Academy Awards, USA 1931
| Winner Oscar | Best Picture |
| Best Writing, Adaptation Howard Estabrook | |
| Best Art Direction Max Rée | |
| Nominee Oscar | Best Actor in a Leading Role Richard Dix |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role Irene Dunne | |
| Best Director Wesley Ruggles | |
| Best Cinematography Edward Cronjager |
RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Wesley Ruggles
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
(DVD, Warner Bros.)
Restless Richard Dix moves his family from Kansas to Oklahoma hoping to claim real estate in the land rush of 1889. He is outwitted by a prostitute named Dixie Lee, so instead moves to the nearby town of Osage to start a newspaper. His progressive editorials make him popular with the locals, especially when he backs it up by shooting outlaws. However, his pro-Indian stance is not so popular, especially with his wife. Years pass, and Dix becomes restless again. He abandons his family for another land rush and disappears for five years. When he returns, he finds his wife running the newspaper and his children growing up. However, when he defends his old nemesis Dixie Lee in court he alienates them, and the town. He disappears once again and decades pass. His wife becomes the first female member of Congress and his son marries an Indian princess. He returns one more time, an old man, war veteran, and hero, having sacrificed himself to save another man in an accident at a local oil rig. The opening scenes of the epic land rush are still impressive today. However, the film tries to cover too much history, and loses the characters along the way. Irene Dunne's transformation from frontier housewife to newspaper editor and politician is particularly unconvincing. Racist overtones seem out of place today.
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