Keys to Tulsa

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Keys to Tulsa
original film poster
Directed by	Leslie Greif
Produced by	Leslie Greif Harley Peyton
Written by	Harley Peyton
Starring	Eric Stoltz James Spader Deborah Kara Unger James Coburn
Music by	Stephen Endelman
Cinematography	Robert Fraisse
Distributed by	Gramercy Pictures
Release date(s)	1997
Running time	113 mins
IMDb profile

Keys to Tulsa is a 1997 film directed by Leslie Greif, and starring Eric Stoltz and James Spader. It is based on the novel of the same name by Bryan Fair Berkey

[edit] Plot

The story revolves around Richter Boudreau (Eric Stoltz). Richter is from a privileged background and works as a movie reviewer at the local newspaper only because his sour mother (Mary Tyler Moore) pulled strings for him. He is dissatisfied with the direction that his life has taken; he is about to be fired from his job because he can't meet deadlines, lives in a dilapidated farmhouse, does drugs and is so behind on his bills that his electricity has been cut off. He also owes money to Ronnie Stover (James Spader), an abusive white trashy drug dealer. Ronnie is married to Vicky(Deborah Kara Unger), a beautiful woman who was disowned by her socially prominent family for her involvement with Ronnie. Richter is still in love with Vicky despite having ended their relationship years before. Vicky is the sister of Keith (Michael Rooker), an misogynistic alcoholic whose large inheritance fails to soothe his anger, loneliness, and depression. Cherry (Joanna Going) is the exotic dancer from Chicago who buys drugs from Ronnie and gets romantically involved with Richter.

Ronnie plans to blackmail Bedford Shaw (Marco Perella), the son of a socially prominent business man, after Cherry tells him that Shaw murdered her friend, an African-American stripper/prostitute, in a motel room and that she took pictures of the whole thing. Ronnie attempts to involve Richter in his plans by having him hold onto a mysterious black pouch and by exploiting Richter's newspaper connections. Richter, who wants no part of the blackmail scheme gets in over his head when Keith discovers that Richter has been sleeping with Vicky, takes pictures of them, and threatens to hand them over to Ronnie.