The Wild and the Innocent

The Wild and the Innocent

By

  • Genre: Western
  • Release Date: 1959-05-27
  • Runtime: 84 minutes
  • : 6.3
  • Production Company: Universal International Pictures
  • Production Country: United States of America
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6.3/10
6.3
From 20 Ratings

Description

Charming tale of mountaineer-trapper Murphy's first taste "big city" life with young, sweet Sandra Dee in tow. She flees her family, which tried to trade her for some of Murphy's beaver pelts, and tags along with the reluctant Murphy. They get into all manner of trouble in town, and Murphy has to shoot the sheriff to rescue Dee from her job as a dancehall girl.

Trailer

Reviews

  • drystyx

    8
    By drystyx
    This is a different sort of Western than what we usually get. We often get "non credible character in incredible situations" or "credible characters in incredible situations". What we get here is "credible characters in CREDIBLE situations", and yet we still get adventure and excitement out of the every day events that escalate into life and death struggles. This movie has a lot of charm, and some great characters. The supporting characters truly make this film as good as it really is. Most notable is Jim Backus, who isn't a millionaire in this movie, but he does show up in some big movies. He may be a father to a rebel without a cause, or a centurion feeding Androcles to a lion, Here, he represents the "normal folk" of a town, the one who happens to befriend our hero played by Audie Murphy. One thing that goes unnoticed about Audie Murphy is that he apparently chose a lot of roles in which he wasn't "superman" but rather someone with one special talent. In "Gunsmoke", he dared not get into fist fights, because his only talent was with a gun. Here, his talent is eyesight that may be 20-10 or so. That is his "talent". His talent is unsoiled in his trapper life, and he goes to the city. A city with Western law provided by Gilbert Roland, who plays a very three dimensional lawman. To say more may be a spoiler. I do differ from the one other review here so far in that I think the first part of the film is superior to the confrontation, though the entire film is excellent. The ending is also very "non Hollywood" when he reunites with his "family" in a way that is more credible than what we usually get. A very mature film for a mature audience.

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