Susan Hayward
Cherokee Lansing
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Drama
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. Cherokee plans revenge by bringing in her own wells with the help of oil expert Brad Brady and childhood friend Jim Redbird. When the oil and the money start gushing in, both Brad and Jim want to protect the land but Cherokee has different ideas. What started out as revenge for her father's death has turned into an obsession for wealth and power.
Top Billed Cast
| Release Date | 1949-04-13 |
|---|---|
| Runtime | 1h 30m |
| Directors | Stuart Heisler, Winton C. Hoch, Howard W. Koch |
| Producers | Walter Wanger, Edward Lasker |
| Writers | Frank S. Nugent, Curtis Kenyon, Richard Wormser |
Seynatawnee means Red Hair, but to him it means Boss!
Tulsa is directed by Stuart Heisler and adapted to screenplay by Frank S. Nugent and Curtis Kenyon from a Richard Wormser story. It stars Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, Pedro Armendáriz, Lloyd Gough and Ed Begley. Music is by Frank Skinner and cinematography by Winton C. Hoch.
It's Tulsa at the start of the oil boom and when Cherokee Lansing's (Hayward) rancher father is killed in a fight, she decides to take on the Tanner Oil Company by setting up her own oil wells. But at what cost to the grazing land of the ranchers?
Perfect material for Hayward to get her teeth into, Tulsa is no great movie, but it a good one. Sensible ethics battle greed and revenge as Hayward's Cherokee Lensing lands in a male dominated industry and kicks ass whilst making the boys hearts sway. She's smart, confident and ambitious, but she's too driven to see the painfully obvious pitfalls of her motives, or even what she has become. It all builds to a furious climax, where fires rage both on land and in hearts, the American dream ablaze and crumbling, the effects and model work wonderfully pleasing.
Slow in parts, too melodramatic in others, but Hayward, Preston, Gough and the finale more than make this worth your time. 7/10
— John Chard