Oklahoma! (1955) - film review

Oklahoma, in the early 1900s.  Curly, a cowboy who lives with his aunt Eller, is in love with Laurey, and has offered to take her to the Skidmore dance.  Laurey declines the invitation because she has already been asked by Jud Fry, a surly farm hand who also has the hots for her.  Laurey meets up with her friend, Ado Annie, who appears to have fallen for a peddler named Ali Hakim, even though she had intended to marry another man, Will Parker.  Meanwhile, Curly tries to dissuade Jud from taking Laurey to the dance, in vain.  In truth, Laurey despises Jed and secretly has eyes for just one man, Curly...

The first of the great Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals finally made it to the big screen, just over decade after it first triumphant staging on Broadway.  Fred Zinnemann seems an odd choice to direct the film, since his forte was gritty realist dramas not light-hearted exuberant fare such as this.   The fact that Rodgers and Hammerstein were both heavily involved in the making of the film ensured that it was never going to depart too far from the original stage production, which is both to the film’s advantage and its detriment.  We get all the great musical numbers and dance routines, but the film is hardly more than a stage treatment, taking little advantage of the possibilities that glorious CinemaScope offers (other than one or two pretty panoramic shots of the countryside).

Gordon MacRae and Gloria Grahame get the best tunes (including Oh What Beautiful Morning, and I Can’t Say No), and are the only cast members who shine, whilst Rod Steiger is patently miscast and helps to lower the standard by several notches.  The film’s central flaw is that of the musical on which it is based – its daft homespun plot.  Likewise, its strengths are that of the original show: the jaunty songs and well choreographed dances.  Oklahoma! is most definitely not the greatest of Hollywood musicals but it is hard not to succumb to its charms and enjoy it immensely, if you are in the right frame of mind.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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