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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:

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.
Ali Hakim: I wanted to marry her when I saw the moonlight shining on the barrel of her father's shotgun.
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?
Curly: [to Jud] How did you get to be the way you air
[are]
Curly: anyhow? A-sittin' up here in this filthy hole
[referring to the smokehouse]
Curly: ? Why don't you do something healthy once in a while, instead of staying shut up here, a-crawlin' and a-festerin'?
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.
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Oklahoma! Facts
The song "It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!" was omitted from the film. It was sung by Ali Hakim and the Male Chorus, and they expressed their "outrage" at "fathers with shotguns" in the song.
Joanne Woodward was considered for the role of Laurey Williams.
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.
When asked about her distinctive haircut in the film, Lizanne Truex said that because of the innocent tomboyish behavior of her "Goon Girl" character, the studio hair stylist changed her "Pixie Cut" to a "Bowl Cut" - "Like the little kids of the period were given." During the filming, she was primping before a mirror backstage, bemoaning the results, with Jane Fischer looking on. Director Fred Zinnemann included that charming vignette in the "Many a New Day" dance routine at the suggestion of Agnes de Mille, who happened to see the incident and liked what she saw.
In her autobiography 'Playing the Field', Mamie Van Doren recalls her campaign to play Ado Annie. Van Doren claims one of the reasons she lost the part was that her acting coach, who happened to be Gloria Grahame's mother, mentioned Van Doren's interest in the part to her daughter; Grahame suddenly became interested in playing the part herself, launching a campaign of her own to win the part--which she did.
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