The Wild and the Innocent (1959)

The young, the old and the restless! The Wild and the Innocent is directed by Jack Sher and Sher co-writes the screenplay with Sy Gomberg. It stars Audie Murphy, Joanne Dru, Gilbert Roland, Sandra Dee, Jim Backus, George Mitchell and Strother Martin. A CinemaScope/Eastman Color production, the music is by Hans J. Salter and cinematography by Harold Lipstein. Plot has Murphy as young mountain man Yancy Hawks who experiences big city life for the first time. Reluctantly on his journey into town he has acquired a companion, young Rosalie Stocker (Dee), whose father tried to trade her for some of Yancy's beaver pelts. Once in town the two fishes out of water meet trouble and learn more about life in the process. It's a bit of an oddity is this, a collage of mixed tonal flows and risky scenarios that marry up to a family friendly first hour, only to be usurped in the last quarter by mature thematics. Murphy was always youthful in looks, but he is clearly too old for this character, and yet he's as watchable as ever. Yet as we get a potential relationship burgeoning between Murphy (35 at the time) and Dee (17 at the time), it makes us wonder in wonderment where this will end up?! Then things really take a turn into the uncomfortable when Roland's (55 at the time!) Sheriff Paul Bartell puts the moves on Dee! Remembering that Dee is actually playing her age group, well it's a bit choice to say the least... At pic's beginning we are treated to a bear attack and some lovely locations photographed out of Big Bear Valley/Snow Valley in San Bernardio. From there we get a hot wired Strother Martin playing a quality weasel type, which ultimately leads to Yancy and Rosalie as unlikely companions, which makes for a whole bunch of frothy charm. The scrapes they get into is a fun watch, but as she has eyes for Yancy, he has fallen for "dancehall gal" Marcy Howard (Dru). And then the pic hits darker territory... Having done a complete tonal flip-flop, pic surprises by not shying away from the narrative thrust that is a house of ill repute. There is no compunction by the owners of such in recruiting young ladies for "dancehall duties" (special mention to the costuming of the ladies in town). So the hot-pot simmers for a naïve Yancy who is bemused why the town shun the lady he fancies and call her a hussy! So how will it work out for our protagonists? As we ponder that question you then realise that it ultimately ends up as expected, and that the last twenty minutes of the piece has actually lifted it above average. 6/10

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.