The 1955 film adaptation of a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that was the first feature photographed in Todd-AO was Oklahoma!.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, the film adapts Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 Broadway musical, itself based on Lynn Riggs’s play Green Grow the Lilacs. Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones star as Curly McLain and Laurey Williams, while Rod Steiger plays the threatening farmhand Jud Fry. Agnes de Mille, who choreographed the stage production, also contributed the film’s choreography.
Oklahoma! was financed and released as a showcase for Todd-AO, a new 70 mm widescreen process developed by Michael Todd and colleagues. Because many theaters could not project 70 mm, the production was photographed simultaneously in 35 mm CinemaScope. The two versions used different takes in places, making them distinct presentations rather than simple reductions.
The title is sometimes confused with South Pacific or Carousel, other Rodgers and Hammerstein adaptations. Oklahoma! is the one associated with Todd-AO’s first feature-film use, and it was later selected for the National Film Registry.