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The Oklahoma Kid

1939, Movie, NR, 85 mins

The Oklahoma Kid: Review

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Both Cagney and Bogart are out of their element in this fanciful western, but they make the best of it and provide some great campy scenes. Cagney is the title character, a sort of Robin Hood type who is the black sheep of a do-good family. The film opens at the time of the Oklahoma land rush in 1893, when the government opened up the fertile lands of the Cherokee Strip to homesteaders. Thousands of frontier families rush for the land at the sound of the gun and these include Sothern and his son Stephens, who have already picked out a site for a new town. But by the time they arrive at the spot, they are greeted by Bogart and his outlaw band, who have ignored the proper starting time and arrived earlier, thus earning the sobriquet of "Sooners." (This would be a nickname thereafter for anyone born and raised in the state of Oklahoma.) Rather than give up the site, Sothern and Stephens agree to let Bogart have the saloon and gambling hall concessions of the new town if he will turn over the claim. He does, but it's the worst mistake Sothern and Stephens could make. Under Bogart's ruthless guidance, the new town, Tulsa, becomes a hellhole, with lawlessness and vice rampant. Sothern, now the town's leading citizen, decides to clean up Tulsa. He runs for mayor as a reform candidate with his son Stephens running for the post of sheriff. Bogart knows that once Sothern is in office, his own days are numbered. He frames Sothern on a phony murder charge. While Sothern awaits trial, Cagney hears of the frame-up and heads for Tulsa, meeting Lane en route. He confesses that he is the errant son of Sothern and also the notorious outlaw, "The Oklahoma Kid." After hearing the details of his father's frame-up from Lane, who is also his brother's sweetheart, Cagney rides fast for Tulsa. Meanwhile, Bogart has replaced an honest judge, Crisp, and Sothern is quickly tried and condemned. To make sure the phony conviction and death sentence stick, Bogart orders his men to lynch Sothern, which they do. By the time Cagney arrives, there is little he can do but join with his brother, now a U.S. marshal, and seek revenge. He and Stephens blast their way into Bogart's saloon, and Cagney shoots and kills Bogart in a wild battle, but his brother Stephens is also mortally wounded. Stephens dies in Cagney's arms, asking him to go straight and to take care of Lane, both of which he promises to do. THE OKLAHOMA KID is hokey, corny, and wholly unbelievable, but it's so contrived--and Cagney's performance is so outlandish, as is Bogart's heavy--that the film is oddly appealing. It's a treat just to watch and listen to Cagney play a guitar and sing "Rockabye Baby" and "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" when trying to soothe a crying Mexican baby. He is thoroughly disarming as he pranks his way through the movie. Bogart tries to keep up with Cagney's antics, but he's no match for the twitching, jumping, hopping Bowery Boy suddenly stomping around in riding boots. Cagney and Bogart were never friends, although they became the top Warner Bros. stars. Cagney attributed this to Bogart's feisty antisocial attitude. It was during this production that Cagney had his only "outing" with Bogart, a late night dinner--no drinks--at Chasen's Restaurant. The evening was captioned by Mayo Methot, then Bogart's mercurial firebrand of a wife, who stormed into the restaurant and accused Bogart of sitting around with "drunken friends." Said Cagney of Bogart at this time: "He hated just about everybody, but that was his aim--to hate them first. When it came to fighting, he was about as tough as Shirley Temple." Bogart, who slightly resented having to play second fiddle to Cagney in a host of Warner Bros. gangster films during the 1930s, took one look at the star of THE OKLAHOMA KID when he first stepped onto the set and said: "In that ten-gallon hat, you look like a mushroom!" During the production, Cagney was driving home one night and stopped for a traffic light. He looked over to see Bogart at the wheel of a sports car. Bogart was staring straight ahead, picking his nose. Cagney went home and wrote the following ditty: "In this silly town of ours/One sees odd primps and poses/But movie stars in fancy cars/Shouldn't pick their noses." He sent it to Bogart but never got a response. leave a comment
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