Surrey with a Fringe On Top

There is a great scene in When Harry Met Sally, well there are many great scenes in such an awesome film, but there is one in particular that relates to today's film. Sally and Harry are in a Sharper Image type store to buy a house warming gift. They come across a karaoke machine and the song of choice is "Surrey with a Fringe on Top." While Sally is singing, in a wonderful voice I might add, Harry runs into his ex wife. Such a good scene. This wonderful song comes to us from the film Oklahoma. I consider this another one of the classics that everyone should own. The movie was made in 1955 and it is the first project that Rogers and Hammerstein worked on together. 

There is a lot of wonderful singing and dancing in this film. It stars a young mama Partridge, Shirley Jones, and boy can she sing! "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" sounds so great coming from her and her beautiful golden blond hair really convinces the viewer that she is a farmer's daughter in the Oklahoma Territory before it become a state. Similar to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers this movie makes me want to put on a dress with a good twirl factor and dance around the living room. Laurey (Jones) is in love with Curly (Gordon MacRae) but there is an evil ranch hand that wants to ruin their love story. The story is about their love, this ranch hand, Oklahoma as a territory, and a peddler romance. The peddler is played by Eddie Albert who is another one of my favorite actors. Did you catch my review of Roman Holiday? 

This is one of those films that has a long entr'acte in the middle. I just learned that literally translated, an entr'acte means between acts. Which makes sense that there is a dance and singing routine in the middle of this film. At first it makes you think the movie was made in the trippy, hippy 70s but then you reread the movie case and remember it was made in 1955. It is then that you can appreciate that what you are seeing is just wonderful. The background scenery changes and it seems to be unrelated to the film, but these dancers are really talented. I love to watch that kind of stuff. I cannot guess how many movie stars dreamed of their careers in Hollywood after watching movies like this as a kid. 

While this movie is in full color and has choreographed fights, fire, and a kaleidoscope of pretty girls with a hidden switchblade inside, you still might have a hard time convincing some residents to watch it. You are looking at a time commitment and as my friend Eric kept saying "What in the world are we watching!" But if you are successful in introducing your residents to the wonder that is Oklahoma you have a couple programming options. The first is to review some of the interesting history of the United States. The movie takes place before Oklahoma is a state and there might be some good nuggets of information to share about the state you live in before it was part of the Union. 

Another program option might be to try your hand at lassoing. There is some fancy dancing with the lasso and also some actual lassoing of cattle by some ranchers in this movie. Finding a piece of rope and learning how to lasso the armchair in the lounge or a bush outside of the residence hall sounds like a lot of fun to me!