Annie Oakley

A decent Thirties era melodrama loosely based on the life of Annie Oakley. I looked into Oakley a bit after seeing this film, and her life has been highly fictionalized. Oakley was a bit of a feminist for her day, and that did come through a little bit in the film. (Rational feminism, not the semi-nutty political feminism of recent decades) Barbara Stanwyck did a jam-up job playing the backwoods girl, and looked awesome doing it. (of course) Oakley, for all her talent, was a bit deficient in the hotness factor. But, hey this is a movie.

The film heavily featured Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and I wonder a bit how close they were to accuracy on that. After all the show was still in living memory when this movie was filmed. No buffalo were shown, although they were alluded to once. I suppose they were very scarce in those days.

Anyway, I liked the film more than I expected to. Check it out.

The historical Annie Oakley came from a Quaker family and had an understated, quiet demeanor that often comes as a surprise to people who know her only from the over-the-top Hutton movie or the typically asinine performance of Ethel "One Volume, Full Blast" Merman.

Many people still remembered Oakley the person at the time of this movie; she had passed away only in 1926 and was still a celebrity, shooting perfect hundreds in a row in 1922, aged 62. The source of one of Barbara Stanwyck's great early characterizations, Oakley probably shared personality traits with the actress. Stanwyck was also very quiet and intensely private during the 1930s, socializing on her ranch only with the Jack Bennies, Joan Crawford, and the Joel McCreas.

Box office returns were good, for a Stanwyck of this vintage. They would have been better if RKO hadn't clumsily stepped on the film by releasing 'In Person' only a few days after 'Oakley' came out, causing some competition within RKO's own fanbase. Still, it was Stanwyck's biggest box office of her career up to that time and she was slowly moving out of B films.

The contemporary critics loved Stanwyck's performance: "The New York World-Telegram wrote that, "The talented and attractive Barbara Stanwyck gives by far the best screen performance of her career. Miss Stanwyck plays the role with such commendable restraint and with such feeling for the character that she almost becomes Annie Oakley." Critic Richard Watts (he did film criticism for a couple of years at the beginning of his long and distinguished career) praised the entire film and said that "Miss Stanwyck has never been more real and touching than she is in the title role."

And there is no reason to argue with them - it's a great performance by one of the greatest actresses under strong direction by one of the master artists of film, George Stevens.

More people are more familiar with the stage musical, so if you've seen that version, you'll notice the great similarities between it and this 1935 film. While on tour on Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, young and innocent Barbara Stanwyck gets hooked into a shooting contest with the nation's best, Preston Foster. She gets adopted by the traveling troupe and goes on tour, learning about life and love along the way.

Despite her thick Brooklyn accent, Barbara Stanwyck is totally adorable as the title sharpshooter in Annie Oakley. She's little and packs a punch, which is all that the role requires. It doesn't matter what her accent is-just listen to Ethel Merman! Some of the Wild West show scenes are pretty fun to watch, and it looks like the stunt people had a good time. This version is so similar to the musical, you can actually see the actors pause as they wait for their music cues to start singing! Check this one out if you liked the Betty Hutton version.

This film is listed under the "western" genre, but it is not a western, unless you consider Cincinnati part of the wild west. Also it is listed as a drama, which is true, but it also contains comedic elements, often attributable to the Sitting Bull character.

People write about how fictionalized the story is, but actually many of the main elements of the story are true.

In the film, Toby Walker (Preston Foster) is a sharpshooter from New York who visits Cincinnati for an exhibition. There he signs a contract to perform in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. Most of that is true, though his real name was Frank Butler and he was from Ireland.

While in Cincinnati, he makes a wager with a local inn owner that he can beat any challenger. The innkeeper calls on Annie Oakley (Barbara Stanwyck) to do the shooting. In real life, the name "Annie Oakley" came shortly afterward and Annie wins the contest, unlike in the film where she loses intentionally because she feels sorry for Toby.

Annie also signs up with Buffalo Bill and the story follows both trick shooters on the tour. I will not detail the remaining storyline, but it bears a resemblance to "A Star is Born".

As depicted, Annie really was from Ohio--a small hamlet named North Star. She was born in a log cabin and actually had a very hard childhood.

Toby Walker is portrayed as a rather nasty guy, at least at first. The same approach was later used in "Annie Get Your Gun" on stage and screen. But the film has a great Hollywood ending.

The depiction of the Wild West Shows is abbreviated but accurate. It is almost like viewing a piece of history. When the film starts, the year is approximately 1875. The Battle of Little Bighorn took place in 1876, so tales of "dangerous" Indians were current. Sitting Bull really did join the show for about four months, though it was later, approximately 1884. He and Annie did develop a special bond.

My point in mentioning this bit of history is to explain that the timing in the film may not have been totally accurate, but the appearance of Sitting Bull in the Wild West Show was a remarkable thing, so it is understandable that the script writers wanted to include him in the story.

The film does a good job of portraying Annie as the nearly mythical person she actually was. I like Barbara Stanwyck's portrayal. Though Ms. Stanwyck might be more of a looker than Annie, the real Frank Butler did marry her and was dedicated to her throughout his lifetime.

I still get a bit excited when I watch Barbary Stanwyck as Annie Oakley. Maybe it is just the frayed skirt she wears, but more than likely, it is her thorough enjoyment of playing this role that shines through her performance. An actor or actress rises a notch when they really relish the role they are playing. She is perfect as Annie. Preston Foster does a good job in a secondary roles as the romantic interest of Annie. A film I have seen a few times.