Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! (1955)

Timing: 2:28 (148 min)

6.619/10
181

5.99/10
513

7/10
16000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 29

Actors and characters

Release date

1955-10-10

Country

United States

Production

RKO Radio Pictures, Magna Corporation

Genre

Western, Music, Romance

Budget

$5 000 000

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

Fred Zinnemann

Actors

Gordon MacRae, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, Charlotte Greenwood, Shirley Jones, Eddie Albert, James Whitmore, Rod Steiger, Barbara Lawrence, Jay C. Flippen
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Arthur Hornblow Jr.

Operator

Robert Surtees

Composer

Artist

Audition

Editing

George Boemler
All team (30)

• 'Oklahoma!' was the first widescreen film in history shot using the Todd-AO system. Simultaneously with the 70mm widescreen version, the film was shot in the more common widescreen 'Cinemascope' system on standard 35mm film. This was done to allow cinemas without 70mm equipment to show the film. As a result, the two versions of the film differ significantly, as each uses different camera positions and editing plans.
• Finding 'corn as high as an elephant' proved difficult – it simply wasn't the season. Help had to be sought from the agricultural department of the Amazon University. They managed to grow corn over seven meters high, so producer Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) even joked that 'the corn is now as high as an elephant standing on the back of another elephant'.
• When, in one scene, the heroines Lisann Trues (1931-2013) and Jane Fisher (1930-2018) jump from a moving train straight into the arms of cowboys, everything had to be calculated very precisely. Just before the first take, a representative of the Screen Actors Guild suggested 'changing something', and it turned out that due to the danger of this action (jumping from the train), the actresses were entitled to additional payments of $250. The scene was shot in seven takes. Trues was delighted because she had recently purchased a 1951 Ford and was just making payments on it at the time.
• The film was shot in Arizona because Oklahoma was already so developed and densely built up by 1955 that it would have been difficult to find sparsely populated and underdeveloped areas from the beginning of the century, where the musical's plot unfolds.
• Preparation for filming began a year before the actual shooting commenced. During preparation, the film's art director, Joseph S. Wright (1892-1985), learned that spring floods occurred in the areas where filming was planned. The budget-conscious producers objected, but he insisted on building a dam for $15,000 anyway. When the spring waters came as he had warned, the dam saved the sets worth over $250,000 from destruction.
• “Oklahoma!” was the first widescreen film in history shot using the Todd-AO system. Simultaneously with the 70mm widescreen version, the film was shot in the more common widescreen system “CinemaScope” on standard 35mm film. This was done to allow cinemas without 70mm equipment to show the film. As a result, the two versions of the film differ significantly, as each uses different camera positions and editing plans.