Oklahoma is an enduring musical, but with such a simple story it is also overlong, has two dimensional characters and despite some classic songs it also has its share of forgettable ones and there are lots of them.
The story is just about two romances in the rural farmland. Curly (Gordon McCrae) a cowboy who guides cattle and Jud (Rod Steiger) a hired farm hand both pursue the lovely Laurey (Shirley Jones.) It is a losing battle for the poor and brooding Jud and the rejection is driving him insane.
The other story is more comic, Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame ) also being pursued by two suitors. The exotic slippery tongued peddler Hakim from Persia (Eddie Albert) and Will Parker (Gene Nelson) a cowboy who arrives to town to marry Ado Annie with the fifty dollars he promised her father he would have. The film was made in 1955, Hakim does not have a chance to marry a white woman! Then again Hakim just wants girls who want to have fun.
The film is colourful but hokum. There are some nice sequences such as a dream sequence featuring Steiger. However Steiger who would go on to become an Oscar winning actor is woefully misused in this film. Just cast as a blatant villain when his character should had been more shaded and Steiger would had delivered a much better performance in spades.
The ending is rather poorly staged with the haystack fire and the fight between Jud and Curly. The courtroom scene is also rather laughable.
The story is just about two romances in the rural farmland. Curly (Gordon McCrae) a cowboy who guides cattle and Jud (Rod Steiger) a hired farm hand both pursue the lovely Laurey (Shirley Jones.) It is a losing battle for the poor and brooding Jud and the rejection is driving him insane.
The other story is more comic, Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame ) also being pursued by two suitors. The exotic slippery tongued peddler Hakim from Persia (Eddie Albert) and Will Parker (Gene Nelson) a cowboy who arrives to town to marry Ado Annie with the fifty dollars he promised her father he would have. The film was made in 1955, Hakim does not have a chance to marry a white woman! Then again Hakim just wants girls who want to have fun.
The film is colourful but hokum. There are some nice sequences such as a dream sequence featuring Steiger. However Steiger who would go on to become an Oscar winning actor is woefully misused in this film. Just cast as a blatant villain when his character should had been more shaded and Steiger would had delivered a much better performance in spades.
The ending is rather poorly staged with the haystack fire and the fight between Jud and Curly. The courtroom scene is also rather laughable.