everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Better than most musicals, but far from perfect. A very limited plot that mostly consists of just one party. Some brilliant songs, backed up with a couple of decent dance numbers. The cast do a good job - though the women give the best performances. Shirley Jones is luminescent in her first film. Gloria Grahame & Charlotte Greenwood are feisty and witty. The film sags a bit in the middle. Laurey's extended dream sequence (aided by smelling salts) is a strange narrative departure - equally bizarre as it is boring. The overlong film would benefit greatly from it being removed.For me, the character of Jud could also be removed completely - his main song is the musical low-point. Although he does provide a genuinely thrilling scene, and the greatest cinematic moment. The camera follows his carriage racing through the plains, crashing through rivers and trees and narrowly avoids colliding with a train. The conclusion to his character seemed unnecessary and over-dramatic though - even for a musical!

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.

Oh what a beautiful morning! Yes, what a wonderful day! You know, I've got a beautiful feeling! Everything's, everything's going my way! Yes, indeed, it's a great time to talk about this classic musical. Based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs, and turn into a Broadway musical in 1943 by a team of composers, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. In return, the stage play was turn into a 1955 movie musical, which itself was a box-office smash, not only with audiences, but with critics. The film won several Academy Awards that year. Set in 1906 Oklahoma, the movie tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain (Gordon MacRae) looking forward to asking his long-time, off and on, girlfriend, farm girl Laurey Williams (Shirley Jones) to the box social dance. Only to find out, that her creepy farm hand, Jud Fry (Rod Steiger) has ask her out, first. Laurey accept his hand, only to regret it, later, when he tries to committed unlawful advantages toward her. Now Curly must find a way to rescue his girl from this brute, before it's too late. Can Curly save Laurey or will Curly and Laurey end up getting burn? Watch the movie to find out! Without spoiling the movie, too much; I have to say, that this film was very disappointing to me. I thought, some of the songs were somewhat too generic peachy & All-American bland. A good example is the love ballad, 'People Will Say we're in Love'. I was really, hoping for a stronger, more risky love piece. Another thins that kinda upset me about the songs used in the film is the censorships. I don't like, how the song, "Kansas City' was rewritten to make it, more family-friendly, yet they have songs like 'Poor Jud is daid', being allowed. I found that song, in which the hero try to suggest the villain to commit suicide to be out of character, crude, and disturbing. I really don't get, how Curly can be, call a hero, after that!? I don't like, how the film omit, some songs like "It's a Scandal, It's an Outrage" and "Lonely Room". "Lonely Room" more, because that song gave Jud, so much, more depth that was really needed. Songs like "The Farmer and the Cowman" are just awful. First off, it does not further the plot, at all. Second off, the lyrics are repetitive, corny, annoying, and childish uninspiring. Last, I dislike how the song end, mid-through, because of a fight, only to continue after worth. It was a waste of time. Talking about waste of time, any of the songs that Will Parker (Gene Nelson) & Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame) had to sing, felt like filler. I really didn't care about their love subplot, at all, due to their horrible acting. I really didn't like, how Gloria Grahame plays Ado Annie at all. She seem more like a clueless naïve asexual bookworm, than a floozy. Also, she sings as if she's about pee her pants. I really don't get, why they hired a tone-deaf actress for this role!? Honestly, most of the characters seem, underdeveloped and unlikeable. I really can't like, Curly, because he's the one that kinda leaded Laurey into making stupid decision. Second off, I can't really, feel bad for Laurey, because her troubles began when she was trying to spite Curly. It's her damn fault! The few characters that I seem to like, was Jud. The reason, why is because Rod Steiger really play him, wonderful. Also as creepy as Jud is, it's hard not to feel at least a little sorry for him, with the way he's ostracized by the town and seems to be completely starved for affection. He had the most character development, and by far, had one of the better singing voices in the film. I just hate, the film ends him, very anticlimax. Another character that I love, is Aunt Eller (Charlotte Greenwood). She had some of the best funny one-liners in the film. The songs that I love are, 'Oklahoma', 'Oh, What a beautiful Morning', & 'The Surrey with the Fringe on Top". They're by far, the most entertaining parts of the film. It's also nice to hear that the song "Oklahoma" was made the state song in 1953. Another thing that I adore, is the surreal ballet dream sequence. While, I really found it to be, out of place. It's by far, the best thing in the film. Way better than those cheesy tap dance numbers. Not only that, you really get to see, the fever dream, that the writer was going through, when writing this sequence. Writer, Lorenz Hart was going through, his longstanding alcoholism, when ask to help out on Oklahoma by Hammerstein & Rodgers. You really get to see, his downward spiral, here in this part. Sadly, the alcoholism, was too much for him, as he had to exit the product, because writing anymore, and Rodgers & Hammerstein, went to find a new collaborator. Parts of his work, are still shown here. Surprising, the film 'Oklahoma!' follows, the original stage version extremely closely, more so than any other Rodgers and Hammerstein stage-to-film adaptation. It does help, that Rodgers & Hammerstein personally oversaw the film to prevent the studio from making much changes. While 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', for me, it wasn't that good. Overall: As a 'book musical'! It doesn't work. The songs and dances are not fully integrated into a well-made story with serious dramatic goals that are able to evoke genuine emotions other than laughter. While, upbeat, and colorful in 1950s. These days, the musical movie comes off, as very vanilla & plain. Way too sweet for a cowboy film. I do recommended watching, but it's has little to no re-watch ability for me.

It took seemingly forever for the first Broadway musical teaming of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to make it to the screen. The Broadway production lasted 7 years, and the touring production, which would later come back to Broadway, kept the anticipation for the movie version at a great height. New York has been revisited by the musical numerous times, through brief City Center revivals in the 1950's and 60's, a Lincoln Center production in 1969, a successful production in 1979 and as recently as 2002, a revival based upon a successful London revision which was filmed for BBC and PBS starring Hugh Jackmann. I saw that brilliant Broadway production which only increased my admiration for the film, one of the very first movie versions of a Broadway musical I saw in my youth.It is ironic that the play, "Green Grows the Lilacs", has pretty much disappeared other than as a script since the first production of the musical in 1943. A folksy reminder of home, family, friendship and the power of the land, it was the definitive Broadway show for the era of World War II. While the movie opened long after the war had ended, it was greeted with cheers and has remained a favorite among connoisseurs of Broadway musicals, praised for remaining faithful to the original book. The film has perfect casting with Gordon MacRae as the cowboy Curly, Shirley Jones as the sweet but feisty Laurie, Charlotte Greenwood as the leggy Aunt Eller, Gene Nelson as good ole' boy Will, Gloria Grahame as the flirty Ado Annie (as far from her film noir roles as you can get!) and Rod Steiger as the misunderstood Jud, a villain you empathize with.MacRae and Jones are as memorable a team as Jeanette and Nelson, Judy and Mickey, Kathryn and Howard, and of course, Gordon and Doris. It is sad that their teaming came towards the end of the big movie musical era with only one other pairing ("Carousel") and that Jones is more remembered as a mother on a TV sitcom than for her musical talents and dramatic abilities which won her an Oscar for the powerful "Elmer Gantry". MacRae is masculine without being macho, rugged without being a bully, and confidant without being egocentric. Greenwood utilizes her trademark kick in the big "Kansas City" production number, still able to do this 30 years after her success as a singing and dancing Broadway comic. Grahame manages to instill Ado Annie with heart as well as feistiness, and while maybe a tad too old for the part, is still convincing. As for the songs, it is one of the most sung Broadway scores in history, but some of these songs ("Many a New Day" and "All Er' Nuthin'" to name a few) have been lost in the success of the score. "Many a New Day", in particularly, has been beautifully filmed, and is one of my favorite moments in the film. Of the songs cut from the original score and not utilized in the film, their absence doesn't take anything away from the movie and has helped speed it up a bit as well. Director Fred Zinneman gives the film a perfect pacing, and the entire ensemble pitches in to make this a rousing classic that will remain legendary while other films will fade into obscurity.