#adam pontipee

[shouldtheydivorce]

Reason for divorce:

Adam's an asshole (his misogynistic attitudes are challenged in the film, sure, but I don't think he particularly earns forgiveness), Milly deserves better.

[martianbugsbunny]

Girl why does Scott's dad look like Adam Pontipee lol

[lyssitalennon]

seven brides is so much funnier imagining the version from my bf5 fic I gotta finish that shit lmao

[hotvintagepoll]

I thought of you when we were watching 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, and I thought it might be fun if you got time after the finals (long long way away I know) to run pollsof actors in movies/movie series? Example: there's at least 7 male actors in that film it might be funny to watch people fight over. There's also 7 main female characters.

Anyway. They sure chose some hot men in that vintage musical.

I am definitely going to do this! I was actually thinking earlier this week it would be fun to do mini polls focused on sets of characters within movies, but only after all the big tournaments have finished.

Required viewing to vote in this poll: The Barn Dance, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

[fallen-down-slowed-down]

(warning: 90+ f/o’s)

❤️‍🩹books

found families ⊹₊ ⋆

The Weasley’s – Harry Potter saga ( books + films )

parents/guardians/caretakers ⊹₊ ⋆

/

siblings ⊹₊ ⋆

/

children ⊹₊ ⋆

/

other ⊹₊ ⋆

/

❤️‍🩹films/series/tv shows

found families ⊹₊ ⋆

The 6 heroes – Big Hero 6

The hotel family – Hotel Transylvania

The Madrigal’s – Encanto

Teen Titans – Teen Titans

The Teenagers + Star – Wish

The Watterson’s – The Amazing World of Gumball

parents/guardians/caretakers ⊹₊ ⋆

Athena + Triton – Disney’s The Little Mermaid trilogy ; parents

CASE + TARS – Interstellar ; caretakers

Cass – Big Hero 6 ; caretaker / motherly figure

Clay Calloway – Sing 2 ; dad

Crobar – Pil ; caretaker

Dr. Delbert Doppler – Treasure Planet ; caretaker

Eli La Bouff – Disney’s The Princess and the Frog ; dad

James Wilson – House, M. D. ; dad

John Silver – Treasure Planet ; fatherly figure

Kalique Abrasax – Jupiter: Ascending ; caretaker

King Frederic + Queen Anna – Disney’s Tangled ; parental figures

Kirsten Stevens – Set It Up ; adoptive mum

Klaus – Klaus ; dad

Klaus Kickenklober – Sing 2 ; caretaker

Linda + Rick Mitchell – The Mitchells vs the Machines ; parents

magic carpet – Aladdin ( films ) ; guardian

Merlin – The Sword in the Stone – mentor / caretaker

Phil – Disney’s Hercules ; guardian

Queen Amaya – Wish ; mum

Rafiki – The Lion King trilogy ; guardian

Sarah Hawkins – Treasure Planet ; caretaker / motherly figure

Sebastian – Disney’s The Little Mermaid trilogy ; caretaker

siblings ⊹₊ ⋆

Aaron + Katie Mitchell – The Mitchells vs the Machines ; siblings

Adella + Alana + Andrina + Aquata + Ariel + Arista + Attina – Disney’s The Little Mermaid trilogy ; sisters

Bobo + Cooky + Ralphy + Speedy + Sunny – 7 Zwerge trilogy ; brotherly figures

Charlotte La Bouff – Disney’s The Princess and the Frog ; twin sister

Johnny – Sing duology ; brotherly figure

Maleficent – Maleficent duology ; sisterly figure

Prince Average – Red Shoes and the 7 Dwarfs ; twin brother

children ⊹₊ ⋆

Márgu – Klaus ; daughter figure

Miguel Rivera – Coco ; son figure

Nimona – Nimona ; child figure

Pectine – Astérix: le Secrete de la Potion Magique ; child figure / protégé

Pil – Pil ; daughter figure / protégé

other ⊹₊ ⋆

Archibald + Daisy Suchot – Arthur and the Invisibles ; grandparents

Arthur Montgomery – Arthur and the Invisibles ; cousin

Gregory House – House, M. D. ; uncle figure

Melody – The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea ; niece

Preston B. Whitmore – Atlantis: the Lost Empire ; granddad

❤️‍🩹videogames

found families ⊹₊ ⋆

The Subway Surfers – Subway Surfers

parents/guardians/caretakers ⊹₊ ⋆

Aisha + Salim Alnazar – The Arcana ; parental figures

Constantine – Alchemy Stars ; guardian / caretaker / fatherly figure

Death – The Arcana ; guardian

Glamrock Freddy – Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach ; guardian / caretaker

Soroz – Alchemy Stars ; guardian

siblings ⊹₊ ⋆

Shadow – Speedy Ninja ; brotherly figure

children ⊹₊ ⋆

Areia – Alchemy Stars ; protégé

Clover – Alchemy Stars ; daughter figure

Dove – Alchemy Stars ; child figure

Enlightener – Alchemy Stars ; daughter figure

Pasolo – Alchemy Stars ; daughter figure / protégé

Wendy – Alchemy Stars ; daughter figure

other

/

❤️‍🩹other type of source

found families ⊹₊ ⋆

Hundred Acre Wood inhabitants – Winnie the Pooh universe

Miss Bustier’s class – Miraculous universe

parents/guardians/caretakers ⊹₊ ⋆

Bill Woodward – Hatchetfield universe ; dad

Caline Bustier – Miraculous universe ; adoptive mum

Carmilla Carmine – Hellaverse ; motherly figure

Duke Keane – Hatchetfield universe ; adoptive dad

Mr. Chu – One Small Step ; adoptive dad

Panoramix – Astérix universe ; mentor

Sabine Cheng – Miraculous universe ; motherly figure

Tony Green – Hatchetfield universe ; fatherly figure

siblings ⊹₊ ⋆

Adam + Benjamin + Caleb + Daniel + Ephraim + Frank + Gideon Pontipee – Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ( musical ) ; brothers

Luna Chu – One Small Step ; foster sister

children ⊹₊ ⋆

Mike + Roger – OCs ; children figures

Octavia – Hellaverse ; daughter figure

other ⊹₊ ⋆

/

[askyuuandco]

Meera: *whispers* making it more real thanks X3 *goes back*

Leona: Smells good enough to eat.

Meera: Tastes good too, so they tell me.

Leona: Got any ketchup handy?

Meera: My stew can stand on its own feet. *gives the three boys the stew* So, how long're you in town for?

Leona: Well, I guess it depends.

Meera: Depends on what? ;:/

Leona: Oh uh, you know.. the price of furs, the supplies…

Meera: I see

Leona: Name's Adam. Adam Pontipee.

Meera: Quite a name, I must say.

Leona: Name ain't nothin' in comparison to the farm. Sheep, cows, chickens, 58 acres of wheat up there. Only thing it ain't got is a woman.

Meera: *shrugs* Shame. *starts to walk away*

Leona: How 'bout it?

Meera: *stops* How 'bout what?

Leona: I just told ya. How 'bout marryin' me? :)

---MILLY, incredulous, sits down to stare at him. She opens her mouth to speak, ADAM interrupts.---

Leona: I know it's short notice. I mean, back east we would've met in church. Six months later, I'd ask to walk you home. Next three years I'd take you out, but out here there's no time. I've gotta get home before dark, and it'll be another five months before I'm back down here with my grain. You wouldn't ask me to wait five months for your pride's sake, would ya?

Meera: Well, I… I'd have to finish my chores first. OvO'///

Leona: That's it! From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were the gal for me. *gets up to leave* I'll just go clean up and call on the parson. *leaves*

Meera: O_O'

(@ask-the-twst-girls) Scylla: Hey Yuu, I'm packed! When do we leave? :D

Yuu: we leave now and why are you packed? >.>

[pianotuna]

Characters: Adam Pontipee and Milly Pontipee

Media: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Played by: Howard Keel and Jane Powell

Setting: 1850, Oregon

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Adam Pontipee is a roughshod mountain man who travels to the nearest town looking to come back with a plow, some tobacco, and a wife.

Milly works as the spunky, headstrong cook at the town’s inn, and Adam falls in love at first sight with her, convincing her to marry him and come back to the mountains with him that same day.

Milly receives the shock of her life when she realizes that she won’t just be working alongside Adam, but also his six unruly brothers whom he did not mention. Though Adam and Milly work through their initial scraps and misunderstandings, they face their greatest trial yet when Milly trains the brothers to be gentlemen and causes them to fall in love with betrothed town girls, whom they kidnap in the dead of night. Adam and Milly will have to rise above their own pride, anger, and stubbornness if they hope to have a life together and free from the wrath of the townspeople.

[orphan-with-a-stutter]

Weird feelings and butterflies (Frank x reader)

Requested by: anon

Request: Can you do an imagine for Frank from 7 brides for 7 brothers? Just like meeting him for the first time and then him telling all his brothers about you when he gets home

Warnings: none

A/n: Yess he’s my second fav brother!

You had been walking through town with your friends. The four of you had been talking not about much but just what was new when you came up to the general store. That’s when you saw Ruth, Liza, and Martha about to head in when a man jumped down from a wagon parked in front of the store. You didn’t recognize him or any of the men in the wagon.

“Care for a chew of tobacco?” The man asked to them smiling.

“Well, I never!” Martha replied offended.

“What’s going on here?” One of the townsmen standing outside the store asked walking to the the four of them.

“That oaf insulted us.” Ruth stayed to the men.

“No such thing.” One of the other men from the wagon replied jumping down from the wagon. “All he did was offer them a chaw of dang good tobacco.” He added popping some in his mouth.

“It is, huh?” The towns man asked slapping some out of the others hand.

This started a fight between the two towns men and the men who recently jumped out of the wagon.

That’s when you saw Milly run out of the store. You were happy to see her since you hadn’t had the chance to say ‘goodbye’ to her before she got married. This also told you these men in the wagon were the Pontipee brothers.

“Stop It Benjamin!” She yelled at the man fighting. “Stop it this minute!” She continued to yell at one now known as Benjamin who obviously couldn’t hear her, so she turned to face the wagon.

That’s when you really noticed him, he was handsome, really they all were, but this one the moment you saw him you felt like your stomach had butterflies in it.

“Don’t just stand there do something!” Milly yelled to him.

“What for? There’s only three little ones.” He replied confused as to why she wanted to stop the fight.

His voice sounded like music to your ears and he definitely didn’t talk like the men in town.

After he said that however he noticed you, smiling in admiration. You quickly turned your attention to the fight but a blush crept onto your face.

Benjamin finished the fight and you and your friends rushed to the aid of the townsmen, but you were too focused on the man in front of you to help up the men. Your friends elbowed you to get your attention off the man.

“You get in that wagon. Get!” Milly yelled to Benjamin. As he got into the wagon she apologized to everyone.

Frank couldn’t keep his eyes off you, of all the girls there you stood out. He felt a weird feeling in his stomach unsure of what the feeling was, he’d find out later from Milly it was love.

“It was good to see you Milly.” Everyone spoke as she apologized.

“Milly!” You called to her hoping to at least hug her goodbye before she left.

“(Y/n).” She smiled pulling you to a hug.

“Hope to see you at the barn raising.” You stated as she pulled out of the hug and got onto the wagon.

“I’ll definitely try to come.” She replied smiling though she was still slightly disappointed at the men with her.

As the rest of the girls said their goodbyes you were still focused on the mystery man who caught your attention.

“Hi.” You mouth to him with a small wave and a blush on your face.

He smiled but before he could saying anything the wagon jerked as they started to leave causing him stumble and his brothers to laugh.

“Better hold on Frank.” One of his brothers laughed.

‘What a nice name.’ You thought to yourself as they moved out of sight.

Back in the mountains when everyone was home Frank couldn’t help but tell his brothers about you. Of course most of them couldn’t even tell which girl you were since they paid more attention to the fight when it broke out, but that didn’t stop Frank from talking about you. You had pretty (y/e/c) eyes and a beautiful smile. Some how the world had stopped during that short moment he saw you and if it took learn how to dance and court a girl than he would learn everything just to go to the barn raising and see you. Milly thought it was sweet how he fell in love with you and how already admired you.

Shortly the two of you would meet again and everything would change.

——————-

Hope you like it!! I do wish to have more request for this movie musical because it’s one of my favorites

[shouldtheydivorce]

Whoever submitted Adam and Milly Pontipee: You are my hero

[historical-hollywood]

Howard Keel as Adam Pontipee poses with the six brides for his six brothers [top row, left to right:] Nancy Kilgas as Alice Elcott, Betty Carr as Sarah Kine, and Ruta Lee (then known as Ruta Kilmonis) as Ruth Jepson; and [bottom row, left to right:] Norma Doggett as Martha, Virginia Gibson as Liza, and Julie Newmar (then known as Julie Newmeyer) as Dorcas Gaylen.

Stanley Donen’s SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (‘54)

[justthatspiffy]

.

[ouryoungestuniverse]

Here is a less rapey version of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, if you like:

We pick up after the disastrous barn raising. Milly is discouraged, until she hears from her brothers how much of the shit was started by other people. Then she is ENRAGED. So she works twice as hard to be able to free up time three or four times a week to drive into town and start her campaign.

She visits every. Single. House. She’s dressed in her best, happy and friendly and oh so pleased with her new family. And after the second cup with her hostess, she gets into the real tea.

Soon every woman in that town knows how poorly the Pontipee brothers are treated by their menfolk. They hear all about the lovely way they have treated Milly since she arrived. Yes, they’re a little rough around the edges, but who wouldn’t be, having lost their mother years ago and grown up in the wild? Oh, and did you know that all seven of them went out and finished that barn to make up for what happened at the raising? Just the seven of them did all that work in a week. Why, surely such fine hardworking boys deserve a second chance.

Within a few weeks it’s the brothers who are taking turns to drive back to town and visit their sweethearts. And yes they meet with a little pushback from those stuck-up town boys, but knowing Milly’s plan now, butter will not melt in their mouths. They have learned that it’s the women’s opinion that matters in this, and so they are just meek and polite and lovely.

So all six of those girls are caught up in the romance of it, but isn’t it so hard when your men are so far away and you only get to see them once a week? And then one of them—probably Eliza or Sarah—gets an idea. They’ll borrow a wagon and drive out to visit them themselves! And why not? Maybe it’s not strictly proper, but if they all go together it will be fine, and after all Milly will be there, won’t she? And what an adventure!

And so six high-spirited girls set out one night in winter when the horses won’t be missed, maybe with some snacks or even a stolen bottle of wine. They’re so exuberant and excited that they forget what their fathers have warned them about Echo Pass in winter. The avalanche terrifies them all, and the horses break the traces and run off, and so it’s a damp, bedraggled group that appears on the Pontipee doorstep late that night.

Well, they can’t go back, can they? But these men are a little too delighted to have these guests, and so Milly packs them all off to the barn, even Adam, who is miffed but not such a baby as to run off. And so it’s a peaceful, friendly winter of watching six different couples fall in love, while Milly watches like a hawk to make sure there is absolutely nothing that could offend their fathers.

Of course the men from the town overreact and come raging through the pass the moment it is clear, but they find the men camped out in the barn, their contrite, well-fed daughters in the house, and Milly standing on the porch and demanding that they put their weapons down and for heaven’s sake be quiet, you idiots, I just got the baby to sleep. The men can see for themselves what has happened, and all six of the girls swear before the preacher that everything was their own doing. But Pa, they have been so kind to us, and I love him so very much, couldn’t we please...?

And so there are six weddings that spring, right in a row, and then the bustle of building six new houses all around the land, all within walking distance. Milly rules over her family with pride and contentment, and if other people tell the story a little bit differently, well, the Pontipee clan knows the truth and that’s good enough.

[hotvintagepoll]

i’m telling you, if you used a picture of Howard Keel as Adam Pontipee in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers he would’ve had a much better chance at winning! one of the few men that can pull off red hair and a mustache, man was hot af in that movie!! 👌💯🔥 and that sexy smooth as butter singing voice, good lord- 🫠💕✨

ok but what about the girlies who find him hot in tights and eight buckets of eyeliner. what then

[millificent]

Also!!!

Milly becomes more of a feminist throughout the course of the film. At first, she just wants the brothers married so they are out of her hair, but she steps in to protect her girls showing her own maturation.

Milly also goes from ‘I can fix ‘em’ in Going Courtin’, to ‘they can fix themselves’ when she throws them all out. And they do - because they realise they were wrong!

Milly does not tell Adam about the baby. She was literally prepared to be a single mother on the top of a mountain in 1850 rather than have a misogynistic, enabler husband around her.

In June Bride, the girls are able to explore their sexuality a little bit. They are not sexualised themselves in this (no male gaze here!), nor are they shamed for it.

At the start of her marriage, Milly is outnumbered 7:1 by the Pontipee brothers. By the end of the film, with the wives and baby Hannah, the women outnumber the men!

The brides also utilise the patriarchy to get their way (see: claiming the baby as theirs).

And also, by the end of the film, not only do the men realise the error of their ways and fix their behaviour, THEY ALSO HOLD OTHER MEN RESPONSIBLE (see Gideon punching Adam).

The film isn’t problematic - it’s about overcoming problematic, toxic masculinity!

One of the most feminist films of all time. End of story.

‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ is actually super feminist

The female protagonist, Millie: is a frontier orphan

Also the female protagonist, Millie: Takes care of herself by working as a cook, knows how to do farm work including chop wood

Brief glimpse of her slapping a dude who gets too fresh with her

Millie: Realizes that her new husband actually married her so he could have a woman to take care of him–feed him, clean house, do laundry, etc–and his six brothers, all of them dirty and scrappy

And she’s like, nope, I’m not gonna take this lying down

“If you’re gonna act like hogs–YOU’RE GONNA EAT LIKE ‘EM!” 10/10

Doesn’t sleep with her husband until they actually have a DTR and confirm, yes, okay, we also have romantic feelings for one another 

Millie encourages the brothers to clean up physically and shows them how to court girls properly

Basically teaching them to be better people and treat people with respect

The brothers kidnap six girls from the local town–Millie immediately SENDS THE BOYS TO SLEEP IN THE BARN ALL FREAKING WINTER, INCLUDING HER ENABLER HUSBAND

She takes care of the six kidnapping victims and doesn’t let the men back inside the house to interact with the girls 

The girls pulling pranks on their kidnappers, like, “just so you know we still like you but kidnapping us wasn’t cute” 

Millie has a baby girl, husband be like, “YKW, if that was my daughter that’d been kidnapped I would hang the criminals who did it, what I did was wrong and I am truly sorry” 

Basically by the time the story is over Millie has all seven brothers drinking the Respect Women Juice™

[dweemeister]

Oklahoma! (1955)

Composer Richard Rodgers was in search of a new songwriting partner in the early 1940s. His previous partner, the lyricist Lorenz Hart, was devolving into an alcoholism that would soon claim his life. Wanting to transform Lynn Riggs’ rustic play Green Grow the Lilacs into a musical, Rodgers would find a new lyricist in Oscar Hammerstein II, who had not been involved in any Broadway successes for some time. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 adaptation of Rigg’s play was Oklahoma! and – despite widespread predictions that Broadway audiences would only flock to modern, urbane works – it became the longest-running Broadway musical for another dozen or so years. It began one of the most fruitful, important, and accomplished musical theater partnerships in the medium’s history.

Interest in a cinematic treatment from Hollywood’s major studios for the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical came almost immediately after the initial reviews for Oklahoma!, but the rights went not to a movie studio, but a film equipment start-up known as the Magna Theatre Corporation. Magna’s owners intended Oklahoma! as a test for the Todd-AO widescreen process (a rival to Cinerama), but more on that and the film’s unique distribution history – which involves RKO and 20th Century Fox – later. Most importantly, the lack of studio executives to appease meant that Rodgers and Hammerstein could have full control over the film’s structure and musical/narrative changes for this adaptation. Directed by Fred Zinnemann (1952’s High Noon, 1953’s From Here to Eternity) – an unorthodox choice, given his expertise for morally complex dramas and no musical experience – 1955’s Oklahoma! is a harbinger for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical films to come, and an inextricable part of the duo’s legacy.

Somewhere in the Oklahoman countryside, amid corn as high as an elephant’s eye, is the clean-cut cowboy Curly McLain (Gordon MacRae). Curly is en route to the farmstead of his crush, Laurey Williams (Shirley Jones in her cinematic debut), and Laurey’s aunt, Aunt Eller (Charlotte Greenwood). There, Curly invites Laurey to the box social scheduled for later that evening. Annoyed that it took him this long to ask her out, Laurey decides instead to go the box social with the Williams’ antisocial and intimidating farmhand, Jud Fry (Rod Steiger). Elsewhere at the train station, another cowboy, Will Parker (Gene Nelson) might be singing about how much he was entranced by Kansas City, but he is searching for his sweetheart, Ado Annie (Gloria Grahame) – herself entranced by traveling salesman Ali Hakim (Eddie Albert in brownface).

No members of the original Broadway cast reprised their roles for this film, which also stars Barbara Lawrence and character actors James Whitmore, Jay C. Flippen, and Roy Barcroft.

As Curly, MacRae is like a Broadway stage version of the characters Gene Autry or Roy Rogers might have played in another decade. MacRae, who started his career as a Broadway and radio singer, had just run down the end of his contract with Warner Bros. (signed in 1947) when he appeared in Oklahoma!. At Warners, he starred in a number of musicals including Look for the Silver Lining (1949) and opposite Doris Day in On Moonlight Bay (1951), but he had only starred in a film adaptation of stage musical once before. MacRae, despite a long hiatus from the Broadway stage, is a natural here: charming and exuding a natural chemistry with co-star Shirley Jones. This exterior, however, is not without malice – as seen in the scene where Curly tries to influence Jud to commit self-harm. Cut from the same baritone cloth like contemporary Howard Keel (Frank Butler in 1950’s Annie Get Your Gun, Adam Pontipee in 1954’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), MacRae never achieved the popularity that other stage-to-screen musical stars of the ‘30s and ‘40s did (and, of course, Julie Andrews much later on).

The film’s surprise package for audiences in 1955 was in Shirley Jones. Jones, rather than subjecting herself to a vetting process by a director, casting director, or studio executives, was hand-picked by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Stunned by her 1953 audition for the premiere of South Pacific but wanting more experience for the then-nineteen-year-old, the songwriting duo kept Jones in mind for future productions and signed her on a contract (Jones was the first and only singer to be contracted to Rodgers and Hammerstein). With a few years of Broadway productions under her belt, Jones still came to Oklahoma! lacking an understanding on how to tailor sharper emotions to a film camera. With Fred Zinnemann’s assistance, she navigates Laurey’s light romantic comedy scenes and tumultuous friendship (if one can call it that) with Jud maturely – one could scarcely believe this is her cinematic debut. For Laurey, she accentuates the character’s naïveté, especially in respect to how she acts around men and romantic idealizations, without feeling grating or overacting (a common problem when approaching characters without much life experience) the part. Jones’ excellence in Oklahoma! would land her the lead in Carousel (1956), with other Hollywood hits in Elmer Gantry (1960) and The Music Man (1962) to follow.

As their artistic collaboration progressed, Rodgers and Hammerstein did not shy away from asking heavier questions in their musicals. Their first two projects, Oklahoma! and the musical film State Fair (1945) are relatively airy, flighty compared to their successors – the darkness of morality in Carousel, the racist beliefs of the lead character in South Pacific. Foreshadowing that later drama in successive musicals is the misanthropic (not just misogynistic) character of Jud Fry. Played by Rod Steiger, Jud is a villain without any redeeming qualities in the original musical. Steiger’s Jud remains a reprehensible character, but Steiger – as have most other actors who have played Jud in on stage in the decades since – positions Jud as more of a loner whose social ineptitude results in an unchecked covetousness over Laurey. To some reading that last sentence, that distinction between portrayals of Jud may not make any meaningful difference in one’s negative opinions about the character and his actions. Yet, Steiger’s portrayal of Jud – as sloppy, maladjusted, knowing little else about life other than farm work – is nevertheless a refinement on the character Rodgers and Hammerstein originally did not give much thought to.

Zinnemann’s dramatic tendencies needed moderation, as they sometimes threated to overshadow the musical features. Although, to Zinnemann’s credit, as a dramatist first, he imbues Oklahoma! with a dramatic fervor that came to define all Rodgers and Hammerstein musical film versions after it – something that one never received from the somewhat assembly line-like musical from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Fox. Oklahoma! was Zinnemann’s first widescreen film, as well as the first time he shot in color.  The emotional intensity of his earlier movies would be antithetical to the sweeping rural cinematography that he and cinematographer Robert Surtees (1959’s Ben-Hur, 1971’s The Last Picture Show) and Floyd Crosby (1931’s Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, 1960’s House of Usher) needed to capture. Zinnemann, Surtees, and Crosby offer sumptuous images of the Arizona countryside (Oklahoma’s oil wells proved too plentiful and distracting for the production) and the inviting blue sky that overhangs the cornfields sweeping across the land. With widescreen cameras rather new around 1955, the cameras wisely stay further back in interior scenes (shot at MGM’s studios in Culver City, California) with numerous people, directing our gaze centrally with brilliant blocking from the actors. The staging nevertheless feels like a stagebound musical during some interior scenes, like a lower-budget MGM musical with a trivial plot.

The widescreen cinematography, of course, was purposefully a showcase – see the shots of Gene Nelson spinning his rope directly towards the camera in “Kansas City” and the shot of an overly-excited auctioneer hammering their gavel and having the gavel nearly break the camera in another. Magna Theatre Corporation intended Oklahoma! to be a demonstration of their new Todd-AO 70mm process, in hopes of competing against Cinerama (which used three synchronized projectors at once on a curved screen). Because some theaters could not support the widescreen prints, two different versions of Oklahoma! exist: one in Todd-AO and another in CinemaScope (the latter a 20th Century Fox invention). This review is based on the Todd-AO print – which I recommend over the CinemaScope print – that currently is streaming on Disney+. Another note about the Todd-AO print: the first two films shot on Todd-AO 70mm – Oklahoma! and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) – were shot in 30 frames per second (FPS) rather than the standard twenty-four. Thus, the Todd-AO print will appear slightly smoother in motion than most all other films, including modern ones.

Why 30 FPS for film screenings in 1955? Higher frames per second result in less noticeable light flickering and more dynamic colors (these effects for movies shot at higher FPS rates only apply to films shot on film stock, not digital). However, film projectors with a Todd-AO print would run hotter, requiring simultaneous cooling of the film while it ran through the projector. All subsequent films shot on Todd-AO reverted to the standard twenty-four frames per second.

Diehard musical fans often consider Fred Zinnemann’s Oklahoma! the most faithful – narratively, musically – of all the Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptations. Deleted from Oklahoma! are two songs: Ali Hakim’s chauvinistic “It’s a Scandal, It’s a Outrage! [sic]” and Jud’s brooding “Lonely Room”. The former has among the least musical interest in the entire musical, but “Lonely Room” might have been a helpful source of characterization of Steiger’s Jud (the limited vocal range required for the song would suit Steiger). Otherwise, some of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most iconic songs are present, starting with “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’”. Sung solo by MacRae on horseback (as opposed to being sung completely offstage in the original stage version), it serves the same purpose as the title song from The Sound of Music (1965) does. It establishes Curly’s character (mostly), and establishing the vast environs where the film takes place. The atmospheric opening shot of the camera moving through the corn and opening up into a grassy landscape might seem corny inane, but what a visual message it sends for one of the early widescreen American movies. Curly’s solo leads into “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top”, as he attempts to woo Laurey into accompanying him to the box social. A brief visual aside to allow viewers who do not know what a surrey looks like is a touch that a stage musical cannot provide, but this song – along with my choice of the best song in the musical, “People Will Say We’re in Love” (which gives MacRae and Jones a lovely duet with the production’s most romantic melodies) – exemplifies the rapport between MacRae and Jones and their two characters.

There remains charm aplenty across the musical score. Gene Nelson’s rendition of “Kansas City” is by no means essential to the plot of Oklahoma!, but it is a diverting number with some fancy footwork by not only Nelson (essentially the film’s comic relief and using a perfect, non-jarring voice for such a role), but Charlotte Greenwood and the scene’s extras as well. And then, arriving late, there is also the lively title song, delivered by MacRae with a similar energy as he employs for “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’”. “Oklahoma” became the official state song for Oklahoma in 1953, replacing a lesser-known song, “Oklahoma – A Toast”. Credit must also go to the extras and chorus for spearheading the song for its second half, as well as Robert Russell Bennett for his gorgeous (and definitive) vocal arrangement.

As its theatrical release drew near, details of the distribution of Oklahoma! would depend on which print a theater received. If a movie theater screened the Todd-AO 70mm print, Magna handled the distribution; if they showed the anamorphic CinemaScope 35mm print, the responsibility fell to RKO. RKO – the studio that gave audiences King Kong (1933), Citizen Kane (1942), and distributed all Disney movies until Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue (1954) – had fallen into turmoil by the mid-1950s and, by decade’s end, would be the first of the Big Five Hollywood studios to cease operations. The studio’s tyrannical owner, the eccentric Howard Hughes, disemboweled the studio from the inside out, and is a story for another day. Due to Hughes’ mismanagement, RKO withdrew from distribution and, in their place, came 20th Century Fox. Todd-AO and Fox shared theatrical and home media rights until Fox’s purchase by Disney in 2019; Todd-AO and Disney retain the split-ownership arrangement over Oklahoma!.

Though Oklahoma! is not usually part of most cinephiles’ and musical nerds’ pantheons of great Hollywood musicals, its contributions to the subsequent Rodgers and Hammerstein film adaptations are unmistakable. The duo’s closeness to numerous parts of the film’s production, the stunning widescreen cinematography, and the casting of actors with proven musical ability are hallmarks to be replicated, even in lesser adaptation such as South Pacific (1958) and Flower Drum Song (1961). For Rodgers and Hammerstein, they were so pleased from working with Fox that they continued to provide the rights to their musicals for all of their works’ adaptations with the exception of Flower Drum Song (which went to Universal). Like their work on Broadway, their best music and best movie adaptations of their musicals was yet to arrive. Oklahoma! marks a solid, healthy start to that run of adaptations, a hallmark of mid-century American moviemaking.

My rating: 7.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

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Adam Pontipee