Oklahoma! (1955)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

I saw this movie as a boy in 1957, although it was released in 1955, I own the VHS of it now, so I guess it can be said that it has never gotten away from me for all but slightly over ten years of my life. I do believe it is my favorite Rodgers & Hammerstein movie. And too, Magna Productions and the director Fred Zinnemann should have been proud, and no doubt were. All the dance numbers were excellently done, thus great talent on the parts of the dancers was very clearly shown. This movie, the first for Shirley Jones (who played Laurey), even at this early stage launched her career. She was very appealing and heart-melting. It was also a signature movie for Gordon MacRae, who played the cowboy Curly. Eddie Albert was in the movie for decorative purposes, playing the Persian peddler Ali Hakam, and he did bring about a lot of laughs. It was also, undeniably, a change of pace for Gloria Graham: basically, she played the parts of very pretty ladies, but in this movie she was worse than ridiculous as Ado Annie Carnes, a ridiculous, naïve, and not-so-bright a girl. She was the love interest of Will Parker, a not-so-bright cowboy; Gene Nelson was adept as both an actor and a dancer. Charlotte Greenwood as the widowed elderly lady Aunt Eller who seemed to keep so many people together was perfect for her role. Rod Steiger was definitely not out of character, as Jud Fry, the mean ranch hand for Laurey, since he practically always played mean men. It was quite agreeably surprising to see Roy Barcroft in a straight role as the Marshal; it was definitely a change-of-pace for this man who so very often played a crook in so many B westerns.Some of the musical numbers are practically classics, such as "The Surrey with the Fringe on the Top", "O What a Beautiful Morning", and of course the title song "Oklahoma!" (A few years later that became the official state song for the Sooner State.) The dream sequence was one of the best dance numbers I have seen in any movie; Bambi Lynn and James Mitchell were excellent in it. In this western there was little violence: Curly and Jud Fry did get involved in an altercation toward the end.This movie is just right for people like me who like westerns and mind-sticking musicals. Truly, it can never be forgotten.

Oklahoma! is the greatest musical ever filmed. You may have other personal favorites, but when R&H decided to produce the film version, they micromanaged their baby until it was perfect. They succeeded on all counts-acting, singing, timing, choreography, photography that blows you away. It also shows the darker side in what is seemingly a simple romantic story. Director Zinneman's choice to have threatening Rod Stieger as a counterpart to the sweet story, There is no argument that the songs are performed as the composers wanted, and McRae and Jones signing and performances are unequaled. The movie sets a high bar for any production to cross, and having seen many stage productions, none has the effect of the magnificent movie. I was fortunate enough to see the original release at the Egyptian in Hollywood, and the revival at the same theater 38 years later, both on the marvelous TODD-AO curved screen. Its more impressive on a big screen and I would gladly pay to see this on a large screen. The latest Blue-Ray version look and sounds absolutely beautiful, has impressive 7.1 DTS-HD sound and is a big improvement over the 2005 release which was pretty worn. Thank you 20th Century Fox for restoring this not only historic first Todd-AO film, but allow the firm to be shown as it was originally meant to be seen

Rodgers and Hammerstein, Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. This was a dream combination for me, the greatest teaming in film musical history. The dream then came true a second time in Carousel but that's for another time, first let's look at Oklahoma! I first saw it on release when I was about nine or ten in 1955 but I don't think I was nearly old enough to fully appreciate it and so I've watched it again today nearly sixty years later to really concentrate and consider it's true worth in movie history. From the opening scene, where the corn really looks as high as 'an elephants eye', and Gordon MacRae rides into view, with his cocky, larger than life interpretation of Curly McLain, singing Oh What a Beautiful Morning, you know your about to watch something special. Even from a man's point of view, MacRae was a very good looking guy, but it was that huge, beautiful baritone voice that got me hooked and I don't think there was a better singer ever that could top him, so underrated today compared to his contemporaries like Sinatra. Shirley Jones as Laurey is sublimely beautiful with a voice to match and she acts so well for her first movie, the only person ever to be put under personal contract to Rodgers and Hammerstein who discovered her. Gene Nelson, one of the greatest dancers after Kelly and Astaire, is magic to watch and complimented by Gloria Grahame's wonderfully amusing Ado Annie. Eddie Albert as the Persian tinker is superb as is the brooding Rod Steiger as villain Jud. Charlotte Greenwood as Aunt Ella, James Whitmore and J. C. Flippen are perfect in an almost perfect movie. The one thing I never liked very much was the dream ballet scene as it jars somewhat with the real life scenes, but watching it and taking it in context, I can appreciate it more now that I have studied Agnes De Mille's dance arrangements more closely and thought about the nightmare, which is what it is, in relation to Laurey's true desires. Fred Zinneman's direction wavers somewhat but then he was used to dealing with straight action films like High Noon and From Here to Eternity and this was his only musical. I'm so glad that Rodgers and Hammerstein had control as Zinneman wanted James Dean for Curly and dub his voice, but they always wanted Gordon. Right choice. Fabulous film.

Oklahoma!" begins joyfully amid elephant-eye-high corn, big mountains, and giant skies with billowy clouds, and it never really stops pleasing from there.To some of the best music, singing, and dancing probably ever put in a musical, we're back in a time of box socials, surrey rides, and cowmen learning how to get along with farmers. There's talk of telephones, the waltz is yielding to the two-step, and promise is in the air as Oklahoma prepares for statehood.The movie is based on the first collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein, which, in 1943, helped to raise the spirits of Americans emerging from the Depression. The film is dated and old-fashioned. But most of the acting here kept my interest. I particularly enjoyed Charlotte Greenwood as Aunt Eller, a fun-loving, perceptive woman, who, by the end of the film, is sounding like a veritable cognitive psychologist as she advises Laurey to not even try forgetting a traumatic event: "You got to get used to having all kinds of things happening to you. You got to look at all the good on one side, and all the bad on the other side, and say well, all right then! To both of 'em!" Gordon MacCrae shines as a cowboy who gives up everything for love. And I liked Rod Steiger's saturnine misfit, notably in the odd scene in which he envisions his own funeral ("Poor Jud is dead; a candle lights his head.") He seemed modern in his portrayal of that timeless kind of psychopath who believes if he can't have a girl, then no one else will, either.I was less impressed with the younger female performers. Saccharine Shirley Jones was too good to be true, and Gloria Grahame's ditzy Annie seemed a tiresome time filler. (OK, she's rather dumb and so is her boyfriend -- we get it!) The cinematography rightly put nature in the forefront, expertly capturing the prairie's grandeur. ("...We know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand!" ) The interlude near the end -- with stagecoaches, wagons, and random riders silhouetted against the sunset -- might well have inspired the iconic final scene in Bergman's "Seventh Seal."