Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) The problem is not the actor, James Cagney (The Oklahoma Kid) but the unwritten credibility rule that this film (unlike most westerns) does not follow: a hero cannot be as good on the draw and fistfights as to place him too far above the others. Add to that a routine plot and the conclusion is that Cagney and Bogart deserved something better.The big hat does not suit Cagney well, he keeps blowing the smoke off his gun and in a cheesy scene he sings a lullaby in a poor Spanish. Bogart's physical type and costumes he wears, blend better. On the plus side is the excellent cinematography of James Wong Howe, the constant action scenes, the final brawl, and being able enjoy the great Cagney performing a musical number (not the lullaby). Only avid western movie fans like myself would care to see this film and overall it is a rewarding experience, after all we learn to appreciate even the flaws.

writers_reign This is one for collectors; when those personifications of Urban gangsters Cagney and Bogey are transplanted to an Oklahoma territory that is so far ahead of progress that it boasts an electric door-bell Cagney rings it long and hard on two separate occasions)it shows that les freres Warner spared no expense on researching the period. Journeyman director Lloyd Bacon phones it in as do just about everyone from Cagney right on down to an uncredited Clem Bevans and the plot - you should excuse the expression - manages to hit every cliché withing shooting distance and some that should have been well out of range. Oklahoma crude would make an ideal subtitle for this snake oil but see it if you must.

louis-king I don't agree with a previous poster that Bogart and Cagney looked too urban to be in a western. Not all westerners spoke with a drawl. Many came to the west to escape ore reinvent themselves. You might easily run into a New Yorker or an Englishman in a western barroom. Theodore Roosevelt went west following the simultaneous deaths of his wife and mother. The writer Robert Louis Stevenson also went west.I'd would have played up Cagney's New Yorkisms by having him wear a derby rather than that over-sized hat he wore. Let him be from New York. Not all westerners wore what was thought as typical western garb. Bat Masterson was quite the dandy.Poor Bogart. In the 1930's he was desperately trying out a wide range of parts and acting styles. He was good as the villain, but wasn't yet the Bogie that became iconic. I've never seen the movie, but I understand he played a vampire in one movie. Wow! Poor Bogart.That said, 'Oklahoma Kid' an entertaining movie. I love Cagney's anarchist-populist rhetoric. How often did you hear that in a western? It's a wonder he didn't organize a labor union!

classicsoncall If you can't picture James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart as gun totin' Western outlaws, then give yourself a treat and try "The Oklahoma Kid". Granted, neither actor appears as comfortable in their cowboy persona as they do as gangsters, but they manage to pull off a fairly credible and interesting story, with a rather talented cast around them.The setting is the 1883 land rush that civilizes the six million acre Oklahoma Territory known as the Cherokee Strip, and future site of the city of Tulsa. Cagney's entrance as the Oklahoma Kid is heralded by his hijacking of Whip McCord's (Bogart) plunder of a stagecoach carrying money in payment for Indian land. The Kid is the "good" outlaw, who for the remainder of the film plays out his secret identity of Jim Kincaid, who's businessman father (Hugh Sothern) and sheriff brother (Harvey Stephens) attempt to bring McCord and his gang to justice following their illegal land grab.Adding an element of romance to the story is the presence of Jane Hardwick (Rosemary Lane), daughter of Judge Hardwick (Donald Crisp), who's involved with sheriff Ned, but is immediately smitten with The Kid; Oklahoma endears himself to newcomers by asking them to "feel the air".When bully McCord frames John Kincaid for murder, he sends a phony letter to Judge Hardwick to get him out of town, so his own hand picked replacement can push through a guilty verdict. With time running out, The Kid is too late to stop the mob hanging of his father, and sets out to administer his own brand of justice on McCord's henchmen - Indian Joe, Curley, Handley (Ward Bond), and Doolin. The finale finds the Oklahoma Kid and McCord in a rather well staged barroom brawl that ends with the "good" bad guy on the winning end.OK, high drama it's not; for a truly memorable film of classic status in a Western setting with either of these stars, you'll have to turn to Bogart's "Treasure of the Sierra Madre". But if it's offbeat Cagney and Bogey you're after, this is a good place to start. You'll have a better time too if you go for the enjoyment factor and not for critical viewing, there's enough fun stuff here to take the edge off a rainy afternoon.