OKLAHOMA! (1955)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 33 of 50)

I'm not sure how Fred Zinneman could have adapted Oklahoma! to the screen any better than he did. He took it off the stage and opened up great technicolor vistas that you couldn't have in a theater. But there are a lot of musicals that are established on stage that are just better on stage. You simply can't beat the intimacy of live theater with the songs and actors right in front of you. So I would say that you should see Oklahoma! in some form, it just doesn't have to be on celluloid.

Confession #1: The Farmer and the Cowboy Should be Friends is near the top of my list of  favorite songs from a musical. 

The Partridge Family vs. The Brady Bunch: A chapter in this ongoing debate that I didn't know about is Oklahoma! I knew that future hot Partridge Family mom Shirley Jones played Laurie in the movie. What I didn't realize was that future hot Brady Bunch mom Florence Henderson played Laurie on Broadway in 1953. You learn something everyday, I guess.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to..Eddie Albert. Honestly, most of the laughs that Oklahoma! generates comes for Albert's Ali Hakim, the Persian peddler man, who spends tmost of the movie trying to avoid getting married to Ado Annie. Albert had many other scene stealing supporting roles during his career, including the artist in Roman Holiday. But it is funny that his best know role is as the lead in the TV show Green Acres, when he had to play straight man to some of the goofiest characters in TV history. 

Confession #2: Green Acres is still one of my favorite shows.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 19 of 50)

The good: From Here to Eternity boasts a fine all-star cast headed by Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift. It won several Oscars including Best Picture of 1953. The bombing of Pearl Harbor finale holds up well. Began to tip the iceberg for American films to deal with more adult themes. When Lancaster and Deborah Kerr kiss on the beach as the waves roll over them has proven to be one of the most famous scenes in movie history.The black and white photography during the daytime scenes is impressive. 

The not-so-good: The story line is basically a military soap opera. The music is overdone, often swelling to overly dramatic proportion. The classic beach scene is undercut by Deborah Kerr's line "I never knew it could be like this." And the bombing scene occurs awfully late in the movie. And those adult themes don't go very far past the tip of the iceberg, for example, Donna Reed's role as a prostitute is toned down to the point that she is hardly recognizable as what she's supposed to be. And Private Prewitt's death scene is just plain strange.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to…Ernest Borgnine. Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra took home the supporting actor Oscars for From Here to Eternity, but how about Ernest Borgnine as the vicious heavy Fatso Judson? This was really Borgnine's first major role and he plays the vicious son-of-a bitch to the hilt. Borgnine's career was interesting in that he played supporting villains on and off for the next half century, but also occasionally had starring roles, including his sympathetic Oscar winning role as Marty in 1955. He also starred in the successful sitcom McHale's Navy in the 60's and  off course did the voiceover as Merman in Sponge Bob after the turn of the century! A career that truly ran the gamut!