Tulsa is a 1949 American Technicolor Western action film directed by Stuart Heisler and starring Susan Hayward and Robert Preston, and featured Lloyd Gough, Chill Wills (as the narrator), and Ed Begley in one of his earliest film roles, billed as Edward Begley.

The film’s plot revolved around greed, conservation, and romance. It was nominated for an Oscar for its special effects at the 22nd Academy Awards in 1950.

Plot
The plot revolved around the Tulsa, Oklahoma oil boom of the 1920s and detailed how obsession with accumulating wealth and power can tend to corrupt moral character. The story begins with the death of rancher Nelse Lansing, who is killed by an oil well blowout while visiting a well operated by Tanner Petroleum to report that pollution from the oil production has killed some of his cattle. The plot thickens as Lansing’s daughter, Cherokee, acquires drilling rights and meets Brad Brady, a geologist who wants the oil drillers to limit their drilling in order to minimize oil field depletion and to preserve the area’s grasslands.

A fire in a derrick tailing pool started by Jim Redbird, a Cherokee who had been made a rich owner of oil land through crooked dealings of oilmen, and who later renounces his holdings, results in an extravagant fire scene for which the movie got its Oscar nomination. In its aftermath, in recognition of the destruction caused by improper oil drilling, and how money and power can corrupt even those who love the land, the oil drillers and the geologist learn to work together.

Cast
Susan Hayward as Cherokee Lansing
Robert Preston as Brad Brady
Pedro Armendáriz as Jim Redbird
Lloyd Gough as Bruce Tanner
Chill Wills as Pinky Jimpson (narrator)
Ed Begley as John J. “Johnny” Brady (as Edward Begley)
Jimmy Conlin as Homer Triplette
Roland Jack as Steve, Cherokee’s ranch hand