The Conquerors

Take heart, Depression-era America: the nation has faced dire economic crises in years past and with pluck, honest work and persistence has pulled itself aright. The Conquerors combines its morale-boosting message with a tale of one family's lives and times, misfortunes and fortunes from 1873 to 1930. Richard Dix, star of the prior year's sprawling Cimarron, plays dual roles as smalltown banker Roger Standish and his grandson (in a filmmaking virtuosity rare for the era, the two share the final sequence). The passage of time and events is conveyed in acclaimed montages by Slavko Vorkapich, whose masterly visual compressions also grace David Copperfield, The Good Earth and other classics.

This Depression-era morale-booster looks at the ups and downs of a banking family from the 1870s to the 1930s (and borrows plentifully from the previous year's hit CIMARRON, another empire-building saga that also starred Dix). Following the financial collapse of 1873, Roger Standish (Richard Dix) starts a bank that he guides through various panics. Despite the adversities, he and his wife Caroline (Ann Harding) ultimately establish an American banking dynasty. Note Richard Dix in a dual role, also appearing as Roger's grandson when he joins the Lafayette Escadrille during World War One. (Director Wellman was a former member of the Lafayette Flying Corps.)