This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Susan Hayward plays a woman named Cherokee, to convince the audience she's part Native American. If she was fully white, the audience would never accept a love triangle between Robert Preston and Pedro Armendariz, a Mexican playing a full Native American. As it is, the film doesn't really treat Pedro with the same respect and chances that it gives to Robert Preston. Susan lives in Tulsa, Arizona, and the majority of the film is the pursuit of discovering oil on her land. It's incredibly boring. If you want to watch an oil movie, watch Giant. Neither she nor Robert are portrayed as particularly good people, so how are you supposed to root for either of them? Add in the proverbial "aw-shucks" hick character played by Chill Wills, and you'll find yourself leaving the room for more popcorn without pressing pause.Until I watched Tulsa, I thought Susan Hayward was immune to the slew of bad movies most actors make in his or her lifetime. She's one of my all-time favorite actresses, but even she has made some doozies. Save your time and watch a good Susan Hayward movie instead.

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

...and that's fine by me! Most films about ecology have been cheap exploitation (eg, "Frogs"). This one is not. It's a moderately serious story about the need to use natural resources wisely. There's no question this is the reason the film was made. The script's seemingly accurate details suggest that someone did a lot of research about the oil industry."Tulsa" is also a good example of the principle that you can't tell stories about ideas, only people. Though exaggerated, the characterizations aren't too overdrawn, and we're willing to believe that Susan Hayward's character discards her principles in favor or money. (This is human nature -- unfortunately.) Similarly, Tanner //does not// change his beliefs at the end.Hayworth's performance is better-than-competent, and Robert Preston does a great job imitating Clark Gable. (Note the scene where the fully clothed Hayworth kisses Preston, dropping a gown she's holding, to suggest you-know what. It's a fine example of directors circumventing the Code.) The actors playing Indians at least //look like// Indians, rather than spray-painted whites.Though 65 years old, "Tulsa" has hardly dated. The issues at its center have still not been resolved -- nor have human beings developed better values.

Where were the Barnes and Ewing families of "Dallas" fame when this took place? It's the 1920's, and narrator Chill Wills explains how Tulsa became the oil capital of the world because of the conglomerate of various oil companies facing the need to be responsible for nature as well as profits. Native American Pedro Pedro Armendáriz wants to keep his property out of the hands of oil men, but childhood pal Susan Hayward (whom he secretly loves) convinces him to get involved. Along the way, Hayward falls for genealogist Robert Preston (pre-"Music Man") and keeps him guessing whether or not she'll choose him while becoming the next Alexis Carrington of her day over ruthless oilman Lloyd Gough, who could care less about the cows he kills with the oil infested waters they drink out of.Yes, this pre-cursor to the two top nighttime soaps of the 1980's (that ironically dealt with the oil industry in Dallas Texas and Denver Colorado) were when they were at their best. Hayward hit the top of the female stars in 1949 with "House of Strangers" and "My Foolish Heart", and the colorful part in "Tulsa" was a dynamic part for her. Preston plays one of his few romantic roles prior to Broadway fame, while Chill Wills offers comic relief. Ed Begley, who played a ruthless businessman in Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth", has an important bit part that moves the plot forward, and the lovable Jimmy Conlin is his sidekick. Great color photography, and a fantastic "White Heat" style ending are other pluses.