Barbara Stanwick

(On Cable TV, January 2022) While Blowing Wild is technically set in 1950s rural South America, there’s something recognizably familiar about the setting—despite the oil derricks and cars, it’s the horses and sagebrush surroundings that suggest that this is a modern Western, harkening back to the themes of the form. That, and Barbara Stanwick, are probably the two most interesting things about the result, though: The film struggles to retain interest except when Stanwyck walks into frame. Sure, Gary Cooper and Anthony Quinn also star as oil men competing for her attention, but while Quinn occasionally flickers with interest, Cooper is his usual bland self. There’s still something provocative about re-using Western tropes in a modern (now historical) setting, but I don’t think Blowing Wind was thinking about developing itself along those lines. Alas, there isn’t much more to take up the slack.