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Oklahoma! Overview:

Oklahoma! (1955) was a Musical - Romance Film directed by Fred Zinnemann and produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr., Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers.

The film was based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs written by Samuel A. Taylor performed at the Guild Theatre, NY from Jan 26, 1931 - Mar 21, 1931.

SYNOPSIS

In this beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (their first brought to the screen), an adorable 19-year-old Jones, in her screen debut, must choose a suitor to accompany her to a social: the righteous cowboy (MacRae) or the brooding farm hand (Steiger). From this simple scenario develops humor, fighting, dancing (including a breakthrough dream sequence choreographed by Agnes De Mille), and singing. The entire production was filmed twice, with one take for the new Todd A-O format and one for the regular CinemaScope aspect ratio. There is now laserdisc version of the Todd A-O takes, which some consider vastly superior. Includes the enduring songs "People will say were in love," "Oh, what a beautiful mornin'," and "Oklahoma!"

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Oklahoma! was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2007.

Academy Awards 1955 --- Ceremony Number 28 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best CinematographyRobert SurteesNominated
Best Film EditingGene Ruggiero, George BoemlerNominated
Best Music - ScoringRobert Russell Bennett, Jay Blackton, Adolph DeutschWon
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Oklahoma! Quotes:

Curly: If she liked me any more, she'd sic the dogs on me.
[first lines]
Curly: [singing] There's a bright golden haze on the meadow, There's a bright golden haze on the meadow. The corn is as high as a elephant's eye, And it looks like it's climbin' clear up to the sky. Oh, what a beautiful mornin', Oh, what a beautiful day! I got a beautiful feelin' Everything's goin' my way.
Ali Hakim: It's a wonderful thing to be married. I got a brother in Persia got six wives.
Ado Annie Carnes: Six wives all at once?
Will Parker: Why, sure. That's the way they do in them countries.
Ali Hakim: Not always; I got a brother in Persia only got one wife. He's a bachelor.
Will Parker: I don't know what to make of you! You're too purty to be a skunk! Too thin to be a snake! To little to be a man, and too big to be a mouse! I reckon you're a rat!
Ali Hakim: That's logical.
Ado Annie Carnes: Sometimes there seems like times that men ain't got no need for women.
Dancer: There's sometimes women ain't got no need for men.
Ado Annie Carnes: Yeah, but who wants to be dead?
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Oklahoma! Facts
The movie was purposely filmed with very little camera movement, and editing, to give it the Broadway feel. (Actors occasionally stumble over a line like on stage.)
Robert Stack, Piper Laurie, Lee Marvin, Vic Damone, Dale Robertson and Joan Evans were all screen tested for various roles.
Although James Mitchell and Bambi Linn danced the parts of Curly and Laury in the Dream Ballet, Rod Steiger did his own dancing in that sequence because there was no one who looked enough like him from the back. Despite his initial uncertainties, and after considerable coaching from choreographer Agnes de Mille, Steiger actually did a credible job, later calling it one of the biggest challenges he ever had.
Marc Platt and Bambi Linn are the only cast members from the original Broadway stage production to appear in the film, but they do not perform their original stage roles.
In the Todd-AO version of the movie, there is more picture visible in the periphery than in the CinemaScope version. While the peripheral picture on each side of the main action is very detailed, it is visibly distorted at times when there is physical action such as movement on the periphery in long-shots.
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