Tulsa

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.

In the early 1920's there was the inevitable clash between the cattle ranchers and the burgeoning oil drillers in Oklahoma. This account of that clash, filmed in color, is fast moving and interesting. It revolves around Susan Hayward's character, and Hayward is marvelous as always, and how she has to learn to adapt to the inevitable changes being wrought by the explosion of oil money. The climactic oil field fire is well done indeed. Recommended.

My summary is NOT an insult. It's just pointing out that of all the actresses of her day, Susan Hayward made a name for herself playing tough, tough ladies...the type to never allow themselves to be pushed around by any man...a real feminist hero of her era in films. And here, once again, she plays such a tough cookie!

When the film begins, the oil industry in Oklahoma is in its infancy. There naturally is a conflict brewing between oil men who want to put up wells everywhere and ranchers...and Cherokee (Hayward) is the daughter of one of the ranchers. When her father and some cattle are accidentally killed due to the wells, she is on htre warpath. But, instead of fighting the oil companies and trying to stop them, she jumps into the oil business herself. Despite a slow start, she and her new partner, Brad (Robert Preston), make it big. However, as Cherokee gets richer, she becomes harder and greedier and ends up hurting the men who love her. Is there any redemption for this hard-hearted woman?

This is a decent film...but it also lacks depth. This is because Cherokee's change at the end of the film is way too fast and way too unlike who she'd become. Enjoyable...but it could have been better. As for the ending, despite making little sense, it was awfully spectacular!

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.

Susan Hayward is perfectly cast as Cherokee "Cherry" Lansing, a cattle rancher's daughter in 1920s Oklahoma with a need to succeed. She lucks into land leases which are ripe for wildcat oil-drilling, quickly taking on her benefactor's professor son as a partner to combat her main competitor, a wealthy oil baron who owns the land neighboring hers. Brawling, robust tale filmed in rich Technicolor, skillfully written by Curtis Kenyon and Frank Nugent and tightly directed by Stuart Heisler. Hayward is backed solidly by a fine supporting cast, including Robert Preston in a Rhett Butler mustache and Pedro Armendáriz as an Indian kindred spirit whose friendship comes to mean everything in the end. Some of the comedic overtures are corny, and the noisy climax goes on too long; otherwise, an engrossing, entertaining, well-oiled mix of history, romance, ambition, and pride. **1/2 from ****