In a small town in Ohio, Annie Oakley's (Betty Hutton) extraordinary shooting skills catch the attention of Frank Butler (Howard Keel), a renowned marksman who works for Buffalo Bill's (Louis Calhern) Wild West Show.

However, during the competition, Annie intentionally misses her shots (with some surreptitious advice, and a doctored rifle, from Sitting Bull, who reminds her of her own dictum that "you can't get a man with a gun"), realizing that her happiness lies not in outshining Frank but in being with him.

[2] Betty Hutton played Annie Oakley, with Howard Keel (making his American film debut) as Frank Butler and Benay Venuta as Dolly Tate.

Louis Calhern played Buffalo Bill, replacing Frank Morgan, who died of a sudden heart attack shortly after filming had begun.

Berkeley and Garland had worked together previously in the late 1930s and early 1940s in a successful series of backstage musicals teaming her with fellow juvenile star Mickey Rooney.

Six years later, producer Arthur Freed felt Berkeley was the right man to capture the spectacle needed for Annie Get Your Gun.

Struggling to make her characterization of Annie Oakley a real person and not just a broad caricature of Ethel Merman, Garland felt Berkeley had no understanding of how to translate the material to the big screen.

After viewing Berkeley's footage to that point, producer Freed was disappointed and fired the veteran director, replacing him with Charles Walters.

During an interview with Robert Osborne (first telecast on Turner Classic Movies "Private Screenings" on July 18, 2000), she recalled the other cast members being hostile and the MGM management as so unappreciative they neglected to invite her to the New York premiere.

Only two production numbers were completed with Garland, "Doin' What Comes Naturally" and the elaborate "I'm an Indian, Too" and these were officially released by MGM for the first time in the 1994 documentary That's Entertainment III.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "a whale of a musical picture" with Hutton giving the lead role "a great deal of humor and bounce.

'"[8] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called it "a swell musical—a picture everybody will enjoy," adding that "while Annie is a juicy part, it's hard to think of anyone who could have done it as well as Betty has.

"[9] John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote that it was "far superior to the usual line of Hollywood goods," though in comparison to the stage version, Hutton "never projects the hilarity of the business with anything like the enormous competence of Miss Merman.

"[10] The Monthly Film Bulletin called Berlin's music "very enjoyable" but faulted the direction because "the staging of the numbers rarely takes advantage of the amplitude of the sets or the mobility of the camera," and thought that Hutton played the role "as a series of turns rather than as an acting performance.

[1][13] In 1974, it was withdrawn from distribution, owing to a dispute between Irving Berlin and MGM over music rights, which prevented the public from viewing this film for almost 30 years.