Blowing Wild ** (1953, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Anthony Quinn, Ruth Roman, Ward Bond) – Classic Movie Review 7678

Director Hugo Fregonese’s 1953 action adventure Blowing Wild stars Barbara Stanwyck as wicked wildcat Marina Conway, who lusts again after her reluctant former lover Jeff Dawson (Gary Cooper) while her oil boss husband Paco (Anthony Quinn) looks on gloweringly and Cooper’s girl Sal Donnelly (Ruth Roman) understandably looks cheesed off.

The stars resort to bringing on displays of high emotion in order to compensate for the daftness of the script, but, still, this murder melodrama of crazed oil folk down Mexico way in the Thirties has a certain wild charm. Ward Bond is the film’s fifth star as Dawson’s oil rig business partner Dutch Peterson.

The odd hybrid of Western, thriller, romance and adventure movie still intrigues even if the writing by talented Philip Yordan is sometimes slack and untidy, and the direction not always tense or pacy enough.

Blowing Wild is worth it for the stars, even if they are not seen at their best. Despite the big names, this is not a fondly remembered movie, indeed it is largely forgotten, and it is easy to see why.

Also in the cast are Ian MacDonald, Richard Karlan and Juan Garcia.

Blowing Wild is directed by Hugo Fregonese, runs 90 minutes, is made by Warner Bros and United States Pictures, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Philip Yordan, is shot in black and white by Sid Hickox, is produced by Milton Sperling and scored by Dimitri Tiomkin.

It was filmed at the Churubusco Studios, Mexico City.

During the shoot, Gary Cooper won an Oscar for High Noon (1952) and Anthony Quinn for Viva Zapata! (1952).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7678

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