GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . thoughtful viewers may wonder after taking in ANNIE OAKLEY. About 60 years before RKO Studios released ANNIE OAKLEY, America's Racist Rich People's Party (the same folks who orchestrated the "Inside Job" facilitating the assassination of Abe Lincoln due to his Post-Civil War vision of repatriating kidnapped Blacks to their African Homelands while bringing the many egregious War Profiteers--who murdered hundreds of Union artillery men with their shoddy exploding cannon barrels--to Justice) filled the 1870s U.S. West with Job-Killing Corrupt Capitalist "Indian Agent" Crooks (not unlike Modern Day Child-Catcher Betsy DeVos running her national chain of For-Profit U.S. Charter Dumbing-Down Shacks out of OUR Education Department!) who bamboozled legendary Sioux War Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull into slaying the top Native American Booster they had among U.S. Whites, George Armstrong Custer. Though Crazy Horse, the more Visionary of the Pair, was quickly assassinated like Lincoln (presaging the One-Two Punch of the 1960s, when agents of the Rich People's Party first whacked our Beloved President, JFK, and then gunned down Martin Luther King, Jr.), ANNIE OAKLEY documents how the title character taught Sitting Bull the American Language and Culture. Buffalo Bill was more of a hindrance than a help during this process, in keeping with his Genocidal Role of starving many Tribal Nations to death by gratuitously killing off their meat, so that the only buffalo left were the ones on nickels. If only Annie Oakley had ridden with Custer, America may have gotten rid of the Trilaterals once and for all back then, instead of being left in Her Present Mess.

ksf-2 Annie O. opens with the townies sitting around, and Annie Oakley (Barbara Stanwyck) is one of em. They see the poster of Toby Walker, the "Greatest shot in the World"! Her buddies talk about what a good shot Annie is herself, so there's foreshadowing of a showdown of some sort. Willie Best is in here as a chef. Stanwyck had not yet been nominated for any of her FOUR Oscar nominations ( and a win for lifetime achievement!) but she HAD been in films for about five years already, so this is from her early years. There's Melvyn Douglas (TWO Oscars!) as Hogarth, who runs the Western show with Buffalo Bill Cody (Moroni Olsen). Oakley joins up with BB's show, and there's the usual, predictable conflicts. Jealousy from the men, the usual Hollywood story-fare. An entertaining watch, but no big thang. Interesting details in wikipedia.com. It shows that Oakley married first, then joined the Western show later, which if I recall correctly, was reversed in the film. Stanwyck would make three films with Preston Foster. Directed by George Stevens, for RKO. Stevens was nominated for eight Oscars, and won three of em, but the first would be another ten years away. Good old fashioned western fun, but I get the idea that about half of the film was souped up Hollywood style for the audience, to jazz it up. Of course, back then, it was pretty hard to research anything, so this film was probably the only knowledge most people had of Oakley.

gkeith_1 My observations: Fascinating movie. Barbara plays a teenager well. Characters from Ohio (our state) portrayed a lot as ignorant, backward, illiterate, and in current times we are referred to as "that state with no indoor plumbing". Indeed! What happened to Frank Butler? He was a real guy, and Annie's husband IRL, but here he is Toby Walker??? The actor plays him as smug, indifferent, hotheaded, famous, kindly and then washed-up. When Annie IRL died in 1926, Frank died 18 days later from starving himself to death over his grief. In this movie, Annie had other admirers such as Buffalo Bill and Chief Sitting Bull; they actually worship and adore her. Bull driving the carriage at lightning speed to rescue Annie was incredibly hilarious and enjoyable. I loved Annie's outfits when she became famous. They were quite flattering, along with the big hats. Buffalo Bill was kindly and thoughtful. Annie was heartfelt, caring and loving to her family.For the detractors: Yada, yada. We know that film biographies may not be true to reality. Human sins are whitewashed in order to sell tickets. Situations and instances are selected or written anew in order to make continuity and interest on the part of the audience. Sometimes the movie stars are more glamorous than the real people whom they portray. Sometimes the movie stars have better teeth and physiques. The movie stars even have publicity agents, lawyers, makeup artists and percentage deals. Buffalo Bill himself, IRL, was bigger than life, an invented persona if there ever was one.

smatysia A decent Thirties era melodrama loosely based on the life of Annie Oakley. I looked into Oakley a bit after seeing this film, and her life has been highly fictionalized. Oakley was a bit of a feminist for her day, and that did come through a little bit in the film. (Rational feminism, not the semi-nutty political feminism of recent decades) Barbara Stanwyck did a jam-up job playing the backwoods girl, and looked awesome doing it. (of course) Oakley, for all her talent, was a bit deficient in the hotness factor. But, hey this is a movie.The film heavily featured Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and I wonder a bit how close they were to accuracy on that. After all the show was still in living memory when this movie was filmed. No buffalo were shown, although they were alluded to once. I suppose they were very scarce in those days.Anyway, I liked the film more than I expected to. Check it out.