So much average

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

. . . 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.

Directed by George Stevens, with a story by Joseph Fields and Ewart Adamson that was adapted by Joel Sayre and John Twist, this biographical Western drama about the famous sharpshooting woman features Barbara Stanwyck in the title role.Preston Foster plays Toby Walker, another "hot shot" that's Annie's rival and "on again, off again" love interest. Melvyn Douglas plays Jeff Hogarth, their agent and business partner of "Buffalo Bill" Cody (Moroni Olsen), whose Wild West road show serves as the backdrop for most of the film's action. Chief Thunderbird plays Sitting Bull, another attraction of the show which brought authentic Western "culture" - trick shooting, horseback riding, cattle roping, cowboys & Indians, and other rodeo type action - to the Eastern United States and even the Kings & Queens of Europe et al.Others in the cast include Pert Kelton as Vera Delmar, a former love interest of Walker's, Andy Clyde as Cincinnati hotel proprietor James MacIvor, where Annie was "discovered", and Delmar Watson, who appears briefly as Annie's little brother Wesley. Additionally, actors appearing uncredited include Willie Best as a cook, Iron Eyes Cody as Sitting Bull's interpreter, and Dick Elliott as Major Ned Buntline, one of the show's other talent agents.The story is fictionalized: detailing the discovery of the backwoods teenage girl who could shoot flying pigeons in the head so as to not ruin them for consumption, her competition with sure shot world champion Frank Butler, dubbed Walker in the film, at MacIvor's (really Jack Frost's) hotel (ladies weren't supposed to be able to do the things that men could, back then; they weren't even allowed to enter a saloon), her signing with Buffalo Bill's traveling show, meeting Indian Chief Sitting Bull (who dubbed her "Watanya cicilia" or "Little Sure Shot"), and the chow's European tour.Though this film doesn't have Annie and Toby marry (as she did Frank in real life, and in the musical Annie Get Your Gun (1950) with Betty Hutton and Howard Keel), it does end on a particularly happy note.

Other reviewers have noted the fictional aspects of much of this film. The most significant of note are that Oakley wasn't Annie Oakley's real name, but chosen later as a stage name; and that she was married early on to Frank Butler, whose name and character were changed substantially to Toby Walker. Of course, the latter plays out in much of the film, so it may give the impression that the whole movie is fiction. But most of the incidents that take place – Annie's marksmanship, her hunting prowess, her time with Buffalo Bill, the European tours, her shooting a cigarette held in his mouth by the Austrian arch-duke – all happened. So, there's little point in further criticism of Hollywood license.In the early part of the film, it struck me that Barbara Stanwyck was a bit too demure in the title role. I got used to the persona as the film progressed, yet I still felt there was a stiffness in her portrayal. But, after watching the movie I read some of the biography of Annie Oakley (nee Phoebe Ann Moses). She was a reserved person in real life – very polite, kind and proper. She was born in rural Ohio to Quaker parents. She lost her father when she was six, and spent several years in abusive foster homes. At age 12, she was reunited with her mother and siblings. Beginning at about age 8, she taught herself to shoot game, and that helped support her family for many years. She was very respectful of other people, and endeared herself to Buffalo Bill and many of the cast of his famous Wild West Show (the "Show" was added later). While Hollywood completely remade her love life in this film, Oakley did have a long, lasting love with fellow sharp-shooter Frank Butler, whom she married in 1876. She was just 16 and had recently beaten Butler in a shooting contest in the 25th round. The couple began performing in shows and that's when Oakley chose her stage name. When she was 25, the couple joined Buffalo Bill in his Wild West show. So, Stanwyck's portrayal of the persona of Annie Oakley seems right on target. All the rest of the cast do banner jobs in their roles in this film. And the direction, cinematography and other technical aspects are all excellent. I give this movie a plus for historical value in showing us a considerable display of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Or at least, what much of it must have looked like. I don't think another film has been made that shows this much of that great historical treasure of America's past. The fact that RKO put this much of a show together for its script is quite impressive, I think. Especially for 1935. Other films have been made about Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley and the West, with some reference to the Wild West Show. But no other film gives us such an extended look at what it must have been like. One last note that viewers may find of interest. From the mid-1880s until 1911, Buffalo Bill Cody owned and lived on a 4,000-acre ranch, that he called the Scout Rest Ranch, just outside North Platte, Nebraska. As the name implies, his show put up and rested there between its tours. It also was a working ranch where Buffalo Bill raised some of the blood stock for his shows. Today, 25 acres of the original ranch are preserved as a working history state park near North Platte, NE. Cody's huge Victorian house still stands, as well as his custom-designed barn. The barn was used in photos to promote his shows. It is 148 feet long, 70 feet wide and 40 feet high. Travelers can tour the park and facilities. It's just minutes off Interstate 80 at North Platte.

Annie Oakley (1860-1926)born in dire poverty and without spending one day in a school room, became one of the great feminist icons of all time. Talk about taking a man on in his game and beating him. It was not press agent ballyhoo about her prowess as a rifle shot. This romanticized biographical film captures the essence of her character and her love for the guy she dethroned as shooting champion.In some spots of the film you can practically drop the songs that Irving Berlin was later to write for his hit show about Annie. But we get a different picture of Frank Butler than in Annie Get Your Gun. Butler is not even Butler, he's Toby Wheeler as played by Preston Foster. He's a kid from the mean streets of New York City who learned his sharpshooting in the shooting galleries on the Bowery. He doesn't near and endear himself to the westerners working at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In fact they hate Foster so much that whatever qualms they had about Annie being a member of the female sex the crew gets over real fast.Barbara Stanwyck captures the real Annie if not in height in spirit. The real Ms. Oakley was barely five feet tall, but by all accounts she was a modest retiring type who never forgot where she came from. She was not as raucous as Ethel Merman on stage and later Betty Hutton on screen portrayed her. She let her shooting speak for her. Melvyn Douglas has the third lead as William F. Cody's business partner Jeff Hogarth. Melvyn usually lost the girl to bigger name players though he was always a gentleman as he is here. Personally I wish he had done better in this film especially.Annie Oakley is a nice film, not as well known as the musical later derived from her life, but still easy to take with good players at their best.