Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley grew up in rural Ohio, went out hunting so the family could get by, and became extraordinary with a rifle. At a competition she comes up against Toby Walker, the famous marksman of the day, and deliberately misses when she is in a position to beat him. That makes the two of them both rivals and bound to each other. Then they both join Buffalo Bill's show, and the matter carries on with rifles and with feeling. The film starts from the real Annie Oakley but takes liberties; in life she won that match and married her opponent, Frank Butler. Toby Walker on screen is the fictional stand-in for that man. Barbara Stanwyck has the lead and George Stevens directed; it is one of his early works. The story draws the woman through both her skill and her holding back, and that pairing was a common mould in the Hollywood of the thirties.