John Monk Saunders
The Doorway to Hell – Rowland Brown
Laughter – Harry d'Abbadie d'Arrast, Douglas Doty, and Donald Ogden Stewart
The Public Enemy – John Bright and Kubec Glasmon
Smart Money – Lucien Hubbard and Joseph Jackson
I really enjoyed the plot of the Dawn Patrol. The ending was fantastic and the themes of courage and sacrifice were obvious and inspiring. While I loved the dialogue of The Doorway to Hell, the overall story of The Dawn Patrol wins it for me.
Best Adaptation
Cimarron – Howard Estabrook, based on the novel by Edna Ferber
The Criminal Code – Seton I. Miller and Fred Niblo Jr., based on the play by Martin Flavin
Holiday – Horace Jackson, based on the play by Philip Barry
Little Caesar – Francis Edward Faragoh and Robert N. Lee, based on the novel by William R. Burnett
Skippy – Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Sam Mintz, based on the comic strip by Percy Crosby
I preferred the story of Little Caesar over the other nominees.
Best Art Direction
Cimarron – Max Rée
Just Imagine – Stephen Goosson and Ralph Hammeras
Morocco – Hans Dreier
Svengali – Anton Grot
Whoopee! – Richard Day
I loved the Art Direction of Morocco. I give big kudos to Just Imagine but they could have done so much more so Dreier wins it for me.
Best Cinematography
Tabu – Floyd Crosby
Cimarron – Edward Cronjager
Morocco – Lee Garmes
The Right to Love – Charles Lang
Svengali – Barney McGill
The cinematography in Morocco is superb and ahead of it's time. Beautiful. I'm loving Lee Garmes' work.

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