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Oklahoma! (1955)

 
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 7:46 pm    Post subject: Oklahoma! (1955) Reply with quote

All readers of this forum be forewarned: Brent likes his musicals.

1955's Oklahoma! has many things to recommend it and it's accompanied by a wealth of fun movie facts.



The story is as formulaic as possible: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. It's the basic structure of 75% of all musicals. The simple fact is: it's a formula that works and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Several things set Oklahoma! apart from other musicals. Let's start with the stage play. Oklahoma! is considered one of the most important musicals in stage history. It is often cited as the musical which first truly integrated song and dance into the actual story. Prior to Oklahoma!, musicals were created by adding production numbers into a story...think of the Judy Garland/ Mickey Rooney musicals where the song and dance numbers were included as part of the kids putting on a stage show. Oklahoma! introduced the idea of using song and dance to tell the story.

The movie version remains one of the highest production value musicals ever filmed. The cast was populated with superb actors, singers and dancers with several past and future Oscar winners.

Oklahoma! also enjoys the rare distinction of being among a handful of movies filmed TWICE. Each scene was filmed once in Todd-AO and once in CinemaScope.

This is where the Blu-ray of Oklahoma! deserves special mention. Todd-AO was a large format system that not only used a larger film format but also shot at 30 frames per second. Unlike DVD, the Blu-ray specification allows for playback at 30fps (DVD is limited to standard 24fps). The restored Todd-AO version is available on BD and it is the ONLY home video format to ever properly replicate the original Todd-AO 30fps playback.

Todd-AO got it's name from producer Mike Todd who developed it with the American Optical company.





Check out the title song where young Brent Gair learned his American history...and learned to love the U.S.. Look for James Whitmore just months after filming THEM!

https://youtu.be/hpNeHMlJiD4

Here's Gene Nelson who would go onto to direct many popular movies and TV shows.

https://youtu.be/rfywkvRq4Ns
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Years before I got to see the movie, my parents had the soundtrack album, so I knew all the songs by the time I finally watched the film. Very Happy

This wonderful movie has a great line of dialog by James Whitmore during the quick "trial" near the end, in which Whitmore is the judge, and Gordon MacRae begins to describe what happen between him and Rod Steiger.

Gordon says something like, "I had to defend myself when Jed threatened me and Laurey. And furthermore -- "

Whitmore quickly interrupts with, "Never mind the furthermore, the plea is self-defense!"

The Monkees liked the line, too, because they included it in their song No Time at the 1:35 mark of video below.

"Andy, you're a dandy, but you seem to make no sense. Never mind the furthermore, the plea is self-defense!" (It's an Andy Warhol reference, I'm told.)


__________________ The Monkees - No Time


__________


As for the movie itself, it's definitely one of my favorites too, Brent — and along with Kiss Me Kate, The Music Man, and Calamity Jane.

The YouTube clip and the Blu-ray info you provided convinced me to order the Blu-ray so I can enjoy this movie in the highest quality possible.



Thanks for starting a discussion about Oklahoma!

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Oct 09, 2022 1:59 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Krel
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oklahoma! Filmed in Arizona! Why? Because there were too many oil derricks in Oklahoma! Laughing Corn as high as an elephant's eye, courtesy of the University of Arizona.

Stan Freberg liked it enough to use it as an inspiration for his commercial "Omaha!"

Great movie, with the kind of Technicolor they can't do today.

David.
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Brent Gair
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Joined: 21 Nov 2014
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 7:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud, you should be very pleased with the Blu-ray.

In my opinion, OKLAHOMA! is THE reference standard for classic musicals on Blu-ray. As the owner of 850 BDs (with a heavy weighting of musicals), a 60" TV and a 7.1 channel surround sound system, Oklahoma! is the movie that you show people when they say, "Yeah...but do those OLD movies look any good on Blu-ray?".

There are two movies that I will demo to people who think that high definition only exists for 21st Century films. I'll show them Oklahoma! or White Christmas . . . both of which have "blow your socks off" quality for 60 year old movies.

The Todd-AO version of Oklahoma! has been almost unseen for 60 years. Most theatrical prints and later TV presentations came from the CinemaScope version. Fans were excited when the Todd-AO version was included in the DVD several years ago...but they were crushed by the truly awful, murky, unrestored image. I have it...I didn't think it would be as bad as people said...but it stunk up the place!

But the Blu-ray got it 100% right. The Todd-AO version is superb. People now agree that the Todd-AO version on Blu-ray surpassed the quality of the 'Scope version (you get BOTH versions in the Blu-ray set).
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brent Gair wrote:
. . . the Blu-ray got it 100% right. The Todd-AO version is superb. People now agree that the Todd-AO version on Blu-ray surpassed the quality of the 'Scope version (you get BOTH versions in the Blu-ray set).

Both versions in that set? That does it! I was going to wait until tomorrow to order it, so I won't wake up tomorrow and say to myself, "I've got to stop buying everything that catches my fancy!" Shocked

But the prospect of having two version to compare -- as well as the best version to enjoy -- is too tempting to resist, even for one day.

You said it was filmed twice, and I was going to ask if that meant they actually filmed each scene two different times with the two separate filming processes -- but Wikipedia answered the question for with this statement.
___________________________________________

It was simultaneously shot in the more established CinemaScope 35 mm format to allow presentation in theaters lacking 70 mm equipment. Hence, there are actually two different versions of the film comprising different takes
__________________________________________

That's amazing! I'll be able to put the DVD in my laptop and the BD in my player and have fun comparing the different takes -- one of which I've seen several times and the other a version I've never seen before!

Thanks, Brent! Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Oct 09, 2022 1:58 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I see the Oklahoma! set is now listed as 4 discs which inludes a pair of DVDs to go with the BDs!

Be careful if you read any amazon reviews because amazon mixes both the old DVD and new Blu-ray reviews together. If you read their reviews, you'll initially see people say how dissappointed they were with the Todd-AO version...but when you look at the dates, they are DVD reviews from 2005.

When they filmed something in Todd-AO, it wasn't really possible to "extract" another format from that so, if they wanted a 'Scope version, they had to film a 'Scope version separately.

The big problem was that the 30fps frame rate could not printed in any other format. There have been film processes over the years (like SuperScope and Super35) that allow different formats to be printed from a negative. But, like other films, they were shot at 24fps which was the industry standard. 30fps was unique to Todd-AO...it was shot at 30fps and had to be projected at 30fps. You couldn't take a Todd-AO negative and make a CinemaScope print (well, you could, but everybody would be moving in slow motion!).
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 8:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My BD will be here on Saturday, one day before the 28th Anniversary of my 39th Birthday. Wink

Happy Anniversary to me!

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 5:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

While looking up the Blu-ray pricing on Amazon I was surprised to find that Hugh Jackman starred in a 1999 remake.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Hugh Jackman version is a taped performance of a Broadway production, and YouTube has all three hours of it.

It's actually very enjoyable. Resisting the urge to compare it to the movie is a struggle all the way through the video, but it's still fun to watch.
Very Happy
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sun Oct 09, 2022 1:56 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 09, 2022 1:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Brent, I am eternally in your debt! Very Happy

My Blu-ray of Oklahoma! arrived today, and I synchronized the Todd-AO version on my TV with the CinemaScope version of my laptop, just to see how the director managed to film the movie scene-for-scene . . . twice.

What happened next was astounding!

It was immediately obvious that each version actually was composed of two takes of each shots — with the actors delivering their lines word-for-word in each take. But what had me hootin' and hollerin' as I sat there watching the two version play together on my laptop and my TV was the way each scene showed so many obvious difference!

The camera would be in a slightly different position and at a noticeably different distance from the actors — sometimes closer, sometimes further back. And the edits were different from time-to-time, causing actors to deliver lines from off-camera in one version, but on-camera in the other!

Objects in the backgrounds would be in different positions between the two versions, such as the clouds in the sky, or cattle in the distant field.

The dialog for the two versions would stay roughly in synch for a while, but then they would drift apart because of the slight differences in the lengths of individual shots.

But as I continued watching the two version, they would often come back together — undoubtedly because of a deliberate effort on the part of the editor to have both versions end up with approximately the same running time by the end of the film.

I did have to make adjustments to re-synch the two films on a few occasions.

The point of all this, of course, is that the new Blu-ray of Oklahoma! is a rare treat for movie lovers for several difference reasons — not the least of which is the amazing fact that it actually give us two different movies — mostly the same, but with delightful difference that are a joy to discover by watching them both at the same time!

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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