It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Its a Western with all the right stuff going on. Horses, saloons, whiskey, shooting, love interest, good guys, bad guys and all the wild you can stand ala shoot em ups and lynchings. Add Bogart and Cagney and what is not to like or least want to go see? Formula sure thing Western and later on to become a must see when these two stars made it famous. Meanwhile, just enjoy the shots and lore of the early West before law and order and when people were just trying to figure things out as they went sometimes at the cost of their lives. I like seeing how towns were formed, curbs, sidewalks and how the building codes were non-existent. One fire could wipe out the whole town as the buildings are so close to one another. One significant scene is the Oklahoma land rush referred to as sooners where the first to reach a parcel fair and square claimed it for their own. Who wouldn't want a nice flat piece of land next to year round water, mountains, trees etc. The rush was on and for better or worse, the West was born. Violence would continue for decades until it was tamed. Good snack movie with a tasty drink here. Mount-up and lets ride

Fast, crackling, full-of-action western spectacular with some of the most vigorously directed and imaginatively handled action footage ever made. The land rush, one imagines, uses stock footage from Cimarron and it is true that one can spot the stunt men doubling for Bogart and Cagney in the forceful finale, but such stand-out scenes as Cagney's chase after the stage with its fantastic variety of inventive camera angles and clever cross-cutting as well as its inspired use of natural locations, the shoot-out with Bond on a freight train (marred slightly by use of a process screen), the attempted rescue and lynching, and the final confrontation between Stephens and Bogart are as exciting as anything of their kind.What makes this film especially exciting is that all this action is contained in the one film and in 80 minutes at that! In addition, this film has the advantage of its cast: Bogart makes an ideal western heavy and yet he was only once again to play a role even slightly similar and that was in Virginia City (1940). His only other western roles were in A Holy Terror in which he played foreman of the villain's ranch (he didn't know he was a villain) and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a modern western set in Mexico. Cagney is in his element too as the personable, charmingly talkative, tough, law-unto-himself Kid. Among Bogart's henchmen it's nice to spot Ward Bond, Edward Pawley, Trevor Bardette (Pawley is especially convincing in his climactic scenes) and John Miljan as his smart lawyer and Arthur Aylesworth as a sombre, corrupted judge. On the other side of the fence are ranged Rosemary Lane, not the most beautiful heroine but a more realistic one and a pleasant change from the all glamor and no talent stereotype of the western girl. Donald Crisp plays an honest judge, the sort of role he could do standing on his head; Harvey Stephens is effective as the hero and Hugh Sothern has a meaty part as an empire builder. Charles Middleton is a lawyer on the right side for once and there is an amusing cameo by Ray Mayer as a frightened pianist.Bacon's direction is not only slick and assured but drives the film at a whipping pace. Production values are outstanding with vast sets, hordes of costumed extras, a Steiner music score, black-and- white photography by Wong Howe (though neither Howe nor Steiner have contributed their best work) and a fair amount of location shooting. The script has deftly combined most of the traditional elements of the western plot into a giant and extremely successful and effective block-buster.

James Cagney writes about "The Oklahoma Kid', his first western film, in his fascinating autobiography, Cagney By Cagney. It seems the original picture was the idea of screen writer Edward Paramore ( 1895-1956 ) who conceived the idea of doing a story particularly modelled after Kit Carson. Cagney and Paramore researched it and Cagney came up with some pretty exciting things he wanted to do. Warner's pulled Paramore off the script and without a word to Cagney changed the director. When he got the final script he writes; It had as much to do with actual history as the Katzenjammer Kids. It had become a typical horse opera, just another programmer. But James Cagney manages to make this film entertaining by adding his typical charming and sentimental touches, such as his character Jim Kincaid " feeling the fresh air with his finger tips " and singing his own father's favourite song, " I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard." He even got to do a fancy rope trick. In one scene Cagney is standing on a rock while a bunch of bad guys led by Humphrey Bogart and Ward Bond pound by on their horses, and Cagney's character is supposed to launch a lariat around the neck of Ward Bond's horse. Naturally, such trick roping was done by an expert, but on this occasion Cagney asked the wrangler doing the roping, to show him just how it did it. He showed him the looping and general mechanics of the procedure, and Cagney thought just for the hell of it he'd try the trick himself, never dreaming it would work. As Bogart and Ward came in on the shot riding their horses past the rock, Cagney threw the loop button-bright right over the neck of Ward's horse. He held on to the rope for just a brief second, then let go-otherwise he would have taken Ward Bond right off his perch. Cagney writes; The director, Lloyd Bacon, yelled "Cut!" "Why didn't you hang on?" Lloyd asked me. "What did you want me to do-kill Ward?" Lloyd said merrily, "Why not?" The wrangler was weary of Cagney's claims of never doing any rope tricks in his life. And every time he saw that wrangler thereafter he always said " So you never threw a rope before?" Cagney's reply; "So help me, never did." Although Cagney didn't think much of the picture, it was appreciated by audiences and praised by critics of the time. Anyone who loves James Cagney along with a solid cast of fine actors, Humphrey Bogart, Donald Crisp, Rosemary Lane, Ward Bond, will find watching this film, a lot of fun and very entertaining.

One of my favorite movie lines of all time is from The Oklahoma Kid where James Cagney expounds on his philosophy of life to Donald Crisp in a saloon as the land rush is starting.The rest of the film is your usual fast paced Cagney film, just set out west instead of the big city. It was the first western for both Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Cagney did a fine western in the Fifties Run for Cover and replaced Spencer Tracy in another one, Tribute to a Bad Man.Bogey did one other western, Virginia City, and next to that Whip McCord of the panhandle is an Oscar winning part. I'm not denigrating his work on Oklahoma Kid, but Bogart used to cringe whenever Virginia City was mentioned and that chintzy Mexican accent he was forced to adopt for that film.In Oklahoma Kid, he's the leader of a group of outlaws who've jumped the starting gun and put up a claim at the spot Hugh Sothern and son Harvey Stephens want to start a town. Rather than go to court which would tie them up for years, they agree to Bogart's terms to give him control of the vice industries of the town that would become Tulsa.Bogart's actions are those of a what was called a Sooner, one who jumped the starting gun and cheated in the land rush. The term is what gave Oklahoma its state nickname of The Sooner state. Although I've never understood why the state nickname glorifies illegal activity.So good and honest Hugh and Harvey just take it on the chin until the corruption gets way out of hand.But Hugh has another son, a lone wolf sort of character that's taken the outlaw path. That be James Cagney who settles things in his own way, the way Cagney usually does in films. The western after a period of doldrums in the early thirties when it was mostly B picture fare was making a comeback as a feature attraction. All the studios were starting to make them.Warners had two big ones in 1939, this one and Dodge City. Errol Flynn in the latter scored better with the public than Cagney did, so Flynn got to do more westerns. Cagney and Bogey went back to the city streets except for Bogey's ill conceived visit to Virginia City.But Oklahoma Kid is not a bad film and fans of the two stars will not be disappointed.