Oklahoma! (1955)

Too much of everything

The Age of Commercialism

Excellent adaptation.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Oklahoma is an enduring musical, but with such a simple story it is also overlong, has two dimensional characters and despite some classic songs it also has its share of forgettable ones and there are lots of them.The story is just about two romances in the rural farmland. Curly (Gordon McCrae) a cowboy who guides cattle and Jud (Rod Steiger) a hired farm hand both pursue the lovely Laurey (Shirley Jones.) It is a losing battle for the poor and brooding Jud and the rejection is driving him insane.The other story is more comic, Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame ) also being pursued by two suitors. The exotic slippery tongued peddler Hakim from Persia (Eddie Albert) and Will Parker (Gene Nelson) a cowboy who arrives to town to marry Ado Annie with the fifty dollars he promised her father he would have. The film was made in 1955, Hakim does not have a chance to marry a white woman! Then again Hakim just wants girls who want to have fun.The film is colourful but hokum. There are some nice sequences such as a dream sequence featuring Steiger. However Steiger who would go on to become an Oscar winning actor is woefully misused in this film. Just cast as a blatant villain when his character should had been more shaded and Steiger would had delivered a much better performance in spades.The ending is rather poorly staged with the haystack fire and the fight between Jud and Curly. The courtroom scene is also rather laughable.

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

I came across this movie recommendation as I was looking for works by the duo, Rodgers & Hammerstein after seeing their greatest work 'the sound of music' so many times.True to my expectations, the music throughout this musical drama was fantastic. On first listen itself most of the songs registered in my mind.Though I guess no movie or work of theirs can ever make a impact like 'The Sound of Music' did, still it is worth spending couple of hours watching this musical.Not much to say about the plot that's there... not very strong, none of the characters really registered in my mind from start to end, but having said that, it never really bothered me that the plot or characterizations were too simple or too scope-less, because the frequently occurring songs just compensated for the same.I highly recommend this musical to all those who enjoy the works of Rodgers & Hammerstein.My rating is just for the music only.March 1st: UPDATE -Just revisited this movie for just listening to the songs again & boy, did I enjoy!! It was just mind blowing......... amazing music & lyrics. Great performance by the lead actors to act & sing along. Now along with 'Sound of Music' I have one more musical which I revisit whenever I want to listen to some wonderful music.

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."