Cimarron: 1931 Best Picture

The Best Picture Oscar winner at the 4th Academy Awards was RKO’s “Cimarron,” a 1931 western based upon the 1929 Edna Ferber novel of the same name. What Ferber got for the film rights ($125,000) seems pretty amazing when you compare that to what Margaret Mitchell got ($50,000) 5 years later for “Gone with the Wind”.

The studio, however, didn’t make out very well at all. Despite all the love for this film at the time of its release, one youtube reviewer says it is “super boring.” It is listed in wikipedia as one of the highest grossing films of 1931, after the tremendously successful “Frankenstein” with Boris Karloff. Lugosi’s “Dracula” and Cagney’s “Public Enemy” are also on the list.

Here is some trivia about “Cimarron” from IMDB:

Yancey Cravat, the character played by Richard Dix, was based on real-life lawyer and gunfighter Temple Houston – the son of Sam Houston, whom Dix played in Man of Conquest (1939) and upon whom the 1960s western TV series Temple Houston (1963) was based.
Has the lowest IMDb rating of all Best Picture Oscar winners as of April 2013.
One of the extras was Nino Cochise, the actual grandson of the great Chiricahua chief Cochise. He and his good friend Apache Bill Russell were in this movie as well as several others.
RKO’s most expensive film until Gunga Din (1939)

There are only a few clues on the film and/or the book on J-archive. Jeopardy! pays a lot more attention to Edna Ferber’s other works.

NOVEL FILMS $800: “Cimarron”, the 1st western to win the “Best Picture” Oscar, was based on a novel by this author of “Giant”
BOOKS & AUTHORS $500: The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the setting for her 1930 novel “Cimarron”

added from the 7-29-16 match:
A towering tale of the Old West, “Cimarron” by this “Show Boat” author was the No. 1 book of 1930

Other films from 1931 in Jeopardy! clues:
FILM FOLK $600: Edward G. Robinson was forever defined by the title role he played in this Chicago-set 1931 gangster classic
LINE $1000: 1931 film with the line “Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make”
LETTER PERFECT $2000: Director Fritz Lang’s first sound film was this 1931 classic starring Peter Lorre
THE NEW YORK TIMES MOVIES $400: nytimes.com velcomes you to the list of “The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made”, vich includes this 1931 Bela Lugosi film
AT THE MOVIES $2000: This director of 1931’s “Frankenstein” was the subject of the film “Gods and Monsters”
FILMS OF THE ’70s $600 (Daily Double): For this ’74 flick, Mel Brooks used some of the same lab equipment that was used in a 1931 film
LETTER LETTER $400: You auto know these 2 letters: a movie rating suitable for all ages & the 1931 Fritz Lang classic film
W M Ds $1200: The hunt is on for Peter Lorre in this 1931 Fritz Lang film about a child murderer
ME TARZAN $800: MGM rejected this Olympic swimmer for the role in 1931; in 1933 he played it for another film company
“LONG” FILMS $1600: This 1955 Fred Astaire movie had been filmed in 1919, 1931 & as “Curly Top” in 1935
GANGSTER TALK $500: I’m not “No. 1”, but to the Feds I’m this title of a 1931 Cagney film
CLASSIC MOVIES $500: Charlie Chaplin befriends a millionaire & falls in love with a blind girl in this 1931 film
IN A STORM MOVIE $400: During an electrical storm in this 1931 horror film, a monster comes “alive”
HORRORS! $500: This 1931 film seen here could have been called “The Two Faces of Frederic March”
WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? $1200: At the end of “Little Caesar”, this actor cries, “Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?”
BOXING MOVIES $600: This platinum blonde was a real knockout as a prizefighter’s scheming wife in the 1931 film “Iron Man”
MOVIE CLASSICS $200: This Bela Lugosi film was shot in 1931 along with a Spanish version filmed on the same sets with different actors
FILMS OF THE ’30s $400: This classic 1931 Cagney film was based on the John Bright story “Beer and Blood”
LIGHTNING $200: In the 1931 film, he used lightning to bring his monster to life
LEGAL EAGLES: In 1931 he narrated “The Mystery of Life”, a full-length film about evolution