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.
Review of Annie Oakley
