Wild Women Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Wild Women Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 20, 2019

Both NBC’s “World Premiere” offerings and ABC’s Movie of the Week could provide so-called “backdoor pilots” for shows that ultimately made it to the airwaves as actual series, and while I haven’t been able to track down any data to support this thesis, my hunch is that the creative staff behind Wild Women may have at least thought about the enterprise as something that could lead to a weekly show. This might be due to the prevalence of credits for Aaron Spelling as this made for television movie opens, but there's a feeling throughout this story that things are being set up for a longer set of adventures. Obviously owing more than a bit to The Dirty Dozen, Wild Women was a 1970 Movie of the Week that posited Hugh O’Brian as a 19th century trailblazer named Killian who is tasked with recruiting a handful of female convicts to pose as supposed wives in an undercover operation meant to deliver weapons to troops fighting Mexico. There's also a sidebar plot of finding a new route to their destination, so that map making plays into things. This almost hilariously backlot and studio shot enterprise has the typically undemanding ambience of many of the old movies of the week, and offers two arguably slightly past their prime stars in O’Brian and Anne Francis, as a woman named Jean who of course has a history with Killian. Also on hand are two stars of an earlier era, Marilyn Maxwell and Marie Windsor, along with some other character performers who will no doubt be familiar to Baby Boomers (who grew up on the Movie of the Week) in particular.

It’s perhaps notable that even a less than well remembered Movie of the Week has a champion like commentator Lee Gambin, who repeatedly mentions another film (other than The Dirty Dozen) to which Wild Women owes a tip o’ the Stetson, a largely forgotten opus from 1957 called The Guns of Fort Petticoat. That said, while I’ve never seen the Audie Murphy film, in reading about it online, it seems like it was a pretty standard action adventure Western, while Wild Women keeps things decidedly on the light and frolicsome side, with just the barest hint of a salacious angle underpinning things as women convicts are “paired” with soldiers in order for them to impersonate married couples making the trek west (or I guess in this case, south) in a wagon train.

There really isn't that much of an "arc" here, other than the predictable element of some of the women falling for the men (and/or vice versa). There's some silly villainy courtesy of some Mexicans (who actually show up surprisingly late in the tale, all things considered), and a few vignettes given over to things like some of the women getting smashed on moonshine. The repartee here isn't exactly at Noel Coward levels, but this is a decent midlevel made for television affair that doesn't take itself seriously and provides a little early 70's "female empowerment" along the way.

Wild Women Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wild Women is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber's Studio Classics imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. The back cover of this release touts a new 2K scan of the original camera negative, and this 1970 made for television entry looks surprisingly great in high definition. While the palette is arguably just a tad skewed toward blue-purple at times, overall everything is really beautifully suffused and natural looking. Detail levels are also commendable throughout the presentation, and grain resolves naturally with no problems. There are no signs of any major age related wear or tear.

Wild Women Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Wild Women features a spry sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that capably supports the film's pretty minimal sound design. Many of the dialogue scenes are stagebound, without even the rustle of an ambient environmental effect, but some of the outdoor material has enjoyable believability courtesy of galloping horses or even gunfire. Fred Steiner's bouncy score is based almost entirely on the folksong "Sweet Betsy from Pike"* and sounds full bodied throughout the presentation. Dialogue is presented similarly without issue.

*Kind of hilariously, I just could not recall the name of the folk song Steiner's score is based on, and I actually had to put out the social media call for an answer (see, the internet can be a force for good). What's funny about my lack of memory is that I may be married to a woman with the name that's prominently featured in the title of the song.

Wild Women Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Film Historian Lee Gambin

Wild Women Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is an undemanding but generally affable and entertaining made for television film, one that offers a few stabs at post-modern revisionism (women getting a bit of power, and one of them is a Native American!), but which doesn't attempt to push the cultural zeitgeist envelope too much. Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.