1931 Oscars

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.