Oklahoma! (1955) |
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Oklahoma! Cast |
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Movie Highlights |
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Other InformationAwardsBest Cinematography, Color Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Film Editing Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Film from any Source Writers Guild of America, USA [1956] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Sound, Recording Academy Awards [1956] (Won/Nominated: Won) Plot SummaryRodgers and Hammerstein`s 1943 Broadway musical was considered revolutionary for a multitude of reasons, not least of which were the play`s intricate integration of song and storyline, and the simplicity and austerity of its production design. The 19... TaglineComplete - intact - with every scene - every song - of the motion picture that ran a year on Broadway at $3.50! (general release Cinemascope version) Complete...Intact...with Every Scene...Every Song! (general release Cinemascope version) Now everyone can see it-at popular prices! (general release Cinemascope version) It`s Here! (first run Todd- AO version) Now a motion picture as big as all outdoors! (first run Todd-AO version) The best loved musical of our time! (first run Todd-AO version) DiscographySinglesAll `er Nothin` Entr`Acte Exit Music Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin` (Finale) Oklahoma! People Will Say We`re In Love (Reprise) The Farmer and the Cowman I Cain`t Say No Kansas City Laurey`s Dream Ballet Many A New Day Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin` Out of My Dreams Overture, Main Titles People Will Say We`re In Love Pore Jud Is Daid The Surrey With the Fringe On Top |
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Trivia |
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Trivia and QuotesQuotes Ado Annie Carnes: He called me his Persian kitten!
Carnes: what`d you call her that for?
Ali Hakim: Ohh - I don`t remember...
Ado Annie Carnes: I do! He said I`s like a Persian kitten cause they is the cats with the soft round tails!
Carnes: [cocking his gun] That`s enough. In this country that better be a proposal of marriage. Ado Annie Carnes: Sometimes there seems like times that men ain`t got no need for women.
Girl: There`s sometimes women ain`t got no need for men.
Ado Annie Carnes: Yeah, but who wants to be dead? Ali Hakim: I wanted to marry her when I saw the moonlight shining on the barrel of her father`s shotgun. Ali Hakim: It`s a wonderful thing to be married. I got a brother in Persia got six wives.
Ado Annie Carnes: Six wives all at once?
Will Parker: Why, sure. That`s the way they do in them countries.
Ali Hakim: Not always; I got a brother in Persia only got one wife. He`s a bachelor. Ali Hakim: You`d hardly ever see your daughter no more!
Carnes: That`d be all right. Just take care of her, son. Curly: If she liked me any more, she`d sic the dogs on me. Jud Fry: Look at me. I`m a hired hand. I got dirt on my hands. Pig slop. I ain`t fit to touch you, am I - you`re better. Oh, you`re so much better, Miss Laurey Williams! Well we`ll see how much better you are, and then you won`t be so free and easy and hifalutin` with your airs! You such a FINE lady! Laurey: Curly! You`re sittin` on the stove!
Curly: Yeouch!
[Jumps up, feels the stove]
Curly: Cold as a hunk of ice.
Laurey: Wish it would`ve burned a hole in your pants. Will Parker: I don`t know what to make of you! You`re too purty to be a skunk! Too thin to be a snake! To little to be a man, and too big to be a mouse! I reckon you`re a rat!
Ali Hakim: That`s logical. Will Parker: Now that I got that fifty dollars, you name the date.
Ado Annie Carnes: August 15th.
Will Parker: Why August 15th?
Ado Annie Carnes: Because that was the first day I`se kissed!
Will Parker: Oh was it? I didn`t remember that!
Ado Annie Carnes: You wasn`t there.Trivia The studio scenes were shot at M-G-M in autumn of 1954, the first time that an outside production company not releasing through M-G-M was allowed to film a feature there. When asked about her distinctive haircut in the film, Lizanne Truex said that because of the innocent tomboyish behavior of her "Goon Girl" character, the studio hair stylist changed her "Pixie Cut" to a "Bowl Cut" -- "Like the little kids of the period were given." During the filming, Ms. Truex was primping before a mirror backstage, bemoaning the results, with Jane Fischer looking on. Director Fred Zinnemann included that charming vignette in the "Many a New Day" dance routine at the suggestion of `Agnes De Mille`, who happened to see the scene and liked what she saw. Betty Hutton turned down the role of Ado Annie, a role that could have revived her screen career. She instead chose to do a TV special called Satins and Spurs (1954) (TV). In Sheila MacRae`s autobiographical book "Hollywood Mother of the Year" in her chapter titled, "Curly, Billy, and Me", she revealed that Gordon MacRae had very few waves in his hair. This posed a problem since he would be playing a man who got his nickname from his curly locks. Movie hairdressers tried to fix it but Oscar Hammerstein was unhappy with the results and suggested that Gordon get a permanent. Gordon refused but instead agreed to allow his wife Sheila to finger-curl his hair each morning so his character`s name, Curly, was believable. In the Todd-AO version of the movie, there is more picture visible in the periphery than in the CinemaScope version. While the peripheral picture on each side of the main action is very detailed, it is visibly distorted at times when there is physical action such as movement on the periphery in long-shots. Marc Platt and Bambi Linn are the only cast members from the original Broadway stage production to appear in the film, but they do not perform their original stage roles. Shirley Jones` film debut. The ending scene in the "Kansas City" routine proved to be rewarding for the "Goon Girls" (Lizanne Truex and Jane Fischer). Jumping off a moving train into the arms of the waiting cowboys entailed perfect timing. Just before the first take, a union representative called for an "adjustment", which turned out to be an additional $250 for each jump because of the hazard. Seven takes later, director Fred Zinnemann was satisfied, leading Lizanne Truex to remark that they must remember to call "Adjustment!" more often as she had a 1951 Ford to pay off. The original Todd-AO presentations had a top ticket price of $3.50. This would be equal to approximately $45.00 in 2006 dollars. The poignant scene in "Many a New Day", where the blonde "Goon Girl" Lizanne Truex rests her head on the shoulder of Shirley Jones, came on the 43rd take. Director Fred Zinnemann was unhappy with the way the girls gathered around Ms. Jones, and he came up with this idea. The two teens infatuated with Will Parker were an invention of Director Fred Zinnemann and choreographer Agnes de Mille. Lizanne Truex (blonde) and Jane Fischer (brunette) were originally slated to appear only in the "Kansas City" routine. Zinneman and de Mille liked the girls` work so much that they decided to add them -- and their characters "The Goon Girls" -- to the entire film. Fred Zinnemann wanted the part of "Ado Annie" to be played comically, but Gloria Grahame kept putting a sexy twist to the part, so he told the "Goon Girls" that he would use them more extensively as comic relief to compensate for Ms. Grahame`s interpretation. They appeared in every dance scene and had more screen time than some of the co-stars. Since the girls were going to have so much exposure, there was some discussion as to what to call them. Fred Zinnemann said that because they were always "gooning" (fooling) around, they should be called "Goon Girls", and the epithet was born. Lizanne Truex also had three one-liners, somewhat unusual for ensemble dancers. While waiting for the film to be released, Ms. Truex joined the European tour of the stage version of "Oklahoma!" which starred Shirley Jones and her then-husband, Jack Cassidy. In this tour, Ms. Truex played the role of "The Girl Who Falls Down," performed in the film by Virginia Bosler. Tone deaf, Gloria Grahame, who played Ado Annie, sang without dubbing, which required that her songs to be edited together from recordings made almost literally note by note. "Oklahoma!" opened at the St. James Theater in New York City on May 31, 1943 and ran for 2,212 performances, setting a record. Eli Wallach was at one point suggested for the role of Jud Fry, as was Marlon Brando. Filmed in both CinemaScope and Todd-AO. When both films are seen together, subtle differences may be discerned in such areas as line readings and overall pacing. Finding "corn as high as an elephant`s eye" proved to be quite a challenge. Since filming was to take place out of season, no tall cornfields were to be found anywhere. The job was given to the people of the University of Arizona Agricultural Department, who planted each stalk in individual containers and held their breath. With rain and good luck, the corn grew to a height of 16 feet, causing Oscar Hammerstein to quip: "The corn is now as high as the eye of an elephant on top of another elephant." Joanne Woodward was considered for the role of Laurey Williams. Nogales, Arizona was declared an honorary part of Oklahoma for the period of shooting, by the governor. Paul Newman and James Dean were among those who were originally considered for the role of Curly. It has also been reported that Frank Sinatra had been offered the role of Curly, but when he heard that every scene of the film would be shot twice; once in Todd-AO and again in CinemaScope, he turned it down. Mr. Sinatra was accustomed to filming his scenes in any motion picture once... and only once! The film`s soundtrack album became one of the most successful movie albums ever released, more successful than the 1943 original Broadway cast album of "Oklahoma!", although the Broadway production was the biggest stage hit of its time, and for many years after. The film soundtrack album continues to be a popular seller even to this day. The musical that this film is based on was originally entitled "Away We Go!" The title was changed to "Oklahoma!" after the popularity of that song with the play`s initial audiences. It was the first Broadway musical in which every single song had a direct relation to the plot, and in which there were none that were simply musical interludes. (Even "Show Boat", which actually is the first Broadway musical in which most of the songs have a direct relation to the plot, originally had one or two numbers which were simply thrown in so that something could be going on while the scenery was being changed, or even to suit certain cast members who perforned "specialties" in the original 1927 production. These specialties were deleted from later productions of "Show Boat".) The song "It`s a Scandal! It`s a Outrage!" was omitted from the film. It was sung by Ali Hakim and the Male Chorus, and they expressed their "outrage" at "fathers with shotguns" in the song. Although James Mitchell and Bambi Linn danced the parts of Curly and Laury in the Dream Ballet, Rod Steiger did his own dancing in that sequence because there was no one who looked enough like him from the back. Despite his initial uncertainties, and after considerable coaching from choreographer Agnes de Mille, Steiger actually did a credible job, later calling it one of the biggest challenges he ever had. Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs, a part-Cherokee playwright born in Oklahoma. James Mitchell was working on The Prodigal (1955) at the same time as the dream ballet. Shot on location in and around Nogales, Arizona, because the real Oklahoma in 1955 was so heavily farmed and developed that few suitable areas could be found that resembled the highly-rural and undeveloped Oklahoma of the turn of the century when the musical is set. The general release version, shot in Cinemascope, is the one that played most theatres throughout the USA. This version was not released until late 1956, after the first run Todd-AO version had played New York for more than a year, and after the film versions of two other Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musicals, "Carousel" and "The King and I", had already been released throughout the United States. The song "Kansas City" was edited for censors. Will sang it, "I could swear that she was padded from her shoulders to her heel. And then she started dancing and her dancing made me feel that every single thing she had was absolutely real." In the original play script it went, "I could swear that she was padded from her shoulders to her heels. And later in the second act when she began to peel. She proved that everything she had was absolutely real." The song "Lonely Room" (sung by Jud) was omitted from the film. In the song, Jud explains his bitter resentments and deep frustrations. Possibly this was considered too strong for 1955 film-goers. The world premiere was preceded by a parade of fringed surreys, led by then-Oklahoma Gov. Raymond Gary (1908-1993, governor 1955-1959), which made its way from the St. James Theater, where the stage version of "Oklahoma" had opened 12 years earlier, to the Rivoli Theater for the film premiere. There, standing atop a carpet of transplanted Oklahoma soil, Gov. Gary helped raise the Oklahoma state flag from the theater staff and officially proclaimed the Rivoli to be Oklahoma territory. This is the first Todd-AO production and the first of three such productions to be shot twice, first at 24 fps (to produce the general-release version in 35 mm) and finally at 30 fps (to produce the roadshow version in 70 mm). The 35 mm version is presented in CinemaScope; the 70 mm version is presented in Todd-AO. This was Fred Zinnemann`s first musical, and it cost a then-astronomical $6.8 million. | ||
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