Oklahoma! (1955) on Netflix
G19552h 25mComedyDramaMusicalRomanceWestern
In Oklahoma Territory, cowboy Curly McLain invites Laurey Williams to the box social. She refuses because he asked too late, then agrees to go with Jud Fry, the farm's hired hand.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.0/1015,969 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Trailer
Plot summary
Cowboy Curly McLain rides to Aunt Eller's farm and asks Laurey Williams to that night's box social, which will raise money for a schoolhouse. Annoyed that he waited so long, she turns him down, and out of spite she agrees to go with Jud Fry, the field hand who frightens her. Laurey's friend Ado Annie is pulled between two men: cowboy Will Parker has just come home from Kansas City with gifts for her, and Ali Hakim, an itinerant peddler, has won her attention while Will was away. Ado Annie's father wants Will to earn fifty dollars before he may marry her, and Will has spent what he earned. The territory itself is pressing for statehood.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Oklahoma! (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- James Dean and Paul Newman were among the many actors who tried out for Curly. Dean made a screen test with Rod Steiger for the "Poor Jud Is Dead" number, but his voice wasn't strong enough and Gordon MacRae was cast.
- Todd-AO ran at 30 frames per second, which made 35mm reduction prints impossible, so Oklahoma! was shot simultaneously in CinemaScope 35mm for theaters without 70mm equipment. There are two versions of the film, made up of different takes.
- Rodgers and Hammerstein personally oversaw the film to stop the studio making the changes typical of stage-to-film adaptations, such as adding new songs by different composers, and kept similar control over other film versions of their musicals.
- Joanne Woodward was offered Laurey, but the part went to Shirley Jones, who had already played it on stage. Eli Wallach and Ernest Borgnine were considered for Jud before Rod Steiger was cast.
- In the number "Kansas City", a few lyrics about a burlesque stripteaser had to be changed so the film would pass censorship.
- The film rights went to the Magna Theatre Corporation, founded by George Skouras, Joseph Schenck and Michael Todd, for a record $1,000,000 in 1953.
- Although the film is set in Oklahoma, the producers chose not to shoot in the title state because oil wells would be a distraction in exterior scenes, and location shooting was mostly done in Nogales, Arizona.
- The film cut only two songs and one verse from the stage show and ran two and a half hours, longer than most screen musicals of its time, becoming the first of the huge roadshow musicals that would overrun Hollywood in the 1960s.
