James Mitchell passed away in 2010. Bambi Lynn is one of the still surviving cast members of the original opening night production of "Oklahoma" (1943) she is currently 97. God bless her.
This whole ballet is a masterpiece of choreography and dancer's craft. It adds so much to the story and characters without a single word; visual storytelling at its best. The saloon scene in particular is a great imagining of the sort of life Laurey would live if she chose Jud - especially the moment where Jud drops Laurey and begins dancing with one of the other women, implying that as possessive of her as he is, there’s a strong chance he wouldn’t even be faithful to her in the long run once he found someone else to fixate on. Unlike Curly who will always be devoted to her and would risk his life for her, which he ultimately does more than once in the real world.
@@davidallen508 Yours is just an aggressive man's fantasy. Laurey could be ravaged by the man she loves, Curly as well as loved tenderly. Something Jud could never do.
I shared this with my tween and she LOVED it!! The dancing, costumes, etc..This is beautiful..The choreography..No one today can come remotely close to this...So talented...I feel so lucky to be able to appreciate and be able to share this with my daughter...It is important to keep these musicals alive..not let the brilliance of this time fade away..
Besides the magnificent score and dancing, let us not forget the brilliant choreography by Agnes de Mille. Cinematography by Robert Surtees and Floyd Crosby.
Me too. Also the other creepy parts with Curly and Jud. I really kept thinking that Jud was going to *actually* kill either himself or Curly or maybe both. I know it's not that kind of movie and probably already knew that too when I was nine or ten, but was still creeped out anyway. Which basically just means that they did a good job with the scenes.
I love the way the dance hall girls are just phoning it in, not giving it any real juice. That same bored attitude is seen in Big Spender from Sweet Charity.
This is probably my all time favorite next to Show Boat. The music is incredible. Did the show in College in the early 90s at UNLV. We broke Box Office records
He's like some kind of zombie monster or something (in that part of the dream sequence, that is) (fortunately *not* in the rest of the movie). If he were *actually* like that then this would be *really* scary. 😨😳😨 You know those "what if this were a horror movie?" trailers for other movies? I'm thinking that maybe this movie needs one. They could just use that sequence. It's certainly scary enough. 😨 😨 😨
I don’t want to get graphic but the scene right after the wedding with all the women in colorful dresses literally feels like your watching all of the women and the “bride” get sexually abused by the men, like when all the men are holding the women up and they look dead, it’s actually really intense if you think of it in that way.(sorry it’s been SO long since I’ve watched this movie so I don’t know names, like I know the bride has an actual name) I don’t know for sure if that’s what they were going for, or maybe just an unhappy marriage approach, like I said I haven’t seen this movie in awhile.
The bride's name is Laurey in the movie and yes, I personally think that was the point. Jud and the saloon men were lustful, not loving and that's the difference between Jud and Curly.
I couldn't disagree more with the two guys who said this sequence is a waste of celluloid. To me, the ballet and Charlotte Greenwood are the best things in the movie (after the score, of course), and the dancers are its unsung heroines. According to IMDB, Bambi Linn (Dream Laurie), who was in her teens when the Broadway production opened in 1943, is still with us at age 92.
Ruby Marlowe I wish someone would upload the part where they gave Laurie and Curly a shivaree and Jud sets the hay stacks on fires and tries to stab Curly with a knife but Curly jumps on Jud and the knife stabs him instead
I finally realized why James Mitchell was cast as Dream Curley instead of the original, Marc Platt who was doing a lot of film dancing . In the film, the switch from real Laurie and Curley to Dream Laurie and Curley was done on screen and required similar appearance for the audience to understand that these dancers were supposed to be Laurie and Curley. James Mitchell was a good fit for Gordon Macrae, short and rather stocky. Marc Platt was tall blond and willowy. Their concern for similar appearance went so far as to cast Rod Steiger in the dance because they did not think they could find a dancer to match his tall burley appearance. They simplified his dance role and fortunately he moved well. Notice Virginia Bosler gets key roles in all the girls dances. She has long brunette hair and a pouty mouth .
These were professional ballet dancers; the other actors wouldn't have been able to fully perform this scene. Plus, as an added bonus, it enhances the surrealism of the scene.
I don't think the Dream sequence could be improved on as far as Agnes de Mille's stunning, weirdly off-kilter choreography is concerned, the heightened use of colour and a setting that somehow combines to be claustrophobic yet threateningly open. That sounds soooo pretentious, but IS supposed to be a dream. What does give me a problem every time I watch it is that my enjoyment and appreciation are severely compromised because the film looks like standard ratio cropped for CinemaScope, cutting the dancers off from the knees down in closeups. I guess they must have had their reasons...
Rod Steiger has an ugly magnetism in this, but... a number hard not to watch, a darker part of a sunny, sunny, musical. Gordon and Shirley and Charlotte were wonderful.
9:49 - 10:49: Did the dancers make Laurey tired and did she fall asleep on that staircase far several seconds? If she did, I never knew you could sleep in a dream!
Laurey needs this dream ballet to get her to wake up and see sense. I always wondered why did she not already know *before* the dream. I suppose though subconsciously she *did* already know and that's how/why she was able to give herself that dream (fortunately for her so she didn't have to go through something equally awful in real life). Jud Fry is crazy and scary. 😨 Deep down, Laurey must've somehow already known that or sensed that. Otherwise she probably wouldn't have dreamed this. Her subconscious mind can tell her what her conscious mind can't.
She enjoys the courtship and she’s not ready to commit. Judd, being a lowly farmhand and someone looked down on by most of the community, is a safe option for Laurie because she believes she would never have to marry him. She underestimated him because she is kind to him, but he is more dangerous than she realizes.
Active in community theatre over 40 years. Done this show only twice ..chorus dancer.... Dream Ballet was always the directors nightmare. Terribly difficult .. very long...17 minutes I think... and you'd better have some damned good dancers
Would you happen to have the original opening credit sequence that was superimposed over Curly riding through the countryside? They did away with it in subsequent DVD releases. Thank you!
I forget which-is-which, but they filmed it separately for Todd-AO and Cinemascope, and one of those versions has the footage of Curly while the other doesn't. Hope this helps if you haven't found it already. (I have a R&H Blu-Ray collection, and it came with both versions.)
the Todd-AO version has the opening credits over a black screen and then fades into Curly on his horse. The CinemaScope version immediately opens with Curly on his horse and the opening credits are superimposed over the shots of him riding through the plains. So you’re looking for the CinemaScope version of the film. :)
The movie makers had to invent a way to get someone who knew how to dance to be in the dance scenes, which makes me wonder why they didn’t just teach Shirley Jones how to dance, herself! Maybe she had two left feet!
This scene was not generally well received back in 1956 and although I enjoyed acting it out in a stage production in Australia , I really feel that on film , the scene could have finished at the point where Jud lifts her veil.The entire segment is something of a stretch.
She was trying to decide who to choose. This dream brought what she already knew subconsciously to the surface of her mind to show what her life would be like with Judd.
Jud Fry was misunderstood. They really treated him badly. Curly ridiculed him unmercifully. Laurie lead him on as well. Should have been nicer to him and none of the conflict would have happened.
Jud had a dark past, if I remember correctly. He made advances on another girl and when she rejected them, he killed her and her whole family by setting fire to their house. I agree that Laurey shouldn't have used him like she did, but still Jud was a sinister character.
@@alysiabernardo8900 I'm not sure if I'm remembering it correctly, as it's been a while since I saw the movie, but as I recall Jud mentions it while talking to Curly after the song "Poor Jud is Daid" under the guise of saying that he [Jud] had "heard" of a fellow who killed a family that way. Curly eventually figures out that Jud was talking about himself. Again, I could be wrong as it's been a while since I saw the movie.
You can have empathy with people like that without blaming their victims when they do horrific things. (The stage play makes his character clearer than in the movie.)
By modern conventions, these staid Agnes de Mille ballets are so stagey; and they interrupt the flow of the narrative. And they only semi-work on film. So many mannered poses; less than ideal camera angles. And you just know the whole thing was shot on a soundstage. It just smacks of fakery and phoniness.
Myles Garcia --- I agree. It's 15 minutes boredom to me. But, when I watch this movie on my DVD/TV, it allows me time to make more popcorn and get another Dr. Pepper.
James Mitchell passed away in 2010. Bambi Lynn is one of the still surviving cast members of the original opening night production of "Oklahoma" (1943) she is currently 97. God bless her.
what a gorgeous melody - Shirley Jones does it beautifully
Yeah, this song isn't exactly underrated, but it definitely doesn't get the attention or recordings it deserves. Not sure why...
Shirley sings this number beautifully.
This is so beautiful and so well-crafted that it feels real instead of silly or cheesy. Amazing dancers. Pretty much blows my mind.
The only thing silly and cheesy in this is the men in the saloon dancing the Chicken Dance
+ the Cowboys dancing to Gangnam Style
@@royalty8380 I just saw this, made me wheeze-laugh 😂
Silly or cheesy 🧀? Them's fightin' words.
I'm not sure we watched the same scene
The DREAM SEQUENCE was excellent. I enjoyed it very much. No words were spoken but you received the message . !!!!!!
Probably the most memorable sequence in all of Oklahoma. Genius. Beautifully choreographed and danced. A Freudian banquet!
I agree. Partly because It was unusual for innocent musicals to have this touch of darkness.
This whole ballet is a masterpiece of choreography and dancer's craft. It adds so much to the story and characters without a single word; visual storytelling at its best. The saloon scene in particular is a great imagining of the sort of life Laurey would live if she chose Jud - especially the moment where Jud drops Laurey and begins dancing with one of the other women, implying that as possessive of her as he is, there’s a strong chance he wouldn’t even be faithful to her in the long run once he found someone else to fixate on. Unlike Curly who will always be devoted to her and would risk his life for her, which he ultimately does more than once in the real world.
Another interpretation to yours ; Laurey nurtured a secret fantasy, to be ravaged by Jud even though she feared him.
@@davidallen508
Yours is just an aggressive man's fantasy. Laurey could be ravaged by the man she loves, Curly as well as loved tenderly.
Something Jud could never do.
Such a difficult song perfectly executed. I love her voice
One of The Greatest Musical Numbers on Film....Just Lush, and Gorgeous, yet Hauntingly Beautiful ( The Girls in The Salon)...
I shared this with my tween and she LOVED it!! The dancing, costumes, etc..This is beautiful..The choreography..No one today can come remotely close to this...So talented...I feel so lucky to be able to appreciate and be able to share this with my daughter...It is important to keep these musicals alive..not let the brilliance of this time fade away..
I so agree with you. I miss the beautiful musicals America used to enjoy!
Great vocal by Shirley on 'Out of my Dreams' and great choreography and dancing in the 'Dream Ballet'.
The story goes that from 11:07 to 11:28, Agnes DeMille told the dancers to think of themselves as "diseased Chrismas ornaments."
Besides the magnificent score and dancing, let us not forget the brilliant choreography by Agnes de Mille. Cinematography by Robert Surtees and Floyd Crosby.
Only Floyd wasn't credited
James Mitchell and Bambi Lynn are the dream Curley and Laurie. Rod Steiger is the only movie star lead in the whole ballet.
Watching this beautiful ballet....and the Music! Brings such emotion for me. First time I saw the film..12 years old. So scared of Jud's women...
Oh my god. I remember the scary part of this scene used to really creep me out when I was a kid.
Me too
Me too. Also the other creepy parts with Curly and Jud.
I really kept thinking that Jud was going to *actually* kill either himself or Curly or maybe both.
I know it's not that kind of movie and probably already knew that too when I was nine or ten, but was still creeped out anyway.
Which basically just means that they did a good job with the scenes.
@@julistarling8382 yes that part is creepy when Jud almost killed Curly with the kaleidoscope thing, "the little wonder" or whatever it was
This is my first time hearing This song as I have to learn it for this Thursday and wow it’s amazing
Rodgers and Hammerstein classic from the lips of Shirley Jones, the non-pareil 'Laurie'.
Thank you!
Everyone just leaving her is so scary and the “prostitutes/ saloon girls?” Their costumes are genius.
I love the way the dance hall girls are just phoning it in, not giving it any real juice. That same bored attitude is seen in Big Spender from Sweet Charity.
...my heartfelt favorite from the whole movie...
This is probably my all time favorite next to Show Boat. The music is incredible. Did the show in College in the early 90s at UNLV. We broke Box Office records
I love the bit where Curly shoots at Jud, but Jud takes no damage. It’s incredibly creepy...
Joosh That scared the crap out of me when I was little.
It means Jud is indestructible
He's like some kind of zombie monster or something (in that part of the dream sequence, that is) (fortunately *not* in the rest of the movie). If he were *actually* like that then this would be *really* scary. 😨😳😨
You know those "what if this were a horror movie?" trailers for other movies? I'm thinking that maybe this movie needs one. They could just use that sequence. It's certainly scary enough. 😨 😨 😨
That Palmer Cortland sure can dance.
This was one of the best things I watch in any movie that I watched!🤩
And when the men come in on their imaginary horses is the best.
Beautiful song from my childhood
A fabulous waltz number...
This is the one i was dreaming of.
This movie is far better than is advertised. It is quite archetypical.
I don’t want to get graphic but the scene right after the wedding with all the women in colorful dresses literally feels like your watching all of the women and the “bride” get sexually abused by the men, like when all the men are holding the women up and they look dead, it’s actually really intense if you think of it in that way.(sorry it’s been SO long since I’ve watched this movie so I don’t know names, like I know the bride has an actual name)
I don’t know for sure if that’s what they were going for, or maybe just an unhappy marriage approach, like I said I haven’t seen this movie in awhile.
The bride's name is Laurey in the movie and yes, I personally think that was the point. Jud and the saloon men were lustful, not loving and that's the difference between Jud and Curly.
Life with Jud would mean him turning Laurey into a disrespectful woman like the ones working the saloons and on the playing cards he likes.
Of course. That's the precise point of the scene!
That's the exact point of that scene. Women hanging limp after being abused by vulgar men
sometimes it's better to just not comment if the best you have is uninformed word salad.
You're not required to comment, hunny.
I searched long.. My dad loves this scenes very much
I did that play of Oklahoma at elmwood playhouse last year and I was the role of Laurey
RIP Jane Fischer 9/5/2018- she was the long, darkhaired schoolgirl paired with the late Lizanne Truex.
I couldn't disagree more with the two guys who said this sequence is a waste of celluloid. To me, the ballet and Charlotte Greenwood are the best things in the movie (after the score, of course), and the dancers are its unsung heroines. According to IMDB, Bambi Linn (Dream Laurie), who was in her teens when the Broadway production opened in 1943, is still with us at age 92.
Ruby Marlowe I wish someone would upload the part where they gave Laurie and Curly a shivaree and Jud sets the hay stacks on fires and tries to stab Curly with a knife but Curly jumps on Jud and the knife stabs him instead
This dream sequence occurs after Laurey takes smelling salts she bought from a Middle Eastern itinerant traveler -- pretty hard hitting for 1955
it was 1955, not 1655, dearie
@@Marcel_Audubonthis musical is set in 1906
@@evanhughes1510 obviously, we're talking about the year the movie was introduced, not the fictional year within the movie
It's got that 'opium tent' feel.
I mean the movie also has a song sung by the protagonist to convince the antagonist to kill himself
11:18 that scene creeped me out when i was a kid, the dancer looks dead
The magic of edited footage only enhances, rather than diminishing Agnes' De Mille's groundbreaking choreography.
Magnificent
I first saw this when I was about 10 (1967) . . . and even then, I kind of "went" more for Jud's "Painted Floozies" than Laurie. :-)
Lol..
Sublime
♥
I finally realized why James Mitchell was cast as Dream Curley instead of the original, Marc Platt who was doing a lot of film dancing . In the film, the switch from real Laurie and Curley to Dream Laurie and Curley was done on screen and required similar appearance for the audience to understand that these dancers were supposed to be Laurie and Curley. James Mitchell was a good fit for Gordon Macrae, short and rather stocky. Marc Platt was tall blond and willowy. Their concern for similar appearance went so far as to cast Rod Steiger in the dance because they did not think they could find a dancer to match his tall burley appearance. They simplified his dance role and fortunately he moved well. Notice Virginia Bosler gets key roles in all the girls dances. She has long brunette hair and a pouty mouth .
Young 'Palmer Courtland' from "All My Children" ( Dream Curly)...
Palmer from All My Children!
Virginia Bosle very beautiful .
Rodgers and Hammerstein were incomparable when creating waltzes like this, and Jones is the mistress of all the musical scales and modes.
Look at that fancy footwork by Rod Steiger! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mitchell is such a gorgeous guy. He did soaps later.
Why do they have different actors for Curly and Laurie in this scene?
These were professional ballet dancers; the other actors wouldn't have been able to fully perform this scene. Plus, as an added bonus, it enhances the surrealism of the scene.
@@johnmccarron7066I think it was R&H's intention to have the roles of Laurey and Curly be temporarily taken over by dancers for this scene.
I don't think the Dream sequence could be improved on as far as Agnes de Mille's stunning, weirdly off-kilter choreography is concerned, the heightened use of colour and a setting that somehow combines to be claustrophobic yet threateningly open. That sounds soooo pretentious, but IS supposed to be a dream. What does give me a problem every time I watch it is that my enjoyment and appreciation are severely compromised because the film looks like standard ratio cropped for CinemaScope, cutting the dancers off from the knees down in closeups. I guess they must have had their reasons...
Brilliant dance sequence, the devil wants to recruit the bride.
Dalí was so hip back then
Ahhh, back when they made good movies
You know what? There really *is* a bright golden haze on the meadow and it's in the early part of *this* scene.
Just saying. 😉
Rod Steiger has an ugly magnetism in this, but... a number hard not to watch, a darker part of a sunny, sunny, musical. Gordon and Shirley and Charlotte were wonderful.
9:49 - 10:49: Did the dancers make Laurey tired and did she fall asleep on that staircase far several seconds? If she did, I never knew you could sleep in a dream!
Laurey needs this dream ballet to get her to wake up and see sense.
I always wondered why did she not already know *before* the dream. I suppose though subconsciously she *did* already know and that's how/why she was able to give herself that dream (fortunately for her so she didn't have to go through something equally awful in real life).
Jud Fry is crazy and scary. 😨
Deep down, Laurey must've somehow already known that or sensed that. Otherwise she probably wouldn't have dreamed this.
Her subconscious mind can tell her what her conscious mind can't.
She enjoys the courtship and she’s not ready to commit. Judd, being a lowly farmhand and someone looked down on by most of the community, is a safe option for Laurie because she believes she would never have to marry him. She underestimated him because she is kind to him, but he is more dangerous than she realizes.
Lead female dancer? Bambi something?
Bambi Lynn is a ballet dancer
Active in community theatre over 40 years. Done this show only twice ..chorus dancer.... Dream Ballet was always the directors nightmare. Terribly difficult .. very long...17 minutes I think... and you'd better have some damned good dancers
Would you happen to have the original opening credit sequence that was superimposed over Curly riding through the countryside? They did away with it in subsequent DVD releases. Thank you!
I forget which-is-which, but they filmed it separately for Todd-AO and Cinemascope, and one of those versions has the footage of Curly while the other doesn't. Hope this helps if you haven't found it already. (I have a R&H Blu-Ray collection, and it came with both versions.)
the Todd-AO version has the opening credits over a black screen and then fades into Curly on his horse. The CinemaScope version immediately opens with Curly on his horse and the opening credits are superimposed over the shots of him riding through the plains. So you’re looking for the CinemaScope version of the film. :)
What happened. Genuine gentleman????
who is the handsome male dancer in the beginning?
James Mitchell, most known for playing Palmer Courtland on All My Children.
5:16 Oppa Gangam Style.
The only party of movie I never liked, butit was beautifully done, not into dreams
The movie makers had to invent a way to get someone who knew how to dance to be in the dance scenes, which makes me wonder why they didn’t just teach Shirley Jones how to dance, herself! Maybe she had two left feet!
In the subsequent Warner Brothers film version of THE MUSIC MAN, Shirley did learn to dance, and as far as I remember, she did a fine job.
This song was way too short.
This is what happened when you do drugs
This movie musical is not a family friendly one due to the gun violence, adult language and innuendo
This scene was not generally well received back in 1956 and although I enjoyed acting it out in a stage production in Australia , I really
feel that on film , the scene could have finished at the point where Jud lifts her veil.The entire segment is something of a stretch.
She was trying to decide who to choose. This dream brought what she already knew subconsciously to the surface of her mind to show what her life would be like with Judd.
Jud Fry was misunderstood. They really treated him badly. Curly ridiculed him unmercifully. Laurie lead him on as well. Should have been nicer to him and none of the conflict would have happened.
Jud had a dark past, if I remember correctly. He made advances on another girl and when she rejected them, he killed her and her whole family by setting fire to their house.
I agree that Laurey shouldn't have used him like she did, but still Jud was a sinister character.
@@mariekazyak5233 Interesting! Where did you hear that about Jud's past though??
@@alysiabernardo8900 I'm not sure if I'm remembering it correctly, as it's been a while since I saw the movie, but as I recall Jud mentions it while talking to Curly after the song "Poor Jud is Daid" under the guise of saying that he [Jud] had "heard" of a fellow who killed a family that way. Curly eventually figures out that Jud was talking about himself.
Again, I could be wrong as it's been a while since I saw the movie.
You can have empathy with people like that without blaming their victims when they do horrific things.
(The stage play makes his character clearer than in the movie.)
Not to be rude..Jud is way sexier than Curley! LOL!
the singer Curly or the dancer Curly? It makes a difference.
Rod Steiger was a fantastic actor. Check out the 1965 version of Dr. Zhivago. His character owned the movie. And what a movie.
yeah he is so burly and muscular unlike Curly who was too skinny
So lovely! The stupid Disney and other commercials really STINK. AND RUIN THE MOOD.
By modern conventions, these staid Agnes de Mille ballets are so stagey; and they interrupt the flow of the narrative. And they only semi-work on film. So many mannered poses; less than ideal camera angles. And you just know the whole thing was shot on a soundstage. It just smacks of fakery and phoniness.
Myles Garcia --- I agree. It's 15 minutes boredom to me. But, when I watch this movie on my DVD/TV, it allows me time to make more popcorn and get another Dr. Pepper.
Yeah, in this bit Laurey is high on the opiate that the peddler sold her. It's supposed to be a dream sequence that turns into a nightmare.
Wow, you have no understanding of dance at all.
Dude, it's a musical. It's going to be stylized when people literally burst into song and dance to express themselves.
musicaltheatergeek79 Thank you! She’s tripping balls.