The Oklahoma Kid (1939)

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

Edward E. Paramore Jr. (story) and
Wally Kline (story) ...

Release Date:

11 March 1939 (USA)

Genre:

History | Western

Tagline:

Greater Than "Cimarron" - Packed with Thrills - Loaded with Action . . . As an Exciting page from American history is unfolded upon the screen !

Plot:

McCord's gang robs the stage carrying money to pay Indians for their land, and the notorious outlaw...

Plot Keywords:

Cherokee Strip | Frame Up | Tulsa Oklahoma | Gunfight | Historical

Cast

James Cagney	...	Jim Kincaid
Humphrey Bogart	...	Whip McCord
Rosemary Lane	...	Jane Hardwick
Donald Crisp	...	Judge Hardwick
Harvey Stephens	...	Ned Kincaid
Hugh Sothern	...	John Kincaid
Charles Middleton	...	Alec Martin
Edward Pawley	...	Doolin
Ward Bond	...	Wes Handley
Lew Harvey	...	Curley
Trevor Bardette	...	Indian Jack Pasco
John Miljan	...	Ringo
Arthur Aylesworth	...	Judge Morgan
Irving Bacon	...	Hotel Clerk
Joe Devlin	...	Keely

Runtime:

85 min | Canada:80 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #4836)

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Humphrey Bogart was widely quoted as saying that co-star James Cagney looked like "a mushroom" in his costume.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the Kid visits Jane, he ties his horse to the bar in front of the house. A short time after that, Ned arrives. He's searching for the Kid. He is so eager to get him that (later in the movie) he even shoots at him (when the Kid is fleeing from the court house). But when Jane tells Ned that the Kid is not there, he believes her without asking about the horse, which he must have seen when he arrived.

Quotes:

John Kincaid: What's your proposition?
Whip McCord: You go right ahead and build your town and attract settlers.
John Kincaid: So you can take away their money at faro and roulette, eh?
Whip McCord: Yeah, that's the idea. You take care of their virtues, I'll take care of their vices. Simple, ain't it?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Goodfellas (1990)

Soundtrack:

Oh Susanna

"The strong take it away from the weak and the smart take it away from the strong."

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.