Blowing Wild works well only as a Gary Cooper action film, with him against the banditos
throughout the film. Cooper on a horse and with a gun work well as always, As for Barbara Stanwyck she offers up one of her worst performances here, insane and over the top ( Close to Charles Laughton ( an actor who generally does not appeal to me for that very reason)) . It is quite different then her bad women performances such as Double Indemnity and The Violent Men). While I did not expect Ball of Fire or Meet John Doe ( both with Cooper), we know she can do better( even later in her career( see The Big Valley)).. Anthony Quinn is the walking definition of pathetic ( loves wife Stanwyck but she hates him). Ruth Roman is a love interest but only to a slight extent. "What does she do for you." ( Stanwyck). ""Nothing, but I can trust her." ( Cooper). About says it all. Better off seeing Roman with Cooper in Dallas made three years earlier ( she was hot there). The one irony is the bandits who made Cooper's life miserable ( including in the first scene), are in the end the ones who indirectly saved him. Finally I saw this on YouTube which allowed me to skip through any scene with no action, which was a necessity (especially avoiding Stanwyck scenes) At least I got to see a Cooper rarity that escaped me for years, and the action scenes are well done. 7/10 stars.
Review of Blowing Wild
