Oklahoma Crude

Oklahoma Crude is a 1973 American comedy-drama western film directed by Stanley Kramer in Panavision. It stars George C. Scott, Faye Dunaway, John Mills and Jack Palance. It was entered into the 8th Moscow International Film Festival where Kramer won the Golden Prize for Direction. The song "Send a Little Love My Way", sung by Anne Murray, was featured in the film and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1973. Plot In 1913, Lena Doyle is the owner of a small tract of land outside Almira, Oklahoma that contains a prominent hill. Lena believes the hill is a dome above a large pool of oil and runs a "wild cat" drilling operation, but her derrick has yet to yield anything. Her only employee is Jimmy, a young Native American. One day, Lena's estranged father, Cleon Doyle, shows up and offers to help, but she refuses. Cleon nevertheless tries to hire men to guard Lena's property, but he is shunned, as no one wants to stand in the way of "Pan Okie", or Pan Oklahoma Oil & Gas, which is the most powerful oil company in the region and Almira's principal benefactor. Only one man, Spanish-American War veteran Noble "Mase" Mason, accepts. Lena is wary of Mason, but allows him to work for her while continuing to reject her father. One night during a downpour, Walter C. Hellman, a retired US Army captain employed by Pan Oklahoma as a fixer, arrives and demands Lena sell her tract to the company. She declines, and Hellman orders his henchmen to beat her and Jimmy, who dies from his injuries. Mason offers to abandon Lena for a $200 bribe, but Hellman disparages him as a spineless opportunist and not only refuses to pay, but has him beaten as well. Cleon nurses Lena and Mason back to health while Hellman illegally occupies and works Lena's tract. In Almira, Lena and Cleon, who are now reconciled, are informed by a lawyer that Lena's case against Pan Oklahoma is hopeless because the company has influence over the judges, but he suggests that she could take back her land by force and justify it as self-defense. Together, Lena, Cleon, and Mason assault Hellman's workers with shotguns and grenades, scaring them off and reclaiming the tract. The next day, Hellman returns with Henry H. Wilcox, the son of Pan Oklahoma's owner, and a larger group of men, threatening to "besiege" Lena's property unless she agrees to sell. She again refuses him.