Terreur à l'ouest

Interesting western with an offbeat Warner Bros. cast that's more at home in a gangster picture than a cowboy shoot-'em-up. Humphrey Bogart plays the villain, a stagecoach robber turned corrupt saloon owner. He wears a black hat so we know he's no good. James Cagney plays the cocky anti-hero, as quick with his guns as he is with his fists. He also shows how good he is with babies and even gets to sing! Rosemary Lane is the pretty girl who can't resist Cagney's charms. Donald Crisp is her father. Ward Bond, Harvey Stephens, Edward Pawley, and Charles Middleton are among the others in the cast. There's drama, humor, action, and romance. Yeah, it's admittedly a corny movie but pretty entertaining, especially for fans of the two leads. This won't be confused for a John Ford western but it's fun for what it is.

You won't find this film on many "best westerns" lists, and it seems to be regarded mostly as an oddity, a rare chance to see Cagney and Bogart in cowboy hats. And I'll admit that it's a simple story and not one of those huge productions with outstanding cinematography (although it uses its outdoors scenes to good effect). However, I was utterly charmed by it. Mostly because of Cagney, who is simply superb.

When you have two all-time great actors, you need to make good use of them, and this movie does. Cagney is full of energy and seems to be having fun with this outlaw with a heart of gold role, and making us have fun with him. With his interpretation, he elevates this film. Bogart, in a supporting role, is humorless, cold and evil. He is not given as much to do as Cagney, but he has great presence whenever he is on screen. They may not be in their typical gangster roles, but the Old West setting allows them to do their thing. Only with horses. And cowboy hats.

We do get an Oklahoma land rush scene, certainly not as spectacular as the one we got eight years previously in Cimarron, and some nice stunts when Cagney (or his double) is riding a horse through the desolated hills in pursuit of a stagecoach. We also see him singing, and not that badly, and even singing a lullaby to a baby in Spanish. Unusually for a classic western, he also gives a speech calling the "purchase" of Indian lands a theft.

The story was simple but quite nice, with family ties between the characters to make it poignant and a fight for the soul of a new city, between those who believe in law and order and those like Bogart's character who can only thrive in corruption and degradation. With Cagney, as the Oklahoma Kid, in the middle, certainly not evil but too anarchic and cynical to be on the side of law and order.

All in all, this was not such a great movie, but it was so much fun and had such good pacing and energy that I loved it.

One of my favorite movie lines of all time is from The Oklahoma Kid where James Cagney expounds on his philosophy of life to Donald Crisp in a saloon as the land rush is starting.

The rest of the film is your usual fast paced Cagney film, just set out west instead of the big city. It was the first western for both Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Cagney did a fine western in the Fifties Run for Cover and replaced Spencer Tracy in another one, Tribute to a Bad Man.

Bogey did one other western, Virginia City, and next to that Whip McCord of the panhandle is an Oscar winning part. I'm not denigrating his work on Oklahoma Kid, but Bogart used to cringe whenever Virginia City was mentioned and that chintzy Mexican accent he was forced to adopt for that film.

In Oklahoma Kid, he's the leader of a group of outlaws who've jumped the starting gun and put up a claim at the spot Hugh Sothern and son Harvey Stephens want to start a town. Rather than go to court which would tie them up for years, they agree to Bogart's terms to give him control of the vice industries of the town that would become Tulsa.

Bogart's actions are those of a what was called a Sooner, one who jumped the starting gun and cheated in the land rush. The term is what gave Oklahoma its state nickname of The Sooner state. Although I've never understood why the state nickname glorifies illegal activity.

So good and honest Hugh and Harvey just take it on the chin until the corruption gets way out of hand.

But Hugh has another son, a lone wolf sort of character that's taken the outlaw path. That be James Cagney who settles things in his own way, the way Cagney usually does in films.

The western after a period of doldrums in the early thirties when it was mostly B picture fare was making a comeback as a feature attraction. All the studios were starting to make them.

Warners had two big ones in 1939, this one and Dodge City. Errol Flynn in the latter scored better with the public than Cagney did, so Flynn got to do more westerns. Cagney and Bogey went back to the city streets except for Bogey's ill conceived visit to Virginia City.

But Oklahoma Kid is not a bad film and fans of the two stars will not be disappointed.

Remember in GOODFELLAS when Joe Pesci goes crazy with a gun (at his servant's expense) saying 'What's the film with Bogart as a cowboy?" The replie is "Shane?" He retorts "Shane?! No, Oklahoma Kid!" He was refering to this odd misfit, but enjoyable western.

James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart look as well suited in the old west as Gabby Hayes and Lash LaRue would look in a Manhattan speakeasy, but these two pros have fun with the film anyway. Their bar-room brawl with each other is a hum-dinger, and you have to get a load of Cagney singing a Spanish lullaby to a baby.

The Oklahoma Kid is a curio, more fun to think about than actually see. It is a western with James Cagney as a cowboy and Humphrey Bogart his black-clad nemesis. There is some humor in it, but it was made too early to be consciously campy; and as it was produced by Warner Brothers it has a fast, urban pace, but alas lacks the sophistication its dynamic star duo need to elevate it to clasic status, or even make it a good movie. It is not, by the way, a comedy, and is played straight much of the time. Neither star is at home on the range, and Cagney looks silly in a cowboy hat. On the other hand James Wong Howe's photography has some stunning compositions, and has about it, in its contrasting use of black and gray, a twilight quality that is very appealing but, like so much in this movie, not too appropriate for a western.