Oklahoma! (1955 film)
1955 American musical film directed by Fred Zinnemann / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Oklahoma! is a 1955 American musical film based on the 1943 musical of the same name by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, which in turn was based on the 1931 play Green Grow The Lilacs written by Lynn Riggs. It stars 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 only musical directed by Fred Zinnemann.[4] Oklahoma! was the first feature film photographed in the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process (and was simultaneously filmed in CinemaScope 35mm).
| Oklahoma! | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Fred Zinnemann |
| Screenplay by | Sonya Levien William Ludwig |
| Based on | Oklahoma! by Rodgers and Hammerstein Green Grow The Lilacs by Lynn Riggs |
| Produced by | Arthur Hornblow Jr. |
| Starring | Gordon MacRae Gloria Grahame Gene Nelson Charlotte Greenwood Eddie Albert James Whitmore Rod Steiger Shirley Jones |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees Floyd Crosby |
| Edited by | George Boemler Gene Ruggiero |
| Music by | Richard Rodgers |
| Color process | Eastman Color[1] |
| Distributed by | Magna Theatre Corporation (70mm) RKO Radio Pictures (35mm) |
Release date |
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Running time | 145 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6.8 million |
| Box office | $7.1 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)[3] |
Set in Oklahoma Territory, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams (Jones) and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain (MacRae) and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry (Steiger). A secondary romance concerns Laurey's friend, Ado Annie (Grahame), and cowboy Will Parker (Nelson), who also has an unwilling rival. A background theme is the territory's aspiration for statehood, and the local conflict between cattlemen and farmers.
The film received a rave review from The New York Times,[5] and was voted a "New York Times Critics Pick".[6] It won Academy Awards in the categories of musical scoring and sound recording. 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".[7][8]