It's Tulsa, Oklahoma at the start of the oil boom and Cherokee Lansing's rancher father is killed in a fight with the Tanner Oil Company. Cherokee plans revenge by bringing in her own wells with the help of oil expert Brad Brady and childhood friend Jim Redbird. When the oil and the money start gushing in, both Brad and Jim want to protect the land but Cherokee has different ideas. What started out as revenge for her father's death has turned into an obsession for wealth and power.
Acting
Susan Hayward's volcanic transformation from grieving daughter to oil baroness.
Cinematography
Blazing Technicolor oil fires that out-heat any CGI explosion.
Costume
Cherokee's wardrobe evolution: widow weeds to power suits to reckoning.
Director
Stuart Heisler
Susan Hayward
Cherokee Lansing
Robert Preston
Brad Brady
Pedro Armendáriz
Jim Redbird
Lloyd Gough
Bruce Tanner
Chill Wills
Pinky Jimpson (Narrator)
Ed Begley
John J. 'Johnny' Brady (as Edward Begley)
Jimmy Conlin
Homer Triplette
Harry Shannon
Nelse Lansing
Lola Albright
Candy Williams (uncredited)
Paul E. Burns
Tooley (uncredited)
John Dehner
Oilman (uncredited)
Fred Graham
Charlie - Cherokee's Foreman (uncredited)
Frank Hagney
Doorman at Gambling Emporium (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 1949 Tulsa oil well fire sequence used 200,000 gallons of burning crude and required the Oklahoma National Guard to manage the flames.
US
