Review by Gary Tooze

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Description: In 1930s South America, bandits led by El Gavilan (Juan Garcia) destroy the wildcat oil well owned by Jeff Dawson (Gary Cooper) and his partner, Dutch Peterson (Ward Bond). The two desperate men accept a dangerous job of transporting nitroglycerin, but are swindled out of their payment. Broke and nowhere else to turn, Dawson and Peterson are hired by their old friend, Ward 'Paco' Conway (Anthony Quinn), now an oil baron and married to Dawson's ex-love Marina (Barbara Stanwyck). The bandits threatens to dynamite Paco's eighteen wells unless he pays them a bounty of $50,000 as the predatory Marina still in love with Dawson will stop at nothing to get back the only man she ever loved. Ruth Roman also stars and adds to the romantic entanglement. Frankie Laine sang the memorable title song "Blowing Wild (The Ballad of the Black Gold)" with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster and music by Dimitri Tiomkin (High Noon) who also scored this one-of-a-kind classic. Beautifully shot in black-and-white by Sidney Hickox (Three Secrets) and directed by Hugo Fregonese (Man in the Attic) with a screenplay by Philip Yordan (Johnny Guitar).

 

 

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No supplements - not even a trailer which is the bare-bones route that Olive are going with the majority of their releases.

BOTTOM LINE:
This has two of my favorite gals - Roman and Stanwyck. There are some worthy positives and Blowing Wild has some atmospheric hinting at Wages of Fear. Such a strong cast makes it worthy on its own. The Blu-ray is typical Olive - bare bones with an un-manipulated 1080P transfer. I appreciated seeing it as it is a film I had never come across before. It's a little like a western with cowboy hat conflicts and tension. No masterpiece but enjoyed my viewing.