Tulsa (1949)

Director:

Stuart Heisler

Writers:

Curtis Kenyon (writer)
Frank S. Nugent (writer)

Release Date:

26 May 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Action | Romance

Plot:

It's Tulsa, Oklahoma at the start of the oil boom and Cherokee Lansing's rancher father is killed in a fight with the Tanner Oil Company...

Plot Keywords:

Orchestral Music Score | Stream | Environmental Issues | Pollution | Merger

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Susan Hayward	...	Cherokee Lansing
Robert Preston	...	Brad Brady
Pedro Armendáriz	...	Jim Redbird
Lloyd Gough	...	Bruce Tanner
Chill Wills	...	Pinky Jimpson (Narrator)
Ed Begley	...	John J. 'Johnny' Brady (as Edward Begley)
Jimmy Conlin	...	Homer Triplette
Roland Jack	...	Steve, Cherokee's Ranchhand

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #13400) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

Company:

Eagle-Lion Films

Quotes:

Jim Redbird: [to Cherry Lansing] I don't think your father would like to see you smeared with oil!

Movie Connections:

Edited into When Worlds Collide (1951)

Soundtrack:

TULSA

Oh, give me a home where cattlemen roam and the oil wells never run dry...

Let me get down to the story immediately...

It's 1920s Oklahoma, and the oil wells are...well, gushing. A young woman, orphaned when such a rig kills her cattle baron dad, sets out to get revenge on the oil owners but, instead, eventually winds up to be an oil baron herself. In the process, Cherokee Lansing (Susan Hayward) has three men vying for her affection: Brad Brady (Robert Preston), Bruce Tanner (Lloyd Gough), and Jim Redbird (Pedro Armendariz).

It's a well-photographed narrative, the special effects (for 1949) are very realistic, the acting is adequate (Susan Hayward shines, in my opinion) and the overall result is for a quite entertaining movie coupled with a glimpse into the recent past when the oil business was booming. And, I was glad to see Chill Wills again, who always gives a competent performance and who adds the requisite humour to an otherwise deadly serious affair...

The finale, showing one of the oil fields going up in flames, is quite a spectacle.

But this is more than an adventure movie about the oil business. It's also a politically correct conservation statement by Hollywood in response to the rapacious greed with which land was appropriated to feed awakening American industry. This, in 1949 – long before anybody started to think about peak oil, and the looming crisis that will come when the oil runs dry globally! Now that took guts…and a lot of money. Which makes me wonder how well this film did at the box office in 1949/1950...

So, I was amazed – even astounded – that Hollywood dared to take on the oil business then, so soon after the Second World War. Now that the predictions in that film are coming true, I think everybody should see this film. Might wake up a few more people about the coming end of the oil world as we know it...

Highly recommended. Get a copy and see it. Today, already!