Oklahoma!

This rousing film version of the massively influential and, in its day, revolutionary Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical preserves both the magnificent songs and the key Agnes DeMille choreography. The location photography is stunning, particularly in the Oh, What a Beautiful Morning opening sequence, where the corn really does look as high as an elephant's eye in the then new 65mm Todd-AO screen process. (A CinemaScope version was filmed simultaneously and it is that which usually plays on TV.) Heading the notable cast is the underrated Gordon MacRae as a finely shaded romantic Curly, while Shirley Jones, in her film debut, is superb as Laurey. If Rod Steiger is a shade morose and out of kilter, well, so is his character Jud Fry. Director Fred Zinnemann, much in demand after From Here to Eternity, can't quite manage the pizzazz the movie really needs, and he seriously messes up the stirring title number. But there's still much to enjoy here.