It's Movie Time!
Yesterday saw the long awaited release of the follow up to last year's movie musical sensation, Wicked!
This movie post.... is not about that.
As I write this, I have not seen Wicked: For Good. Fully intend to but likely not until over the Thanksgiving weekend when the whole family is in town, dog Rosie and her emotional support humans, son Dean and friend Jan.
But with movie musicals in mind, let's roll back time to 1955 with songs by the legendary Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
The wind is whipping down the plain for... Oklahoma!
FUN FACT: Oklahoma became a state on November 16, 1907!
I was going to do this post on Sunday last week for that anniversary but....
I forgot.
Take a deep breath!
Now on with the movie!
Say hello to Curly McLain, a good-natured and good looking cowboy all cleaned and pressed in his cowboy outfit and just about bursting with the joy as he sings, sings, sings!
Oh what a beautiful morning!
Oh what a beautiful day!
I've got a beautiful feeling...
Everything's going my--
WHAM!
Curly gets hit by a flying cow!
OK, I might be thinking about the movie Twister.
Or Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
It's been awhile since I saw Oklahoma.
Hold on, let me check my notes.
...
...
So... no flying cow!
But poor Curly is gonna get gobsmacked when he arrives at the farm of Laurey Williams and her Aunt Eller.
Curly wants to take Laurey to the box social being held that night to raise money for a new schoolhouse. And he has plans to do this up right with a tricked out wagon.
WHAM!
Curly gets hit by a flying cow!
Wait a minute.... checking my notes....
Sorry, no cow.
I must express my disappointment with Rodgers and Hammerstein passing up two opportunities to introduce a flying cow.
Meanwhile, Laurey could not give a damn about Curly and his surrey, fringe or no fringe. Fuck Curly and his fringes.
He comes moseying up to her farm just assuming she's available to go to the box social with him. Well, Laurey ain't gonna put up with that and she would just as soon go to with Jud Fry, the field hand.
Uh, Laurey, girlfriend, you might wanna step back a bit from that idea.
Jud Fry is a perennially grumpy who is always sweaty and grimy and probably smells bad too. He's the kind of guy who would be cast as the sex fiend of the week on Law & Order: SVU.
Laurey should not be alone with Jud Fry.
Alas, Curly isn't the only one facing obstacles on the road to true love.
Will Parker is another cowboy who pines for Ado Annie. But Ado has the hot and bothers for a roaming peddler named Ali Hakim with also his shiny baubles on his wagon and his tantalizing tales of faraway lands.
Ado is torn between Will and Ali because as she puts it...
Curly gets hit by a flying cow!
Wait, this was Ado's song! Why does Curly get hit by a flying cow?
It's just funny, that's why.
Also Rodgers and Hammerstein let me down again.
No flying cow.
I ask for so little, just one flying cow. Geez!
So the town folks stop off at Aunt Eller's farm for a pit stop on their way to the box social.
Gertie, a flirtatious woman with a loud, annoying laugh, flirts with Curly and Curly flirts back to make Laurey jealous.
It works and Laurey's resolve weakens when Curly asks her again to go with him to the box social.
Laurey agains refuses, fearful of how Jud will react if she breaks off her date with him. OK, so NOW she sees that Jud Fry is a perennially grumpy who is always sweaty and grimy and probably smells bad too and is also likely a sex fiend.
And Jud does in fact threaten Laurey if she goes with Curly. Jud Fry is a master of romance, ain't he?
We get a weird surreal dance dream sequence where Laurey imagines she marries Curly but Jud straight up murders him.
What the hell kind of show is Oklahoma anyway? It's all colorful, bouncy and free spirited fun and then--
Curly gets hit by a flying cow!
No, no, no, no! Not that.
But Jud Fry wanders in from a different violent Sergio Leone western and harshes everyone's mellow.
On the way to the box social, Jud tries to force himself on Laurey. Before we get too far into Law & Order: SVU territory, Laurey escapes from Jud and goes to the dance alone.
Jesus, this movie is giving me whiplash.
Hey, what's going on with Ado Annie? Cowboy Will is doing is damnedest to prove he's worthy to be Ado's suitor and Ali Hakim is working double time to prove he's not. Ali is a travellin' man and can't be tied down to one woman.
There's more to that plotline but we gotta get back to our hellish triangle of Laurey, Curly and Jud.
Jud arrives at the box social* and starts trouble.
*SIDE BAR: what the hell is a box social?
It's a community event, a party/dance that centers around baskets of food prepared by women and then men bid on those baskets to raise money for some cause or another and the men with the winning bids gets to have sex with the women eat the food.
So Jud shows up and starts bidding on Laurey's basket and Curley makes competing bids. Jud has more money than Curly so Curly starts selling his shit to raise the cash to outbid Jud.
And the town folks are more than willing to pony up premium prices for Curly's shit because man, people fucking hate Jud Fry.
How does the bidding go?
Let's jump ahead in the plot when-
Curly gets hit by a flying cow!
Sigh.....
No, that is never going to happen.
What does happen is this...
Weeks later, Curly and Laurey are married.
After the ceremony, Jud appears and tries to kill Curly, but Curly kills Jud in self-defense.
The townspeople hold an impromptu trial in Aunt Eller’s kitchen where Curly is found not guilty on account that no one fucking liked Jud and we're all glad he's dead.
Curly and Laurey leave for their honeymoon, admiring the beautiful morning, smiling at the thought of all the legally sanctioned missionary positioned sexual intercourse they're going to have.
And we've reached... The End!
Oklahoma! looks gorgeous, big wide vistas bursting with color. It was the first feature film photographed in the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process.
Shirley Jones makes her film debut in the role of Laurey. It's a bit of risk going with a complete unknown in such a prominent role but Shirley more than justifies that risk with her beautiful singing voice.
Good ol' movie musical standby Gordon MacRae plays Curly with his own powerful pipes and a vibrant personable charm.
Rod Steiger gives it his all as Jud Fry which is part of the problem. I mean, Jud is the bad guy but Rod plays him with such intensity that his performance seems to be part of a whole other movie.
Charlotte Greenwood and Gloria Grahame make their strong bids to steal this movie in the roles of Aunt Eller and Ado Annie respectively.
I once saw a high school production of Oklahoma! which was pretty good for a high school production and a bit less rapey than the movie.
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".
Other than the abrupt turns in tone whenever Jud Fry is around, Oklahoma! is a fun and entertaining musical.
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Tomorrow on the blog, it's Doctor Who time!
And Movie Time is back next Saturday.
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