Review of Tulsa (1949) by Allan C — 01 Mar 2014

An interesting twist on the typical western homesteaders vs. ranchers story, this time making the ranchers the wronged underdog in a ranchers vs. oil barons story. Written by Frank S. Nugent, who wrote some of John Ford's best films, wrote this sharp screenplay.

The script is the best part of the film, with the story of Susan Hayward taking over her recently deceased father's ranch and then gets the oil drilling rights, becoming part of the Oklahoma oil boom of the 1920s.

There are some interesting ideas around greed and conservation, but the film seemed rather cheaply made, outside of a terrific oil fire finale, although this perception may have been due to the fact that this film fell into the public domain and the print shown on TCM looked awful.

It's worth watching and Hayward is great, but it's no "Giant".