The MoFo Top 100 Westerns: Countdown

Oklahoma!, is one of the great musicals of all time. Based on the wildly successful 1943 stage play of the same name by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. It took nearly 10 years of negotiations to get Rodgers and Hammerstein to agree to sell the play rights. What made them change their minds was a new film process...and it's personable and determined inventor, Mike Todd.

Mike Todd was co founder of Todd-AO along with American Optical. Rodgers and Hammerstein was so impressed with the new 70mm ultra wide screen process, that they agreed to partner with Todd-AO and create Magna Picture Corporation. Thus they sold the rights to Oklahoma! but insured that they still kept creative control.

The movie was shot in two different processes...Wide screen CinemaScope which used 35mm prints and a special anamorphic camera lens to create a wide image...and the new Todd-AO which used large 65mm film and ultra wide angle lens to produce a 70mm print. The interesting thing about this is both cameras were not used at the same time, instead they had to shoot a scene, then reshoot the scene with the next camera. This resulted in two very similar but different films.

Luckily for film fans, the 50th anniversary DVD has both the CinemaScope and the Todd-AO 70mm versions. Though only the CinemaScope version was restored...and it looks beautiful!


But what about the movie? What can I say that hasn't been said? The cast is great! This was Shirley Jones's first movie and she's paired with Gordon MacRae. Shirley Jones is charming in this and the pair can really sing up a storm! A second romantic pairing is with Gloria Grahame of noir movie fame with Gene Nelson. Gloria is a hoot as the silly farm girl who can't say no to boys! She sings her own numbers too, and with her distinctive voice it really comes across as personable and funny. I loved her music numbers.


Charlotte Greenwood and Eddie Albert also have some plum roles and add a lot of spice to this fun musical. But what is really weird is, Rod Steiger is in this movie. Steiger is one of the great dramatic actors and he plays a nasty heavy here. His character is suppose to be so unhinged that he once burnt a family alive because the daughter jilted him. He's hell bent to get young Laurey (Shirley Jones) and goes as far as trying to stick a knive in the eye of poor Gordon MacRae. It's an oddly dark character for a musical but then again it makes Oklahoma! so memorable.

The dream sequence number is another unique scene that uses different actors to play the lead roles, except Rod Steiger is also in the dream (which makes it all the more unusual). The staging and choreography of the dream sequences is excellent, though it seems like you're watching a completely different movie.