UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Konterr Brilliant and touching

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

bsmith5552 "The Wild and the Innocent" was a different sort of western for star Audie Murphy. In it he plays a naïve, innocent semi illiterate mountain man who sees the lights of a big town for the first time.Yancy (Murphy), his Uncle Lije (George Mitchell) and Lije's wife Kiri (Lillian Adams) are on their way to trade their beaver pelts at their usual trading post. Along the way, Uncle Lije is mauled by a bear and is unable to continue. Yancy is forced to carry on alone. The trading post has been burned to the ground as a result of drunken Indians made so by rot gut whiskey sold to them by the unscrupulous Ben Stocker (Strother Martin). Stocker, who is travelling westward with his wife and several children, offers up his eldest daughter, the unkempt Rosalie (Sandra Dee) for half of Yancy's furs. He refuses. But Rosalie leaves her family and attaches herself to Yancy much to his dismay. The two continue on to the nearest town and arrive on the 4th of July amid the celebrations.In town, Yancy gets into an altercation with drover Chip (Peter Breck) and is rescued by the town sheriff (Gilbert Roland) who takes a shine to Rosalie. Yancy meanwhile, takes his furs to the General Store run by Forbes (Jim Backus) who is playing in the town band. Yancy sees Marcy (Joanne Dru), a saloon girl and becomes smitten with her.The Sheriff in the meantime, cleans Rosalie up, dresses her in a fancy gown and begins to wine and dine her while all the time she pines for Yancy. Yancy unaware of the town's feelings, asks Marcy to the town dance. The townsfolk shun her and she is forced to explain the facts of life to the innocent Yancy. She tells him that the Sheriff is the owner of the Dance Hall and that Rosalie is with him.Yancy being a bible thumping sort, sees red and goes and gets his gun and goes after Rosalie and...............................................................................Murphy and Dee make a May-September couple. Murphy's character is supposed to be in his early 20s but in fact was 35 at the time and Dee only 17. Roland on the other hand, was in his 50s at the time making him a somewhat of a dirty old man.The best part of the movie is when Strother Martin is on the screen. His portrayal of the slimy slithering whiskey drummer is classic Martin.Not much action but "The Wild and the Innocent" is an enjoyable little opus nonetheless.

William Giesin It's been sometime since I have seen this little cinematic gem. My take on it was that it was somewhat reminiscent of films like "Destry Rides Again" and "The Far Country", in so far as,the hero appears to be somewhat naive and innocent and caught in a love triangle. Murphy not only survives amorous flirtations of a conniving saloon girl, but overcomes various obstacles and intimidation's set fourth by a villainous Sheriff or legal authority. Audie Murphy does an admirable job as a naive back woodsman who winds up inadvertently sheltering an orphaned country girl(Sandra Dee). Beautiful Joanne Dru portrays the predictable saloon "bad" girl turned "good" girl that tries to manipulate Murphy to do the evil sheriff's (Gilbert Roland)bidding. Murphy finally realizes Roland's evil intentions toward Sandra Dee and the inevitable showdown occurs. Western fans have seen all this before, but if you are a true fan of western movies .... you go with the flow and enjoy every moment as the story unfolds. The one thing that a lot of folks don't realize about this film is the fact that it offers an interesting piece of movie trivia .... the mule featured in the film is just as famous as the featured stars (Murphy, Dee, Roland and Dru). Who was that famous mule anyway? None other than Donald O'Connor's old co-star - Francis "the talking mule". Does that surprise you? It shouldn't .... here is another example of "four legged trivia" ... What famous horse did Olivia DeHaviland (Maid Marion) ride in "The Adventures Of Robin Hood"? Would you believe a horse that was later sold to a cowboy star named Roy Rogers? You got it .... that horse was named Trigger!

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) When you are listening to music,to a classic concert you don't want it to switch to rock'n roll, all of a sudden. It breaks your mood. That's what this film does. It begins as a pleasing romantic western comedy, showing how the innocent Audie Murphy, who lives in the mountains, is going to sell his pelts and gets stuck with an also innocent girl (Sandra Dee). They get to the town of Casper, and are laughed off by the people, except for Joanne Dru and Gilbert Roland. Dru has aged, but is still a beautiful woman, and Murphy falls for her. Roland, who is the sheriff and also owns the saloon where Dru works, falls for Sandra Dee. Well,it ends up with Murphy killing Roland (in self defense), but still too strong for the mood of the film. I know that nowadays Tarantino switches from comedy to drama to whatever..., but that's Tarantino. Apart from that, this is an enjoyable film, with good performances.

glentom1 I really should have given it a 5 of 10, but it just felt good to watch.This movie reminds me of some of the Elvis movies where they surrounded him with great character actors. Audie was famous years before Elvis, but in a different way. I would not be surprised if Audie was a hero of Elvis.Anyway, this is a vehicle movie made for Audie, and it works fine. Audie is a good actor, and you will always get what you expect from one of his movies. Sandra Dee is good as well; she conveys much with her pouty face without ever saying a word.Worth watching.