BLOWING WILD (1953)

With a cast of heavy-hitters (Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Anthony Quinn, Ruth Roman, Ward Bond) and A-list talent (Philip Yordan script, Dmitri Tiomkin score, favored Hawks & Walsh lenser Sidney Hickox, top Argentinean helmer Hugo Fregonese), this film’s complete lack of reputation can signal only one thing . . . STINKER.  Why else wouldn't it be known?  But not this time; if anything, a bit of a find.  And if it doesn't fully connect, the script a draft or two shy of potential, this racy number about wildcat oil men fighting banditos and misdirected lust in South America, plays like some missing cinematic link  between Douglas Sirk & Sam Peckinpah.*  Cooper & Bond, prospectors gone bust, are trying to get back to the States when they meet Ruth Roman, equally stranded, trying to hustle the fare home.  Luckily, old partner Quinn also in town, flush with oil profits and married to former Coop flame Stanwyck.  Dramatically, a tricky five-spoke wheel needing constant structural attention, especially Tony & Babs who might have stepped out of some Strindberg play.  With plenty of incident while the romantic roundelay heats up: a truck of nitroglycerin to deliver; a new well to bring in; a showdown between local banditos and what passes for the military . . . plus, Roman’s got to learn how deal BlackJack.  No wonder the construction is bit jumpy at times.  But Fregonese knew his stuff* and Cooper, in unusually good post-HIGH NOON form, is well-matched to the baritone love calls of Ruth & Babs.  (How many cigarettes did it take to lower those voices?)  With alarming heroics for Cooper (he 'barehands' a ‘nitro’ missile) and an old-fashioned mad scene for Babs to show the younger stars what a real Hollywood legend can do.  While no forgotten classic, some surprisingly strong stuff in here.  (Beware subfusc Public Domain copies.  Excellent edition on OLIVE Films.)

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *The Sirk/Peckinpah angle would have been easier to pick up on if this had been made a couple of years later in WideScreen & Color.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Argentinean Hugo Fregonese spent the first half of the ‘50s in Hollywood making small sharp B and B+ budget pics.  Try APACHE DRUMS/’51, an unnervingly claustrophobic TechniColor Western from Universal that was producer Val Lewton’s last credit.