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Oklahoma! in Todd-AO
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The 70mm Newsletter
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Written
by: Showmen’s Trade Review, October 15, 1955 |
Date:
01.07.2008 |
It's like the adman's catch line says : "You're in the show with
TODD-AO." And what a show "Oklahoma!" becomes on that expanse of screen
at the Rivoli
Theatre, New York, where the dual debut of the classic Rodgers and
Hammerstein musical play and a new process of photography and projection
took place last Monday night.
There's pure enchantment in almost every minute of the two hours and 25
minutes occupied in the telling of a romance that is brightened by some
of the most tuneful music written for the theatre, lightened by earthy
good humor and enlivened with the loveliest dances.
People will have to go to particular theatres to see this screen version
of one of the greatest of the modern American music plays. But go they
will. It will be worth it. And they'll love it.
The story this play has to tell is as simple as a recipe for corn pone.
An Oklahoma cowboy and his farm girl sweet-heart tease each other rather
than admit their love; a fright brings them together and an accident
eliminates the only menace to their happiness.
On the stage this all took place with the make-believe backgrounds of
theatre props. Here the backgrounds are for real and with the enhanced
realism imparted by a method of photography and projection which reaches
peaks of scenic scope which camera craft has so far attained. Voice and
sound, like the action and scenery, are recorded on film. But in this
department as well as the visual, the TODD-AO
system provides a richness and range, a depth and solidity with its
six-tracks of recording and reproduction.
The songs are as fresh and as gloriously infectious as ever, and Gordon
MacRae as Curley and newcomer Shirley Jones as Laurey capture and
project the full charm wrapped up in the Rodgers music and the
Hammerstein lyrics. Under the sensitive direction of Fred Zinnemann,
MacRae and Miss Jones, a lovely creature, portray character as well as
sing superbly. The direction expresses its superiority in the
characterizations by all other members of this judiciously chosen cast.
Gloria Grahame seems the perfect choice for the role of Ado Annie, and
the Will Parker of Gene Nelson is as breezy in characterization as it is
in dance and comedy interludes. Eddie Albert turns in one of his neatest
portrayals as Ali Hakim, and Rod Steiger makes lud a brooding, menacing
but withal a pathetic figure. And so it goes through the entire company
of this finely performed play, in which James Whitmore is Carnes,
Barbara Lawrence is Gertie, Jay C. Flippen is Skidmore, Roy Barcroft is
Marshal.
Allover again will people be humming the melodies and disk jockeys
spinning platters with renditions of "People Will Say We're In Love,"
"Surrey With the Fringe on Top," "Oh What a Beautiful Morning," Ado
Annie's slyly boastful confession that she "Can't Be Good," and the rest
of the "Oklahoma!" treasure chest of fetching tunes and lyrics. For this
Rodgers and Hammerstein theatre hit is due to begin life anew in a
panoramic pictorial form of a dramatically potent new medium of
realistic reproduction of sight and sound.
The deep curvature of the Rivoli’s screen brings the show into the
auditorium. While the horizontal planes bend upward or down-ward,
depending on where you sit, the projection of characters and action into
such intimacy with the spectator creates an experience that will cause
wonderment and exhilarating emotional impact on the average theatre
goer. And, surely, no new screen process could ask for a happier subject
of its introduction than "Oklahoma!".
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More
in 70mm reading:
Todd-AO
The Todd-AO Projector
Showmen’s Trade Review, October 15, 1955:
Oklahoma! in Todd-AO
Todd-AO
Magna Theatres
Todd-AO Corporation
Philips Collaborated On Projector Design
Todd-AO Projection and Sound
Six track recording equipment
All-Purpose Sound Reproduction
Rodgers & Hammerstein II
Six track recording equipment
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Updated
28-07-24 |
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