Annie Oakely Review

• 6th Jun 2011

Female westerns are a rare breed indeed so RKO Pictures Annie Oakley is a welcome release on DVD by Odeon.  Starring the now legendary Barbara Stanwyck, this biopic follows the young Annie from her backwater town to star of the Buffalo Bill Wild West show. Woven into the proceedings is the inevitable romance between sharpshooters Annie Oakely and Toby Walker.

The narrative of the film is pretty mundane on the whole which isn’t surprising as RKO had a history of cheap and cheerful films. The majority of the budget seems to have been spent on the sets for the Wild West show leaving little left for anything else. The lack of finance can also been seen in the supporting cast that are a little ripe.

People who come to this biopic will come for two very simple reasons both of which are related. This is a western with a lead female character which is rare to say the least. The second critical aspect in terms of its importance is the inclusion of female icon Barbara Stanwyck in the central role. Female westerns have always been a rare beast with only the atrocious Bad Girls having been made in the last 20 years. Older Westerns such as Rancho Notorious, Johnny Guitar and Forty Guns (another Stanwyck vehicle) are now seen as genre classics.

Barbara Stanwyck made a career out of challenging roles that were showcased in plethora of genres. She was Oscar nominated for Noir classics such as Double Indemnity and Sorry Wrong Number as well as screwball comedy Ball of Fire. Discovering such an actress as her is thoroughly invigorating to this day as her spirit of independence can still be seen. Her performance as Annie Oakley is highly enjoyable mixing gun totting action with her romantic attraction for the brash Walker. Firebrand critic Pauline Kael was an avid fan of Stanwyck and once wrote that she possessed a ‘remarkable modernism’ which is still evident today.

Far from the greatest western ever made Annie Oakley is a simple little biopic which was typical of RKO’s output at the time. The reason that this new DVD is good news is that people can now get to see another excellent performance by Barbara Stanwyck. Having fallen in love with films after first seeing Star Wars, I like so many others have looked to the past to understand its history. Certain performers from the classic age of Hollywood will forever find new fans due to their astounding charisma. Names such as Cagney, Bogart, Harlow and Bacall will forever be found by new devotees of film. Barbara Stanwyck deserves her place amongst any star from the golden age of cinema. Annie Oakely may not be the greatest film to showcase her talent but she still makes it a highly watchable little western.

Aled Jones