Must See Movie...

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Blistering performances.

Director: George Stevens. Screenplay: Joel Sayre, John Twist. Story: Joseph A. Anthony, Ewart Adamson. Photography: J. Roy Hunt, Harold Wenstrom. Film editor: Jack Hively. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase and Perry Ferguson. Music director: Alberto Colombo. Sound recording: P.J. Faulkner, John L. Cass. Associate producer: Cliff Reid. (Available on a superb Warner-Turner DVD).Copyright 15 November 1935 by RKO-Radio Pictures. U.S. release: 28 November 1935. 91 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A backwoods sharpshooter enters a contest against the world's best. She would have beaten him too, except that...COMMENT: This admirably glossy straight version of the Annie Oakley-Frank Butler story has both its admirers and detractors. As for me, I like it. True, it bears even less relationship to the real story than Annie Get Your Gun. Nonetheless, as pure entertainment this Annie is a winner. Aside from Melvyn Douglas who is forced to struggle valiantly as the other man, this version assembles a great cast, although, would you believe, in my opinion it's Chief Thunder Bird who actually walks away with the movie's top acting honors?

Directed by George Stevens, with a story by Joseph Fields and Ewart Adamson that was adapted by Joel Sayre and John Twist, this biographical Western drama about the famous sharpshooting woman features Barbara Stanwyck in the title role.Preston Foster plays Toby Walker, another "hot shot" that's Annie's rival and "on again, off again" love interest. Melvyn Douglas plays Jeff Hogarth, their agent and business partner of "Buffalo Bill" Cody (Moroni Olsen), whose Wild West road show serves as the backdrop for most of the film's action. Chief Thunderbird plays Sitting Bull, another attraction of the show which brought authentic Western "culture" - trick shooting, horseback riding, cattle roping, cowboys & Indians, and other rodeo type action - to the Eastern United States and even the Kings & Queens of Europe et al.Others in the cast include Pert Kelton as Vera Delmar, a former love interest of Walker's, Andy Clyde as Cincinnati hotel proprietor James MacIvor, where Annie was "discovered", and Delmar Watson, who appears briefly as Annie's little brother Wesley. Additionally, actors appearing uncredited include Willie Best as a cook, Iron Eyes Cody as Sitting Bull's interpreter, and Dick Elliott as Major Ned Buntline, one of the show's other talent agents.The story is fictionalized: detailing the discovery of the backwoods teenage girl who could shoot flying pigeons in the head so as to not ruin them for consumption, her competition with sure shot world champion Frank Butler, dubbed Walker in the film, at MacIvor's (really Jack Frost's) hotel (ladies weren't supposed to be able to do the things that men could, back then; they weren't even allowed to enter a saloon), her signing with Buffalo Bill's traveling show, meeting Indian Chief Sitting Bull (who dubbed her "Watanya cicilia" or "Little Sure Shot"), and the chow's European tour.Though this film doesn't have Annie and Toby marry (as she did Frank in real life, and in the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1950) with Betty Hutton and Howard Keel), it does end on a particularly happy note.

George Stevens directs this biography on the early career of sharp-shooter Annie Oakley as if it were a star-crossed lovers' tale, replete with heartache and self-sacrifice. Backwoods girl from Ohio in the 1890s enters a shooting contest against world's champion Toby Walker and nearly beats him; this leads to a co-starring spot in Buffalo Bill's traveling western show, where the primrose gal becomes a star and falls in love with competitor Walker. Barbara Stanwyck was born to play Annie Oakley, yet her performance isn't the raucous hoot one might expect (this is director Stevens' fault, who lingers on Annie's sympathy and compassion for others so long, it makes her seem like a bleeding-heart). Still, Stanwyck is the reason to watch, and she's best in the film's first-half--when Annie still has a little gumshun in her and playful self-assurance. Stevens seems more interested in the budding love story between Oakley and Walker than in creating an actual document of Oakley's colorful life (which we are told at the start was stranger than any fiction). Certainly a good try, with funny bits of business happening along the sidelines and plenty of blustery character actors in support. **1/2 from ****

While I am a history teacher and my friends and family HATE watching historical films with me because I often find fault with the way movies often handle the facts in a fast and loose manner, I still managed to like this film and kept my mouth shut about its many inaccuracies! Part of this is because when I watched the film I didn't know that much about Annie Oakley and another was because I was having too much fun to complain. I spotted a few errors but in researching more about her after the film was over, I found that most of the film was fiction. Despite this, I still am not complaining because I liked the film so much plus Miss Oakley is a rather mythic figure already and little impact on history (though she did a lot for women's rights--at least indirectly).It's interesting that Oakley (Barbara Stanwyck) is not the sole focus of the film. It's much more of an ensemble film and the movie is not about her entire life--just one small fictionalized portion involving her falling in love with another sharp shooter. Now the facts and the fiction aren't all that different in a few key ways, so it's obvious that the facts did at least inspire the film. According to the film, Toby Walker (Preston Foster) is acknowledged as the world's greatest shooter. However, when a contest is arranged with an unknown local girl (Oakley), she allows him to win but is invited to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a featured star. Then, her budding love for Toby is hidden by her and Toby so that they can foster a publicity campaign that they are rivals. In reality, the real sharpshooter was Francis "Frank" E. Butler and Oakley beat him during this shoot-off. However, they did marry and they did travel with Buffalo Bill, though they first traveled with a different and less famous show. The romance, at least the way the film portrayed it, is pretty bogus.Another bogus aspect of the film is the involvement of Sitting Bull. While he did apparently know Miss Oakley and did nickname her "Little Sure Shot", he was only with the show a few months. Sadly, almost all the wonderful scenes featuring him in the film didn't happen and it's too bad, as he was the best character in the film! For an American Indian in the 1930s, this portrayal was amazingly sensitive and showed him as a rather decent and clever guy.There's a lot more to the film that is bogus, but as I said the film is so well written and fun, I found myself uncharacteristically NOT complaining as the truth wasn't quite as fun and exciting as fiction. A lovely film thanks to good but distorted writing, excellent acting and brisk direction.Interesting facts: Andy Clyde plays the hotel owner. In the 1920s, he was a big silent comedy star as well as director and writer. Also, Pert Kelton plays the lady who likes Toby at the beginning of the film. She was the first 'Alice Kramden' in the Honeymooner's segments of "The Jackie Gleason Show".