Customer Reviews

The Oklahoma Kid [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My classic-movie-buff friends don't share my fondess for this film, but I thought it was one of the most interesting and entertaining classic westerns I've ever seen.

Of course, having Jimmy Cagney in the lead didn't hurt. He's usually very entertaining and this is no exception. He plays his normal cocky self, but instead of gangster or something else modern-day, he was cowboy. To those too rigid fuddie-duddies who can't see their favorite actors trying different genres - too bad. Cagney as a cowboy?? Why not? He' still the same, great actor and entertainer. Same goes for Humphrey Bogart.

Bogart, as he so often was before he became a mega-star with Casablanca, played the bad guy. He looked like he had a bad toupee, too. I hope that wasn't his real hair!

This was fun to watch right from the get-go and also featured some excellent black-and-white cinematography which made it all the better. At 82 minutes, this is a quick night of entertainment, but I liked that short running time.

Isn't it about time a good DVD of this film was offered?

An unlikely James Cagney stars as the Oklahoma Kid, a gunman wanted by the law, who gets mixed up in the fight against the corruption of the newly settled and built Tulsa. Humphrey Bogart (with the great character name of "Whip McCord") has taken over the town, and when the citizens start trying to reclaim their town, Cagney gets drawn into the fight for personal reasons. Unfortunately, as big a fan as I am of Cagney, it's very hard to swallow him as a horseriding gunman. He puts in a good effort at it and seems to be enjoying himself, but he just doesn't fit into the Old West. Of course, Bogart doesn't fit in either. Dressed all in black (a not-so-subtle message about his character), he sneers his way through the film. Rosemary Lane as the love interest doesn't bring much to the character or film, while Donald Crisp as her father and town judge is solid as usual. There's plenty of action and shooting, and there was some potential with the story, but this film isn't much more than a miscast, routine Western. Nonetheless, it's worth a look to see gangsters out West.

Why would "The Oklahoma Kid" make you laugh? In the first place, as the reviewers said at the time, Cagney went at this role with a grand sense of humor and sparked every scene with something extra to watch for. He and Bogart did their best with what they had to work with and the result is campy western something-or-other. Bogart, dressed in black, does some of his best craven sneering. Cagney, who Bogart said later looked like a mushroom in his 10-gallon hat, looks like he trying hard not to laugh as he gaily goes about the business of revenging his father's death at the hands of Bogart's henchmen. Bogart has the funniest line in the film - and maybe the funniest line he ever uttered in a film: As he sends one of his cowboy goons (played with smiling diffidence by veteran Ward Bond) to bring Cagney to him, he says, "Tell that little squirt over by the piano that I want to see him." Watch carefully and see if Bogart can keep a straight face! Cagney, known as the premiere movie tough guy, knew that he could also look cute in a movie. In this, as in "The Strawberry Blonde, " he cute as a button - a button mushroom!

All I will say is this. Humphrey Bogart alone is enough to warrant 5 stars but if you throw in James Cagney you get at least 6 or 7 stars but they won't let me give it that high of a rating. This is one rare western. I don't know why they never released this on DVD. It is sinful.

Bogart is Whip & Cagney is the Kid. The characters are the same as we've come to expect, just the outfits & the venue have changed. It's the old west. A brillant move by Warner Bros. to squeeze another gangster like role out of Cagney. He had the clout to say no. He was sick of the gangster genre'. Bogie didn't have that type of power & had do what the studio told him. On a personal level the two men didn't really care for each other. So much the better for their roles. This was the second of three movies they made together. It was fun for Cagney. He rode & owned horses as a hobby in upstate NY. Bogart prefered sailing off Catalina Island in California. Whip is a psycho, a hardened criminal intent on taking over Tulsa. The kid is a bad guy going straight. His father, a judge has been killed, hung by Whip's gang & a frenzied mob. The kid swears revenge on the whole gang, since the law failed his father. He also has time to steal his brother's girlfriend. I guess that's ok because she loves him. The genre' is western but the sprit is gangster.

enjoyable, cagney, bogart,together as cowboys, but still shooting guns. seniors would have fun viewing this movie.

djkay

I like The Oklahoma Kid, mainly because it features 2 of my favorite actors, Cagney and Bogart. It's also an entertaining B-Western picture from Warner Brothers. Don't expect anything profound. Bogart is not nearly as good as he is the John Huston's 1948 masterpeice, Treasure of the Sierra Madre. James Cagney is not nearly as good as he is in Raoul Walsh's 1949 masterpeice, White Heat. However, The Oklahoma Kid is a fun western film, one of my favorite guilty pleasures. A good way to kill 80 minutes. Check it out. ***1/2 (of *****), too bad Amazon doesn't use half-star intervals, huh?

Cagney and Bogart as Cowboys is something to behold. Bogart was right Cagney does look like a Mushroom. If you saw the movie in the late thirties,it was fun, however it does'nt hold up that well into the nineties.

I bought this VHS tape for a very good price. Although it was a used product it was in very good condition. I purchased it for my parents who enjoyed it. They said it was more melodramatic than they remembered yet it was still good considering the time it was made in.