Blowing Wild
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
After the bandit El Gavilan and his men blow up their South American oil rig, broke wildcatters Jeff Dawson and "Dutch" Peterson head back to town, looking for work. Sal Donnelly, an American down on her luck, tries to use her charms to get Jeff to buy her a ticket to get home; Jeff offers his oil lease as payment, but the ticket taker shows him a fistful of leases he already has.
Jeff accepts a very dangerous job delivering unstable nitroglycerin the next day for $800, despite Dutch's protests. That night, Dutch tries to mug a man for enough money to buy a meal. The man turns out to be "Paco" Conway, an old friend and former partner of Jeff and Dutch, who has struck it rich. He offers them work, but his marriage to Jeff's old flame Marina makes Jeff turn it down. The next day, Jeff and Dutch (and the nitroglycerin) are ambushed by El Gavilan. They get away, though Dutch is shot in the leg.
When Jeff goes to collect their pay, Jackson claims he does not that much on him. Sal, whom Jackson is romancing, tells Jeff that Jackson has $2500 in his wallet. Jeff gets his money, after a brawl, and gives $200 to Sal for her ticket. However, a policeman confiscates Jeff's $600, as Jackson has other creditors, though he is gracious enough to leave Sal her money. With Dutch in the hospital, Jeff reluctantly goes to work for Paco, drilling a new oil well.
Marina makes romantic overtures to Jeff, but he avoids her as best he can. He reminds her that he loved her once, but could not trust her. She admits it, but says she realized she loved him too after he had left. Paco remains oblivious to what is going on. To Jeff's initial annoyance, Sal gets a job as a blackjack dealer and sticks around. Later though, he starts going into town to see her.
When El Gavilan threatens to blow up Paco's oil wells unless he pays $50,000 extortion money, Paco considers paying, much to Jeff's disgust. Marina sides with Jeff, calling her husband a coward. A drunken Paco later laments publicly that his wife loves another man. He finally realizes the other man is Jeff. When Paco tells her that he loves her regardless, Marina pushes him into a well, where the machinery kills him. Marina claims that Paco fell in by accident. When she lets slip to Jeff that she killed Paco so they could be together, he nearly strangles her, then regains control of himself and leaves the house. Just then, the bandits attack. The local police and Jeff fight them. Marina is irresistibly drawn to the fatal oil well during the battle, and dies when it is blown up. Jeff kills El Gavilan, then leaves with Dutch and Sal.

Review: Good Cast in a Watchable Product.
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..
Great early 50's movie.
I remember seeing this as a14 year old in England when it was first released.
It has stuck in my mind ever since.
The combination of Gary Cooper's world weary persona, Dimitri Tiomkin's evocative score, the great rendition of the title song by Frankie Laine and the powerful sense of loss and what might have been all combine to make a fantastic couple of hours.
One thought did occur when I watched it again last night was how old the characters all were...
We take it for granted today that most roles are played by 25-35 year old actors (and actresses)that to see Cooper, Stanwyck, Quinn, Bond etc.
brings one up with start.
Lovely film, though, and I look forward to seeing it again..
Magnificent Cast in a Reasonable Film.
In a hypothetical country in South America, Jeff Dawson (Gary Cooper) and his partner Dutch Peterson (Ward Bond) have invested all their savings in a lease contract to explore oil.
However, their expectation ruins when bandits blow the derrick of the oil well with dynamite and they get stranded in the town without any money.
In despair, they accept the risky transportation of nitroglycerin to raise US$ 800.00 and Dutch is shot in the leg by road thieves; but Jeff discovers that their employer is a trickster and they area not paid for their job.
When their former friend Paco Conway (Anthony Quinn) meets them, Jeff finds that he is a local tycoon and is married with Marina Conway (Barbara Stanwyck), who had a past with him.
Paco hires Jeff his foreman to help him with his eighteen oil wells while Dutch is recovering in the hospital.
Meanwhile the criminals press Paco to pay US$ 50,000.00 otherwise they will blow his wells and Marina revives her love and desire for Jeff, leading the trio to a tragedy.
"Blowing Wild" is a reasonable film with a magnificent cast.
The writer is visibly inspired in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Le Salaire de la Peur" and combines with elements of film-noir, with Barbara Stanwyck performing a "femme fatale".
The idea of a hypothetical South American country is silly and dull.
In the end, "Blowing Wild" is an entertaining little flick that wastes the huge potential of a dream cast.
My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Sangue da Terra" ("Blood of the Earth").
Decent action/drama.
Gary Cooper is looking for work somewhere in South America when he meets an old friend with a succesful oil-digging company.
His wife, however, is an old love from Cooper and the tension can only lead to bad things.
On top of it all, the country suffers from bandits who destroy and rob all material.
The story has a negative undertone about the failure Americans have when trying to make it big outside their motherland just like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Bogart.
The characters are well thought-out and all of them have a solid background.
Gary Cooper's character has a past he'd rather forget and it made me think about his character in High Noon.
Unfortunately the movie seems to be made in a rush, but due to the story, drama and character studies I give this a 7 out of 10!
And for me that's rather a lot!.
a western at heart, great entertainment, outstanding cast.
Blowin Wild is the type of movie you took for granted when originally released and now can appreciate how good it is.
Starting with Barbara Stanwick who could play a "femme fatale" better than no one, Anthony Quinn as the good guy's friend, that has a great weakness, a role he also played in Warlock, Quinn was the ideal villain, and Gary Cooper was one of the best heroes ever on the screen.
The outstanding Ward Bond and the pretty Ruth Roman complete this fantastic cast.
Apart from the ridiculous premise that there are independent small oil operations in South America, this is an excellent western (at least at heart).
At certain moments I was reminded of The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur, 1953, others of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre(1948).
There is a great scene when Barbara Stanwick and Ruth Roman confront each other..
South American oil wells are blowing wild...and so are the tempers between the stars!.
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.
Better than I'd expected..
I have been an avid Turner Classic Movies viewer and cannot recall them ever playing this obscure Gary Cooper film.
It's a shame, as it's pretty good.
The film is a remake of the Cagney film "Torrid Zone" and it's also a bit similar (at least in the early part of the movie) to "Wages of Fear"...a film that also came out in 1953.Jeff and Dutch (Gary Cooper and Ward Bond) are stuck in Mexico*...broke and with no prospects after bandits dynamite their oil rig.
They get a crazy job transporting nitroglycerin but it turns out that the guy hiring them is a crook.
Fortunately, at least at first, an old friend, Paco (Anthony Quinn), discovers their plight and hires them.
Unfortunately, his wife, Marina (Barbara Stanwyck), is a total screwball...a femme fatale in the most vivid sense.
She doesn't appreciate that Paco is handsome, loves her and provides her with anything she wants...she wants Jeff...mostly because it's wrong!
What's to come of all this?This is a decent film that gets better later due to Stanwyck's florid character.
She's bad...really, really bad...and although she was not the lead, she easily dominated the film.
The only negative is that you KNOW what's going to happen to her due to the notion enforced at the time that the evil must ultimately pay.
Exciting and well worth seeing..
Blows Hot and Cold.
In a film that is partially taken from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, two down on their luck Americans, Gary Cooper and Ward Bond, run into an old pal, Anthony Quinn who has become richer in the oil business than these two wildcatters have.
Quinn's also married Barbara Stanwyck who at one time had a thing for Cooper.It's over for Coop, but Stanwyck ain't taking no for an answer.
Even the presence of Ruth Roman one of those beautiful woman that are stuck in exotic places in films who's really got Coop's attention, doesn't faze her a bit.
She says she'll do whatever she has to, to win Coop back and pretty much does as the film concludes.Blowing Wild only holds interest because of the star players involved.
When you consider that back in the day Cooper and Stanwyck did classics like Meet John Doe and Ball of Fire, Blowing Wild looks like something they did in their spare time on a holiday in Mexico.Everybody overacts outrageously to keep the film afloat even Gary Cooper if you can believe that..
Would YOU cheat on Anthony Quinn?.
I'll tell you the problem with Blowing Wild: the casting.
Barbara Stanwyck is married to Anthony Quinn but falls in love with Gary Cooper.
Yes, you read that correctly.
She's married to the passionate, ruggedly attractive, warm Anthony Quinn, but she'd rather have the wooden, cold, clueless Gary Cooper.
It doesn't make any sense, and since that's the main plot of the movie, the movie doesn't make any sense.There's another woman in the picture, Ruth Roman, and while Barbara is clearly drawn out to be the "bad girl", I didn't think Ruth was much better.
She meets Gary and immediately tries to con him out of a hundred dollars, then pulls the same scheme on his business partner, Ward Bond.
Why are we supposed to root for her instead of Barbara?
The love triangles aside, the plot isn't terrible, but the oil rigs and bandits and transportation of nitro bombs aren't really that captivating, since they're given a backseat to the scenes with the ladies.
You can give this a shot if you like the cast, but just know you've been warned.
I mean, would you cheat on Anthony Quinn with Gary Cooper?
I don't know anyone who would..
The Churning Oil Wells of Madness.
From the acting of Anthony Quinn to the exquisitely overblown melodramatic elements, Blowing Wild is a great relatively unknown gem of a modern western.In the current trend of films that must have happy endings and uplifting themes I found it just so refreshing to watch something where it all goes wrong.
The heroic sensible character does not win the day, there is no overcoming of difficult circumstances although there is certainly bravery and doggedness.The art of the tragedy bares it's garish colours in Blowing Wild.
With so many of today's directors chasing the ghosts of "modern" themes, trying to speak to "modern" audiences, they would do well to study a film such as this, and other's of the older period.
They seem to have far more to say to us "moderns" than current offerings that seem to have regressed to some kind of prepubescent state..
Wildcatters.
"Blowing Wild" showed unexpectedly the other day on cable.
Seldom seen these days, this film reunited once again Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.
Alas, they are not as effective in it as they were in either "Ball of Fire", or "Meet John Doe", two of the best comedies of the 40s, bar none.
The film was directed by Hugo Fregonese.The setting is an unnamed Latin country, which must have been Mexico.
It focuses on the people that wanted to get involved in the oil business because of the wealth it generated.
There is a sequence that parallels Henri-Georges Cluzot's "The Wages of Fear" as Jeff Dawson and Dutch Peterson are asked to transport a crate full of dynamite to a nearby oil drilling site.
It's a rustic route full of dangers and local bandits.
Probably this was purely coincidental since both films came out in the same year in two continents apart.Gary Cooper, who appears as Jeff Dawson, a wildcatter, seems to be acting on auto pilot.
He was always a minimalist actor.
He was not too expressive a man on the screen.
Playing opposite Ms. Stanwyck, whose character showed an explosive nature, he did not show any emotion to speak of.
Barbara Stanwyck, in contrast shows a talent for impersonating an ambitious Marina Conway, who had a romance with Dawson in the past.
She is now married to a Paco Conway, a man she feels disgust for.
She tries to rekindle whatever they shared in the past with bad results.Anthony Quinn makes an impression with his Paco Conway, the man that had the good fortune of striking rich with the oil he found.
Mr. Quinn has a great scene at the local watering hole where he dances with a young woman and later pretends to be a matador with another.
Ward Bond is also seen in the movie as Dutch Peterson, Dawson's partner.
Ruth Roman has an important supporting role and she does well.
Ian McDonald, who was in "High Noon" with Mr. Cooper has a small part.It's easy to see why the film has kept its appeal.
The copy shown was of superior quality.
Sidney Hickox's cinematography was memorable, and the same can be said about Dimitri Tiomkin's musical score.
Frankie Laine is heard with the theme song throughout the movie..
There She Blows!.
She is Barbara Stanwyck, the hot-blooded and high maintenance wife of oil rig baron Anthony Quinn, as well as former lover of Gary Cooper, and she is desperate to get rid of a husband she hates and get back a former lover who makes her oil crude.
Stanwyck's characters has never been someone you'd see grocery shopping (unless she was plotting a murder with Fred MacMurray) or attending social functions, but here, she is aging but still very much on the prowl.
She's definitely a cougar, and while her prey may not be a young buck, she's roaring loudly with desire.
Cooper, though, isn't buying her brand of spitfire anymore, and is now ready to settle for the sultriness of Ava Gardner look-alike Ruth Roman who purrs her lines like a kitten compared to Stanwyck's raspy and claw-clad alley cat.
Quinn, too, underestimates his wife's hatred, finding out the hard way her real desires.This is the third variation of this story at Warner Brothers-1935's "Bordertown" and 1940's "They Drive By Night", all told extremely similar stories with different professions for the hero and equally wild leading ladies in the Stanwyck role: Bette Davis ("Bordertown") and Ida Lupino ("They Drive By Night") both got to be dames to be reckoned with.
Roman takes on the Margaret Lindsay and Ann Sheridan roles with Cooper replacing Paul Muni and George Raft, Quinn taking over for Eugene Palette and Alan Hale.An unusually large over abundance of music dominates this version, including a theme song ("Marina Mine") sung by Frankie Laine, obviously influenced by his hit recording of "Do Not Forsake Me", the theme from Cooper's Oscar Winning success "High Noon" the previous year.
Quinn's seemingly macho coward fights cowardice as a result of harassment from Mexican bandits, seen at the start of the film attempting to rob Cooper with stereotypical racist dialog.
Ward Bond gives a sympathetic performance as Cooper's mentor.
While the romance may focus on Cooper and Roman, it is Stanwyck who dominates the film.
She may be melodramatic, but she's somebody you'll never forget.