You won't be disappointed!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Copyright 13 April 1949 (in notice: 1948) by Pathe Industries, Inc. Released through Eagle Lion Films, Inc. in the U.S.A.; General Film Distributors - Eagle Lion in the U.K.; British Empire Films in Australia. New York opening at the Capitol: 26 May 1949. U.S. release: 13 April 1949. U.K. release: 1 August 1949. Australian release: 15 December 1949. 8,191 feet. 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Get-rich-quick oil tycoons win out over a lone conservation-minded cattleman in 1920s Oklahoma.NOTES: Eagle Lion's most expensive production was also its biggest box-office success, although by and large contemporary critics were not enthusiastic. Tulsa was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Special Effects, but in a two-picture poll came second to Mighty Joe Young.COMMENT: After a most unpromising start (Chill Wills ogling into the camera and giving us an earful of reach-me-down guff about oil and Tulsa and the great state of Oklahoma), this film picks up considerably as soon as the story starts. In fact, Tulsa is one of director Heisler's most entertaining features - and one of the few pictures in which his early training as a film editor is obviously evident. (Such scenes as the camera closing in on the Tanner sign with Hayward's face superimposed, followed by the long tracking shot as she makes her way through the hotel lobby, are most effectively contrived.)Susan Hayward never looked more attractive. Great care has been taken with her make-up and costumes, and even more importantly she has been glamorously lit and photographed from most flattering angles. What's more she has a typical Hayward role which she plays with her usual relish and drive. Producer Wanger has surrounded his star with a competent array of support players. Armendariz is a little uncomfortable as "a crazy Indian", but Lloyd Gough is delightfully smooth as the chief villain and Ed Begley has an expressive cameo as a partying tycoon. Robert Preston plays the ruggedly honest hero with his usual ease and some of our favorite character players including Jimmy Conlin as Begley's reluctant attorney ("Never go anywhere without him!") are delightfully on hand. Not only does the story move at a rapid pace and allow plenty of opportunities for conflict and drama (including a spectacularly fiery climax which was deservedly nominated for an Academy Award), but it is now very topically angled. Tulsa may well be the very first Hollywood feature primarily motivated by Pollution versus Conservation. The script's arguments are just as valid today as in 1948. What's more they are crisply presented in terms of human conflict, rather than the dry lessons of academics and pedants.By Eagle Lion standards, production values are extraordinarily lavish. Hoch's glamorous photography has already been commended, and this praise has to be extended to the sets and miniatures, the costumes and effects. And we're not complaining that Chill Wills sings the pat-on-the-back title song twice - he does it each time with such agreeable good humor.All in all, a most entertaining 90 minutes.

Yes, it's true, the quality of the print seen on TCM is disgraceful. To some extent it ruins the closing minutes of the film. But, that's a not uncommon fate of the smaller production companies of the past (and after all, how familiar are you with Walter-Wanger Productions and Eagle-Lion Films. We can only hope that someday there will be a restoration of what is a darned good film.There's nothing particularly unique about the plot -- cattle rancher's father is killed by an oil rigging accident and she vows revenge. Although, we never quite understand why she ends up becoming a willing partner to the man she blames for her father's death; and that is, perhaps, the one great flaw in this film. There's the interesting sub-plot about which man will ultimately win her? The Indian (who I think most of us today would root for)? The high-minded "professor"? The man who was responsible for her father's death? It would be interesting to see how the story would be changed if it were being filmed today, instead of over 60 years ago.Susan Hayward plays Cherokee Lansing, the cattle rancher daughter who becomes an oil woman (in Oklahoma). But, in reality, Susan Hayward plays...Susan Hayward. And she (and we) can revel in that. Lest you think is this is one of her early films, no...actually her 27th credited screen appearance.I enjoyed seeing Robert Preston here as "the professor", and one of the two consciences of the cast. Pedro Armendáriz, who was actually Mexican, plays the Indian cattle rancher...the other conscience in the film. Overall a good performance, with a few missteps. I didn't care for Lloyd Gough as the heavy in the film. I'm no fan of Chill Wills, although every once in a while he would turn in a performance that I enjoyed, and this is one of those times. In fact, I wish he had had more screen time in this film. Although he doesn't get much screen time, it's interesting to see Ed Begley (senior) in a very different role for him.If we had a good print of this film, the closing scenes would be down right spectacular. With this bad print, they look cheap. But, the conflagration scenes earned the film an Oscar nomination for special effects.I recommend this film despite the poor quality of the print. Not a gem, but a rhinestone in the rough.

No need to repeat the plot. Darn few actresses can dominate a "man's picture" like Tulsa the way Susan Hayward does. What an exceptional combination of beauty and boldness she was. The production values of this non-studio project are unusually well targeted. Without them, the movie would be little more than a good programmer instead of the sleeper it is. Credit those values (special effects, location shooting, etc.) to producer Walter Wanger, who proved he had an eye for quality material, both big budget and small, e.g. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Credit too, under-rated director Stuart Heisler with a sense of pacing and an ability to redeem difficult material with intelligent touches, e.g. Beachhead (1954), Storm Warning (1951), etc.I especially like the nightmare montage of Redbird's (Armendariz) after he's set fire to the wells. Up to that point, the derricks have been portrayed as stately umbilical cords of wealth and progress, the life's blood of the city and state. So it's a surprise to see them suddenly depicted as hulking black monsters threatening everything around them. Contrast that dark depiction with the uncritically sunny, yet thematically similar, mega-hit Giant (1956). It doesn't take much extrapolation to update Redbird's vision to the oil-based crisis of today; at the same time, the values that evolve among the movie's characters show a surprising sensitivity to the need for a sustainable environment.I also like the way Indian Charlie Lightfoot (Yowlatchie) is shown as excelling at white man ways by becoming a shrewd businessman. Too often Hollywood portrayed Indians at extremes, either as bloodthirsty savages or as noble primitives, but rarely as 3-dimensional human beings. The screenplay may pander at times, especially with Pinky (Wills), but it's also unusually well-rounded for its period. I guess my only reservation is with the splendid special effects. Those burning oil fields are just so incredibly hot, it's impossible to see Brady (Preston) enter the inferno with little more than a squirt of water. Nonetheless, in my little book, the movie is a definite sleeper. True, as the lovelorn outsider, Pedro Armendariz is no quirky James Dean. Yet, despite its relative obscurity, Tulsa is as well-acted and carries as much depth as its sprawling, better-known counterpart, Giant.

In the "oil capital of the world" of Tulsa, Okalahoma, pretty red-haired Susan Hayward (as Cherokee "Cherry" Lansing) is devastated to witness the accidental death of her rancher father. Moreover, Ms. Hayward is denied $20,000 restitution for her father's crushing death, because the oil company says he was "trespassing". After inheriting some oil leases of her own, Hayward gets a chance to get even with the industry responsible for her dad's demise. With the help of tough oilman Robert Preston (Brad "Broncho" Brady), Hayward becomes the oil queen tycoon of Tulsa. Then, wealth and power threaten to corrupt Hayward's character...John Fulton's "Special Photographic Effects" were deservedly noted at the annual "Academy Awards"; the fiery Technicolor, and Hayward's "modeling" turns, are the film's main attractions. Walter Wanger's production of Richard Wormser's story has an admirable conservation message; however, it is bogged down by simplistic stereotypical predictability. Pedro Armendáriz (as Jim Redbird) does as well as he can in the contrived "brave Indian with a crazy streak" role. Lloyd Gough (as Bruce Tanner) is quite an effective human oil slick. And, gum-chewing "cousin" Chill Wills (as Pinky Jimpson) offers a most memorable "Will Rogers"-type characterization; he also narrates, and sings a nice title song.****** Tulsa (4/13/49) Stuart Heisler ~ Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, Chill Wills