Quando as Pistolas Decidem

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.

A brief recap of the plot-- After his wife dies in childbirth, Doc decides to remain with his young daughter in the little Oklahoma town and set up practice there. Trouble is that oil is on Indian land and only bad guy Dobie knows about it, so he tries various schemes to get Indian Charlie's land away from him. Meanwhile, Doc has struck up a friendship with Charlie whose daughter Maria takes care of Doc's youngster. So there's trouble brewing between the greedy Dobie and the Doc.

Great role for McCrea as the doctor. His naturally likable demeanor is perfect for a caring physician. Of course, there's also that steely determination he can summon when needed and make us believe it. Dexter comes across as an intelligent bad guy, knowing when to strike and when to hold back, unlike most western bad guys who are too often stupidly aggressive. Barbara Hale as Anne makes a good mature counterpart to McCrea. Earlier they made The Lone Hand (1953) together, so the rapport is unforced. Then there's cult favorite Gloria Talbot as the Indian maiden Maria, Anne's rival for Doc's affections, though the Doc's too preoccupied to notice. On the whole, it's a non-scenic, rather easy-going horse opera, with some expected fisticuffs and a well-staged showdown. Nothing special, just another very watchable McCrea western, of which he made many during his productive middle years.

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

The Oklahoman is directed by Francis Lyon and written by Daniel Ullman. It stars Joel McCRea, Barbara Hale, Brad Dexter, Gloria Talbott, Michael Pate, Verna Felton and Douglas Dick. Music is by Hans Salter and cinematography by Carl Guthrie.

After his wife dies during childbirth, Doctor John Brighton (McCrea) stops in the small Oklahoma town of Cherokee Wells to bury her. Deciding to stay there and start a practice, he comes to run afoul of the local bad boys fronted by the Dobie brothers (Dexter/Dick).

A CinemaScope/De Luxe Color production, The Oklahoman appears to be one of McCrea's lesser known Westerns. Which is a shame, for although this isn't high on action quotas, it is however rich on characters and beats a solid worthy message heart. It's a typical McCrea characterisation, Doctor Brighton is a peaceable man, a bastion of the community, loved by all but the baddies. As the stench of racism rears its ugly head, and a secret of the land comes to the fore, Brighton is forced to stand up for values that he knows to be right, putting himself into great danger in the process.

The Native American characters are well written, showing them to be hard working and integral parts of the community. This is a town where integration clearly works, it's only when financial gain for the Dobie Brothers surfaces does race become an issue. There's a rather fanciful (sort of) love triangle in the mix, as both the Hale and Talbott (playing a young Indian character) have soft feelings for the much older doctor, but this aspect is no hindrance to the pic since it isn't overtly played. Over on the villain side of things Dexter does a nice line in gurning mistrust, and thankfully he doesn't shift into cartoon caricature.

It's not a very insightful picture, as per the themes ticking away, this is after all a second tier "B" Western. Yet some classy veneers shine bright as our characters move about the comforting surrounds of the Iverson Ranch locales. While of course McCrea is the most reassuring presence of all. 7/10

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