| Oklahoma! | |
|---|---|
 Film Credits |
|
| Directed by | Fred Zinnemann |
| Produced by | Arthur Hornblow Jr. |
| Written by | Lynn
Riggs (play) Oscar Hammerstein II (play) Sonya Levien William Ludwig |
| Starring | Gordon MacRae Gloria Grahame Gene Nelson Charlotte Greenwood Shirley Jones |
| Music by | Richard Rodgers |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees Floyd Crosby |
| Editing by | George Boemler Gene Ruggiero |
| Studio | Magna Corporation |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio
Pictures Inc. (first run) 20th Century Fox (second run) |
| Release date(s) | October 11, 1955 |
| Running time | 145 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5,000,000 (estimated) |
The 1943 musical play Oklahoma!, written by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II (see Rodgers and Hammerstein), was adapted into a musical film in 1955, starring Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones (in her film debut), Rod Steiger, Charlotte Greenwood, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, James Whitmore and Eddie Albert. The production was the first musical directed by Fred Zinnemann.[1]
Oklahoma! was the first feature film photographed in the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process. It was simultaneously shot in the more established Cinemascope 35 mm format to allow presentation in theaters lacking 70 mm equipment. Hence, there are actually two different versions of the film comprising different takes.[1][2]
In 2007, Oklahoma! was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
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Rodgers and Hammerstein personally oversaw the film themselves to prevent the studio from making the changes that were then typical of stage-to-film musical adaptations—such as putting in new songs by different composers. They also maintained artistic control over the film versions of several of their other stage musicals.
The film Oklahoma! followed the original stage version extremely closely, more so than any other Rodgers and Hammerstein stage-to-film adaptation. However, it did divide the very long (more than 45 minutes) first scene into several shorter scenes, changing the locations of several of the songs in the process.
In a nod to Green Grow the Lilacs, which was the basis of Oklahoma!, Jud attempts revenge on Curly and Laurey by burning a haystack they stand on after the wedding, rather than simply attacking Curly with a knife, as in the stage version of the musical. In the film, however, as Curly and Laurey stand atop the burning haystack, Jud still does pull a knife and taunt Curly. The couple jumps down, with Curly landing on Jud and inadvertently causing him to fall on his own knife. (In the film Carousel, another Rodgers and Hammerstein adaptation, Billy Bigelow, also played by Gordon MacRae, would similarly die by accidentally falling on his own knife).
Robert Russell Bennett expanded his Broadway orchestrations, Jay Blackton conducted, and Agnes de Mille again choreographed. The film omitted very little from the stage production, cutting only two songs (Ali Hakim's "It's a Scandal, It's an Outrage" and Jud's "Lonely Room"), and thus ran two-and-a-half hours, much longer than most other screen musicals of the time. The movie of Oklahoma! revived an early talkie trend which had not lasted long—filming stage musicals virtually complete, and showing them as road show attractions (two performances a day, usually with an intermission, like stage productions).[3] Although the film versions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel (1956) and The King and I (1956) did not have intermissions and cut more from the stage originals than did the film version of Oklahoma!, they also ran over two hours, followed the stage originals quite closely and retained most of their songs. South Pacific (1958), as well as most other stage-to-film musical adaptations that came after it, did have an intermission and was also quite long, as was The Sound of Music (1965). The trend of "road show" stage-to-film musicals lasted into the early 1970s, the last of them being the film versions of Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Man of La Mancha (1972).
The film won two Academy Awards and was nominated for two others. The wins came in Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture (for Robert Russell Bennett, Jay Blackton, and Adolph Deutsch) and Best Sound, Recording (Fred Hynes). Nominations came in the categories of Best Cinematography, Color (Robert Surtees) and Best Film Editing (for Gene Ruggiero and George Boemler).
In its original theatrical releases, the Magna Corporation handled distribution of the Todd-AO 70 mm version, while RKO Pictures distributed the 35 mm anamorphic CinemaScope version. Later, 20th Century Fox assumed release of the 35 mm edition. Decades later, the major ancillary rights to this film reverted to The Samuel Goldwyn Company and re-issued both the 70 mm and 35 mm versions theatrically. However, home video rights went outside the parameters of Goldwyn. CBS Video acquired the home video license, and later passed on to its successor CBS/Fox Video. After CBS was bought by Viacom in 2000, the CBS/Fox venture folded, and under contract with the estates of Rodgers and Hammerstein, 20th Century Fox assumed the video (and later DVD) rights, as well as other underlying rights, so the Fox studio, in a way, has back some of its rights it had lost years earlier. All U.S. domestic home video versions are currently by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, while Goldwyn Company successor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer now handles theatrical and television rights.
For unexplained reasons the original UK DVD release is a pan and scan version from a noticeably grainy Cinemascope print, even though the companion DVD of South Pacific was taken from a pristine Todd-AO master and presented in widescreen. The 50th Anniversary US DVD release of Oklahoma! by partial rights holder 20th Century Fox is a double-disc release that includes both the Cinemascope and original 70 mm Todd-AO versions in widescreen. Shirley Jones does audio commentary on the Todd-AO presentation.[2] In March 2006 this version was also released in the UK as part of a set of remastered Rodgers & Hammerstein DVDs.
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