Blowing Wild

Basically a re-make of the Bogart film with a little wildcat oil action thrown in plus just to top things off Stanwyck at her nastiest. The setting is so similar to Treasure that Bond even begs for some coin off a man in a white hat. I never quite bought Babara as the object of all men's desire but she's so good at playing a possessive power mad heap of trouble that she overcomes any defecits in sex appeal. Cooper is 53 in this movie, looks 73, and moves like 93. Ward Bond is the annoying hen of a halfwit sidekick. Quinn great as always. But what's really good is the back drop of oil gushers, banditos, conman and Barbara blowing it wide open!

Blowing Wild is some sort of modern times western, unpretentious but interesting.

Ruined friends Jeff Dawson (Gary Coooper) and Dutch Peterson (Ward Bond) are stuck in a small South American city after bandits blow to pieces their only oil well. As they wonder around they run into wealthy Paco Conway (Anthony Quinn) a former close friend of Dawson who is in the oil business and hires him to give him a hand. Dawson takes the job just to raise the money that will bring him and Dutch back to the United States. Paco's wife Marina Conway (Barbara Stanwyck)has had something with Dawson in the past and she seems willing to revive it. Bandits are also around menacing Paco's oil wells. Circumstances mix up and the plot turns out interesting as it shows the disturbing relationship between Jeff, Paco and Marina.

The film was shot in black and white by Argentine director Hugo Fregonese who makes a good job here in a story about friendship, ambition, passion and murder. Frankie Lane sings the adequate title song.

Cooper is very good as the straight minded Dawson as also is Anthomy Quinn as the self made man that really loves his wife. Barbara Stanwyck's character is the center of the plot and she renders an outstanding performance in another of her many "mean woman" roles. Ward Bond and Ruth Roman -Jeff's romantic alternative- are a strong support. There's also Ian McDonald playing one of his usual unsympathetic characters and meeting Cooper again after High Noon (1952).

Blowing Wild is an acceptable product in its kind. You won't miss a great movie if you don't see it, but you'll enjoy it if you do.

Shotgun-toting, dynamite-wielding banditos in South America shake down local oil-drillers for cash; they run strapped American Gary Cooper out of business, forcing him into partnership with an old friend whose oil-site is doing well--but whose steely-eyed wife is a real wild-card. Surprisingly cheapjack production featuring three top stars (Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and Anthony Quinn), all of whom acquit themselves well with a script which seems half-finished. Ruth Roman is a con-artist who runs into Cooper a few times--and before you know it, she's declaring she loves him. Stanwyck puts forth a lot of heat, and gets us to believe in the tempestuous marriage she shares with Quinn, but there's little motivation for what comes next. The finale, which should have been as emotionally explosive as the effects, plays curiously flat, and there's no reasoning for why the bandits are so extreme in their destruction, nor why they choose the opportunities to strike when they do. From a narrative standpoint, the picture is a mess; however, it is quickly-paced, torrid in spots, and is frequently entertaining in spite of its flaws. **1/2 from ****

Fregonese was a good director, the cast is good ( although Gary Cooper always seemed a bit monotonous and cold ) but Anthony Quinn makes up for him with his own special form of excess. Barbara Stanwyck sadly walks through it as a ' bad woman ' and pulls out all the cliched, familiar gestures of the stereotyped and underwritten ' nasty female '. Ruth Roman has at least a rounded role and acts superbly. and in my opinion saves the film. As for the plot it is overblown and psychologically superficial. But as a superficial film it is watchable and has its fine moments, one of which is a scene between Stanwyck and Roman. I cannot tell what they made of each other, but a film that was theirs would have been great chemistry. The macho feel of the film is tedious and the song which was a great hit in its day that opens the film has a drive to it that the film sometimes follows. It could have been excellent, but falls too often into the excess that only Quinn makes believable. The end is literally hysterical!!!

This is a far cry from the two undisputed classics which had paired Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck twelve years earlier and Hugo Fregonese is not in the same league as Messrs. Capra and Hawks whilst Philip Yordan's script is way below his best.

The old chemistry between Cooper and Stanwyck is still there of course and as a bonus we have the strong presence of Anthony Quinn, one of Cinema's genuine characters who worked very hard to develop and improve his craft whilst Ruth Roman's subtle sensuality offers a much needed contrast to the film's machismo and Miss Stanwyck's passionate intensity.

The film benefits from Dimitri Tiomkin's score, the cinematography of Sidney Hickox and most particularly its momentum for which editor Alan Crosland merits a special mention. In effect this opus represents a prime example of talented, professional artistes rising above their material.