Blowing Wild [1953] [DVD]

“Marina mine...” belted out ol' leather-lungs Frankie Laine over the opening titles of this 1930s-set oil-rig melodrama (and so secured himself a substantial hit). Marina is played by Barbara Stanwyck, married to tycoon Anthony Quinn, but with the hots (and who can blame her?) for former lover Gary Cooper, a wildcatter from her past who turns up in her life just when he shouldn't. Tosh, of course, and summarily dismissed by contemporary critics.

But fans of the latter-day Cooper and Stanwyck certainly get their money's worth, and, besides, melodramas like this don't actually have to be any good: good-bad is after all a movie category of its own. Director Hugo Fregonese, an Argentinian working in Hollywood, makes the most of the Mexican locations, even though he seems incapable of reining in the full-throttle performances of his stars.