Genre Guesstimation – Oklahoma! (1955)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s genre has been chosen by Virginie of The Wonderful World of Cinema and we will be reviewing our favorite Movies Based on Plays.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of July by sending them to theatricalvirginie@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice Virginie!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Movies Based on Plays.…

“I wanted to marry her when I saw the moonlight shining on the barrel of her father’s shotgun.” – Ali Hakim

Number of Times Seen – 1 (5 Jul 2019)

Brief Synopsis – In the Oklahoma Territory, a young woman is pursued by two suitors who each think they are best for her.

My Take on it – My mother has always been a fan of musicals, so I grew up listening to the soundtracks of many famous musicals of the 50’s and 60’s and this film’s soundtrack was among the ones she played for us.

I never had much of a desire to watch the film itself and only now had the opportunity to finally get the chance.

The premise of this film is quite good and it works well especially given the confines of the story.

The songs featured ere are quite iconic and remain inspirational even after more than 60 years.

They help give us a picture of the kind of life that people lived at a time when the future of their frontier territory was uncertain.

The rivalries between the cowboys and ranchers is shown really well and brawls in musicals are always fun to watch especially when choreographed like in this one and is able to add a greater level of conflict in such a premise.

As with most romantic comedy musicals, the love story aspects is presented largely via songs and they do it well here even if its hard to believe the love between these various characters along the way.

The one drawback of this film is that is drags on a bit too much for its own good in key places and had tey cut things a bit, it would have been even more enjoyable to watch it all unfold.

Bottom Line – Interesting premise for a musical that works quite well. The songs are quite iconic and inspirational and help us get a picture of what kind of life people lived at that time when there was much uncertainty about the future of the territory. The rivalry between the cowboys and farmers is nice to see and that works well in giving some extra conflict to the story line. As with most romantic/comedy musicals, the love story aspects is shown quite well even if this one is a bit too long and drags too much for its own good in key places. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – 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. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Comes close, the story is good, but drags a bit too much here and there which hurts things a bit. Great songs tho.

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)