Blowing Wild. 1953. USA. Directed by Hugo Fregonese. Screenplay by Philip Yordan. With Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Ruth Roman, Anthony Quinn. 2K restoration courtesy of Paramount Pictures. 90 min.
Fregonese again put his Latin American background to use in filming this independent production (for Milton Sperling’s United States Pictures) at Mexico’s Churubusco Studios, with location work in Vera Cruz. Gary Cooper is an itinerant wildcatter who finds himself working the oil fields of an ex-partner (Anthony Quinn) who has settled down with Cooper’s former lover, a ferociously headstrong Barbara Stanwyck. Fregonese neglects none of the visual metaphors inherent in this tale of mounting erotic pressure, which comes complete with a title ballad sung by Frankie Laine—just as he had done for Cooper’s 1952 hit High Noon.