Dakota

Ok little story. Good for an afternoon diversion...

This is a nice easy to take B western that Joel McCrea settled into doing in his later years. The Oklahoman opens with McCrea's wife dying in childbirth and McCrea making a decision to leave the wagon train he's on and settle in what was then known as Indian Territory.

Fast forward about seven years. McCrea, who is a doctor, has settled with his seven year old daughter in a small town in Oklahoma. He's got two girls interested in him, Barbara Hale who is rancher's widow, and Gloria Talbott a young Indian girl who babysits his daughter. Talbott's family has problems from the local town bully played with appropriate menace by Brad Dexter. He wants the land that Talbott's father Michael Pate owns and Dexter ain't too squeamish about his methods.

Why does Dexter want the land and who will McCrea wind up with in the end? For those questions watch The Oklahoman.

Fans of Joel McCrea and westerns in general will like this.

As the title might suggest, "The Oklahoman" is set in Oklahoma, although that does not automatically follow; "The Virginian", after all, is not set in Virginia. The action takes place during the 1870s, at a time when Oklahoma was still known as the Indian Territory and was officially reserved for Native Americans, although in fact it also had a sizeable white population.

John Brighton is a doctor whose wife dies in childbirth while they are on a westward-bound wagon train. Dr Brighton abandons his plans to move to California and decides to settle in the small town of Cherokee Wells. The main action takes place several years later. Brighton has established his practice in the town, but becomes embroiled in a land dispute between greedy rancher Cass Dobie and a small Indian farmer; Dobie has discovered that there is oil on the Indian's land and wants to force the rightful owner off. Another strand to the plot involves Brighton's love life. Although Joel McCrea was in his fifties when the film was made, Hollywood has never had any problems with older man/younger woman love stories, and such stories were particularly prevalent in the 1950s. Brighton therefore finds that two beautiful young women, one white and one Indian, have fallen madly in love with him.

No prizes for guessing which of the girls eventually wins out. The film's politics on racial issues are, by the standards of the fifties, mildly liberal, but that liberalism does not extend to matters of the heart. The film's attitude towards Native Americans, in fact, is that they deserve to be treated as equals by the white man, provided that they assimilate into white culture and adopt the white man's ways. Dr Brighton's friend as a young man fought for his tribe against the whites, but after being defeated has given up his traditional lifestyle and taken up farming. Most Indians in Westerns have names like "Running Bear" or "Red Eagle", but this one has the distinctly Anglo-Saxon moniker of Charlie Smith.

This film appears to have been made as a B-movie and is not, by any means, well-known today; I note that mine is only the third review it has received on this board. Before I recently caught it on television I had never heard of it or of its director Francis D. Lyon, and its star McCrea was best known to me for his role in Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent", even though in the latter part of his career he specialised almost exclusively in Westerns.

Yet this is a film which I feel deserves to be better known. There is a good performance from McCrea in the leading role as a peaceful, mild-mannered man whose sense of honour demands that he should make a stand against injustice. (A frequent Western theme. Brad Dexter is also good as the villain Dobie, adept at using a mask of sweet reasonableness to hide the fact that he is by nature an unpleasant bully, and Barbara Hale and Gloria Talbott make a lovely pair of young heroines. The film has a strong storyline, and moves along at a brisk pace, leading to the inevitable climax. "The Oklahoman" may not be in the same league as the great Westerns of the fifties (films like "High Noon", "Shane" or "The Big Country"), but it is a good example of a very decent second division Western. 7/10

Back when oil was discovered in Oklahoma and there was a market for it, the Natives living in Oklahoma were set to get rich. However, unscrupulous whites used a variety of techniques to legally steal the land. This film is about an early attempt to steal Indian land for oil rights...with middling results.

The story begins with John (Joel McCrea) traveling west to California to homestead. However, his wife dies along the way and he decides to stay in Oklahoma and raise his young daughter. After all, he's a doctor and they could use one there.

Several years pass and a no-goodnick named 'Dobie' is trying to get everyone's land...particularly that belonging to the Indians. This is because there's oil and he anticipates a demand for the stuff. In his way is the Doc...who insists that the Indians be treated as citizens. Additionally, two women love him (though he's too dumb to realize it)...and one is a native.

The worst aspect of the film are the so-called 'Indians'. The Aussie, Michael Pate, is an odd choice...and his accent is just strange. Additionally, Gloria Talbott plays another...which she did in quite a few films even though she looked nothing like any Native!

Despite the poor casting decision about 'Natives', the film is good and tries to portray the Indians well...perhaps too well considering attitudes about them back in the old west. It also helps that Joel McCrea is in the lead, as he made westerns seem a bit better due to his easygoing manner.

Overall, a decent western...one a bit better than average even with the screwy 'Indians'!

Widower Dr John Birghton becomes thesubject of local gossip when he takes on Maria, an Indian girl, as his housekeeper. When oil is discovered on land belonging to Maria's family, the doctor turns crusader in order to stop the greedy cattlemen.

The Oklahoman isn't a flashy, gun-toting western, though it has a little gunplay - it has a more stripped down story that covers themes such as racism. Quite an enjoyable watch with a good story and characters. There's a lot of talking but not of the pointless kind that doesn't drive the drama. Joel McCrea plays a humble doctor who settles down in a town with his daughter after losing his wife through childbirth. He isn't a gunslinger and keeps away from trouble in the form of the town bully Brad Dexter, but then he has no choice to stand up to him. Despite coming across pacifistic he still ends up as a heroic character standing up to a racist bully. He has other problems such as when the town goes against him town when he employs a sweet young Indian girl as nanny to his son. Rumour mills start to grind. Brad Dexter is good as the villain. You definitely want him to bite the dust quick.