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.

Producer Walter Wanger and director Stuart Heisler shared a Special Effects Academy Award nomination for the action in this average (Technicolor) romance drama set in 1920's Oklahoma. It begins like an advertisement for the titled city and the oil business but ends by making a case for land conservation.Lovely Susan Hayward plays Cherokee Lansing, the daughter of a rancher that was accidentally killed by oilmen such that she ambitiously pursues revenge on the responsible party, Bruce Tanner (Lloyd Gough), with help from Native American Jim Redbird (Pedro Armendáriz) and Brad Brady (Robert Preston), the son of an "oil- catter" (Ed Begley) who'd left his leases to her.All three men are romantically interested in Cherokee. Chill Wills narrates and plays a colorful character named Pinky Jimpson, a blood cousin of Cherokee that calls everyone else "cousin" as a term of endearment. Jimmy Conlin appears briefly as the wildcatter's accountant Homer Triplette.Brad is the engineer that helps Cherokee strike oil on Jim's land in the nick of time (e.g. before Tanner forecloses on her) but is then driven by her newfound wealth and greed such that she and Bruce become partners. Distraught with the reality that his land will soon become unfit for ranching per all the oil derricks to be built there, Jim starts a fire that quickly spreads and consumes much of the Lansing-Tanner oilfields before all the primary characters work together to stop it.The raging fires and explosions to create the necessary fire line contributed to the Oscar nominated effects. Selmer Jackson is among those who appear uncredited.

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

Susan storms into Scarlett O'Hara territory with this meller substituting oil field for plantations and the Civil War. If you have ever seen her test for Scarlett it was obvious at the time she wasn't ready, but ten years on she is in full command of the screen and tears into this part with her customary brio mopping the floor with anyone who gets in her way. She has a few touching moments with Chill Wills' character but otherwise is tough as nails and furiously driven. Not a great picture but a good one with Robert Preston a strong co-star and a great cast of character actors but indifferent direction, if you are a fan of Susan though it is unmissable.