Oklahoma!
US (1955): Musical/Dance/Western
The hit Broadway musical from the 1940s gets a lavish if not always exciting workout in this 1955 film version directed by old lion Fred Zinnemann. Gordon MacRae brings his sterling voice to the role of cowboy Curly, and Shirley Jones plays Laurie, the object of his affection. The Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top," "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," and "People Will Say We're in Love," and Agnes DeMille provides the buoyant choreography. Among the supporting cast, Gloria Grahame is memorable as Ado Annie, the "girl who cain't say no," and Rod Steiger overdoes it as the villainous Jud. (Magna Corp.-Rodgers & Hammerstein Prod./RKO Radio) (Tom Keogh, Amazon.com)
After three years of development, Todd-AO® premiered with the production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's smash Broadway hit, Oklahoma!. Todd-AO delivered everything that audiences had hoped for. In addition to the brilliant image, the six track sound system, while not quite a duplicate of Cinerama's seven track system, reproduced R&H's music with extremely high fidelity, which remains impressive almost 50 years after its first performance. Oklahoma! premiered at New York City's Rivoli Theatre. In 1955, general admission for an adult in a major first run theatre was about $.75. Oklahoma!'s top ticket price of $3.50 in 1955 dollars translates to about $45.00 today. The Todd-AO run of Oklahoma! was on a reserved seat only basis, "...as in the legitmate theatre." as the ads explained. Ticket prices were in line with the legitimate theatre also. And NO POPCORN in a Todd-AO theatre!
The majority of the film going public, and all who saw Oklahoma! on television or video presentations, did not see the brilliant image of the Todd-AO process. What they saw was the CinemaScope version photographed in addition to Todd-AO. Because of the significant differences in the available optics for both systems, it was seldom possible to shoot in both processes at the same time. This required different camera setups and somewhat altered staging to produce the 35mm version. (Widescreen Museum)
4 nominations, 2 Awards
· Music Scoring Awards (Scoring of a Musical Picture) 1955: Robert Russell Bennett, Jay Blackton, Adolph Deutsch
· Sound Recording 1955: Fred Hynes (Todd-AO Sound Department)
· Cinematography (Color) 1955: Robert L. Surtees
· Film Editing 1955: Gene Ruggiero, George Boemler