Oklahoma! (1955)
(Fred Zinneman, US 1955, 145 min., 35mm)
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s classic musical is brought to the screen with Technicolor verve. The soundtrack is filled with memorable songs, including “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” and “I Cain’t Say No,” while the cast shines with performances by Gordon MacRae, Gloria Grahame, Shirley Jones, Eddie Albert, and Rod Steiger. In 1906 in the Oklahoma Territory, Laurey (Jones) and Ado Annie (Grahame) are the apexes in a pair of love triangles on the morning of a box lunch social. Laurey loves Curly (MacRae), but is also persistently pursued by farmhand Jud (Steiger). Traveling salesman Ali Hakim (Albert) has saved up the fifty dollars required by Annie’s father to woo Annie, but Annie is distracted by returning cowboy Will Parker (Gene Nelson).