Oklahoma! is a fantastic film, and one of the two criticisms I have is that I didn't like the way "I can't say No!" was sung. Still the whole film looks gorgeous, and Fred Zimmerman does more than a respectable job directing if rather dry in places and sadly he messes up the title song. Curly is played by the much-underrated Gordon McRae, and Laurie played superbly by Shirley Jones. See this pair in Carousel and you'll understand why they are so talented. The score by Rodgers and Hammerstein is outstanding, including "Many a New Day", "Oh What a Beautiful Morning", and the title song. As Judd, Rod Steiger is very good, but it isn't his finest performance. I absolutely loved the execution of the dream sequence. It was beautifully choreographed, beautifully expressed, and beautifully arranged musically. See this beautiful film, which is a 9/10 Bethany Cox.

Although "Oklahoma!" is considered a classic, I didn't get around to watching it for a very long time due to a horrible trauma I suffered when I was 18. I was invited by my future mother-in-law to accompany her to a local production of the play. And, I gotta say that it was god-awful--so bad that I resisted watching the film for decades! However, given that I have seen just about every important musical filmed, it seemed like it was finally time to get over my feelings and just see the film!

For the most part, I found "Oklahoma!" to be pleasant fun...but also a bit dated in style. I think that time has not been great to this musical, as the very simple story line seem pretty old fashioned. There also is an inexplicable ballet potion in the middle--more about that later. On the other hand, many of the songs are pretty catchy and there are tons of hit songs you'll recognize from the soundtrack. In addition, the singing of Gordon MacRea is just amazing--and he never sounded better--wow. As for the rest of the singing, it did seem odd that several of the characters seemed to be folks who are NOT singers--and their being chosen for the film was surprising. In some cases this worked (as Ado Annie was supposed to be bad). The movie was quite pretty--with a nice wide open look in many of the scenes (though a few were obviously done on stage--an odd choice in style). Overall, the good far outweighs the bad--and I think the reason I hated the musical before was simply because the local group performing it were lousy singers and actors.

Now a bit about the ballet portion. About midway through the film, Shirley Jones' character has a dream--and this portion of the film really is bad. Now I am NOT saying the dancing wasn't lovely--it was a good example of ballet meeting modern dance. However, it did not fit the film at all. The tempo was way too slow, the entire production looked terribly stagy and, in a weird twist, the actors (except for Rod Steiger) were NOT the same ones in the rest of the film. In other words, semi-lookalikes played MacRea, Jones the rest of the cast. Odd and really out of place--and I really think the film would have benefited from it being dropped entirely--especially as it does nothing to further the plot.

Overall, "Oklahoma!" is an enjoyable but uneven film. I liked it but cannot ignore the film's shortcomings. Still, on balance it's well worth your time.

UPDATE: I recently went to a special screening of this film and I was able to see it like it was intended--with a simulated Todd-AO format. Seen on the big screen like it was intended, I was much more favorable towards the film. And, I also noticed that since I'd seen the film a couple times before, I found myself singing quietly along with many of the songs. I think I was too hasty in my previous review and this is a pretty dandy old film.

There are many moments in "Oklahoma" when you want to jump out of your seat and shout for sheer joy,Gordon Macrae singing "The corn is as high as a elephant's eye" with magnificent disregard for the indefinite article,a daringly cast Rod Steiger intoning "Poor Jud is daid","Everything's up to date in Kansas City","I'm just a girl who cain't say no",I'm in danger of turning this into a list of songs but the film is so much more than a hook to hang the music on. Agnes de Mille's choreography makes use of stylised "western" dancing as its starting point then adds athleticism and grace in an exhilarating mix. Its great strength is in its apparent spontaneity,the sure sign of months of hard preparation.If there is a better choreographed scene than "Kansas City" in any movie musical I have yet to see it. Gloria Grahame,more usually cast as a gangsters' moll or a good-time girl has just the proper air of bruised innocence for Ado Annie with her wide eyes and slight lisp."I wanna say come on let's go just when I oughta say nix" is a brilliant marriage of words and music and she interprets it as if she was genuinely confused by her mixed feelings. A wonderful performance and the benchmark against which every subsequent Ado Annie should be measured. The young Shirley Jones brings an unprecedented freshness and joie de vivre to the role of Laurey at the start of a long and distinguished movie career.Her peaches and cream beauty graced the big screen for another 40 - odd years but never to better effect. I have reservations about the ballet which I daresay was avant garde at the time of the first stage production in 1943 but nowadays judged within the context of the whole movie seems out of place .Perhaps it was initially conceived as a sop to the culture commissars of the day in order to boost the film musical's attempt to be recognised as "art". It became a bit of a vogue for a short while in the mid - fifties but thankfully a rather brief one as neither balletomanes nor musical fans were entirely happy with the hybridised product. In an era when the word "great" is so over used as to become virtually meaningless,it is no longer sufficient to say that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote some great musicals.You have to say that they wrote some superlative musicals. And "Oklahoma" was arguably the most original innovative,tuneful and influential of them all. I am grateful to all the considerable artists concerned in its production.