Annie Oakley (1935)

Powerful

Absolutely Brilliant!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

. . . thoughtful viewers may wonder after taking in ANNIE OAKLEY. About 60 years before RKO Studios released ANNIE OAKLEY, America's Racist Rich People's Party (the same folks who orchestrated the "Inside Job" facilitating the assassination of Abe Lincoln due to his Post-Civil War vision of repatriating kidnapped Blacks to their African Homelands while bringing the many egregious War Profiteers--who murdered hundreds of Union artillery men with their shoddy exploding cannon barrels--to Justice) filled the 1870s U.S. West with Job-Killing Corrupt Capitalist "Indian Agent" Crooks (not unlike Modern Day Child-Catcher Betsy DeVos running her national chain of For-Profit U.S. Charter Dumbing-Down Shacks out of OUR Education Department!) who bamboozled legendary Sioux War Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull into slaying the top Native American Booster they had among U.S. Whites, George Armstrong Custer. Though Crazy Horse, the more Visionary of the Pair, was quickly assassinated like Lincoln (presaging the One-Two Punch of the 1960s, when agents of the Rich People's Party first whacked our Beloved President, JFK, and then gunned down Martin Luther King, Jr.), ANNIE OAKLEY documents how the title character taught Sitting Bull the American Language and Culture. Buffalo Bill was more of a hindrance than a help during this process, in keeping with his Genocidal Role of starving many Tribal Nations to death by gratuitously killing off their meat, so that the only buffalo left were the ones on nickels. If only Annie Oakley had ridden with Custer, America may have gotten rid of the Trilaterals once and for all back then, instead of being left in Her Present Mess.

Fictionalized biography of real-life sharpshooter Annie Oakley. As with all Hollywood biopics, past and present, it plays fast & loose with the facts. These things usually don't bother me, as long as the movie is entertaining. This one is pretty good, with a great performance from Barbara Stanwyck. Also good work from Preston Foster, Moroni Olsen, Melvyn Douglas, and a quality supporting cast. Loved Chief Thunderbird as Sitting Bull and Iron Eyes Cody as his translator. The highlight of the movie is the footage from the wild west show.As with the later Annie Get Your Gun, this features the scene where Annie throws a shooting contest so her man won't look bad. The real-life Annie actually beat her guy, Frank Butler, and later married him. He was happy for her to have the spotlight. So a guy in the late 19th century was more secure with himself than the men involved with making these stories in the 20th century.

I was intrigued by the opening narrative introducing the story as it paid tribute to Annie Oakley, a legend who made her mark a 'half century' ago. Here it is more than seventy years since the film was made, and it still holds up as an entertaining if highly fictional Western based on the life of the sure shot artist and her days with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show.Though Barbara Stanwyck is best know for her role as Victoria Barkley, matriarch of 'The Big Valley' TV Western family, it's easy to see how she naturally fit in with the Western genre as she raises her rifle to knock clay pigeons out of the sky. Historically, I'm not sure if it would have gone down that way, but Annie admitting she didn't have the heart to beat Toby Walker in the shooting contest because he was 'just too pretty', was a neat way to set up the rest of the story.What adds a lot to the film in entertainment value are the humorous bits thrown in by a host of characters. I was surprised to see Willie Best as the second cook attempting to pilfer a quail for himself early in the picture, while Andy Clyde worked his expressive face for maximum effect as hotel owner MacIvor. The best though, was Chief Thunder Bird in his characterization of Sitting Bull; he had a couple of clever bits with the disappearing bed and the 'scalping' scene. I don't think the real Sitting Bull would have been as amusing, but it works here.At the center of the story is the subtle hint of a romance on the part of Annie's manager Hogarth (Melvyn Douglas), and a more overt one between Annie and her big top rival, Toby Walker (Preston Foster). Toby starts out the story as the guy you want to hate, but manages to come through the story as a decent guy. The film's abrupt finish with Toby and Annie in warm embrace is the kind of ending that I'm sure made movie goers of the era believe they got their money's worth.

While I am a history teacher and my friends and family HATE watching historical films with me because I often find fault with the way movies often handle the facts in a fast and loose manner, I still managed to like this film and kept my mouth shut about its many inaccuracies! Part of this is because when I watched the film I didn't know that much about Annie Oakley and another was because I was having too much fun to complain. I spotted a few errors but in researching more about her after the film was over, I found that most of the film was fiction. Despite this, I still am not complaining because I liked the film so much plus Miss Oakley is a rather mythic figure already and little impact on history (though she did a lot for women's rights--at least indirectly).It's interesting that Oakley (Barbara Stanwyck) is not the sole focus of the film. It's much more of an ensemble film and the movie is not about her entire life--just one small fictionalized portion involving her falling in love with another sharp shooter. Now the facts and the fiction aren't all that different in a few key ways, so it's obvious that the facts did at least inspire the film. According to the film, Toby Walker (Preston Foster) is acknowledged as the world's greatest shooter. However, when a contest is arranged with an unknown local girl (Oakley), she allows him to win but is invited to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a featured star. Then, her budding love for Toby is hidden by her and Toby so that they can foster a publicity campaign that they are rivals. In reality, the real sharpshooter was Francis "Frank" E. Butler and Oakley beat him during this shoot-off. However, they did marry and they did travel with Buffalo Bill, though they first traveled with a different and less famous show. The romance, at least the way the film portrayed it, is pretty bogus.Another bogus aspect of the film is the involvement of Sitting Bull. While he did apparently know Miss Oakley and did nickname her "Little Sure Shot", he was only with the show a few months. Sadly, almost all the wonderful scenes featuring him in the film didn't happen and it's too bad, as he was the best character in the film! For an American Indian in the 1930s, this portrayal was amazingly sensitive and showed him as a rather decent and clever guy.There's a lot more to the film that is bogus, but as I said the film is so well written and fun, I found myself uncharacteristically NOT complaining as the truth wasn't quite as fun and exciting as fiction. A lovely film thanks to good but distorted writing, excellent acting and brisk direction.Interesting facts: Andy Clyde plays the hotel owner. In the 1920s, he was a big silent comedy star as well as director and writer. Also, Pert Kelton plays the lady who likes Toby at the beginning of the film. She was the first 'Alice Kramden' in the Honeymooner's segments of "The Jackie Gleason Show".