You won't be disappointed!

Must See Movie...

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's 1763 in and around Fort Pitt in western Pennsylvania. Gary Cooper is an amiable captain in His Majesty's First Own Monongahela Fusiliers or something. Trouble is brewing with the Indians, called "savages." The savages speak a made-up language, unless "iksa" is a prominent part of their Algonquian dialect. When they speak English, they say: "You burn white woman at stake." Paulette Goddard is a slave whose ownership is in question -- a tug of war between the honorable Cooper and the villainous Henry da Silva. The legitimate owner, of course, is Cooper, who soon takes to romancing his slave. "The moonlight has turned your dress into emeralds." And "The starlight is dancing in your eyes." Now, lines like this don't come easily to Gary Cooper, nor does his dress uniform. Comfortable in fringed leather, he has to wear this garish outfit to the governor's ball. An absurd three-cornered hat. A bright blue jacket with scarlet facings and bright brass buttons. But BOOTS -- no white stockings for Gary Cooper. Real men don't wear white stockings. It's just one step away from fishnet and garter belts. All together, he carries on like a man with long, jointed sticks instead of limbs, but always honorable. Cooper bamboozles a tribe of savages about to burn Goddard alive by playing tricks with a compass. The Indian chief, Boris Karloff, is stupefied by the unerring arrow of the compass. It's a scene out of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." Karloff's character -- Guyasuta - Chief of the Senecas -- was a real historical figure, an early pal of, and guide for, George Washington. Paulette Goddard is an attractive women, even though she is no longer the sprightly nymph with the pretty legs from Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times." And she's superb as a slave whose dress may be torn to shreds, who may be rough-housed by the villainous, cheating, thieving, lying, murdering, rapist Howard da Silva, dunked in a rapidly flowing river, and tortured by Indians, and who must scrub floors in a filthy tavern, but who never loses a false eyelash or is without lipstick and rouge. She was never a bravura actress but evidently a nice woman. When she died, she left most of her estate to New York University.Those taverns, by the way, look convincing as all get out, like the other interiors. Production design and set dressing don't usually get their due but they should because they add so much texture to the images. That tavern is stuffed full of sacks of grain, hewn tables, simple rickety chairs, piles of corn, long rifles hung on racks, trenchers, pewter tankards and unidentifiable bits of feathered artifacts. The direction is by Cecil B. De Mille so don't expect nuance in the acting. When a woman is frightened, she doesn't just scream. She puts her clenched fists against her cheeks, pops her eyeballs, and shrieks in horror -- if she doesn't faint outright.The movie has its merits. It's as colorful as a peacock's tail. The interplay between the characters is old fashioned but classic. We get to see George Washington when he was a mere colonel. And there is a genuinely exciting scene in which Cooper and Goddard escape from the pursuing Indians in a canoe. Their canoe plunges over a waterfall the size of Niagara and their escape is a miracle. At the end, Fort Pitt is besieged by whooping savages, scaling the palisades using canoes as ladders. The white defenders shoot them down by the hundreds, but savages are as many as needle on pine tree, mosquito in swamp, fish in Lake Erie, flea on hound dog, snake on head of Medusa, pigeon on statue, dollar in Trump wallet, fly on picnic table, illegal at border, gun in NRA closet.The climax involves a shoot out between two enemies. "I know you can draw faster than me," says one of them, drawing a line quickly from a thousand and one scenes in cheap Westerns. Well, Fort Pitt is under siege and hopelessly outnumbered. And the outcome? The cavalry arrives and saves the day. Salutem ex mortuis.

Another of Cecil DeMille's series of long, often epic-intended, films. Here, the 'unconquered' refers to the hardy pioneers who carved out settlements in the ever changing westward frontier. Although the dramatized rescue of Fort Pitt from a long siege by an Indian alliance was historically important, its significance to would-be settlers in the Ohio valley is overdrawn. This victory-of-sorts is largely credited to the imaginative use of the corpses of British soldiers recently slain by the Indians some distance from Fort Pitt, positioned in wagons, so as to appear living from a distance(hopefully up wind!), scaring the besieging Indians into scattering. Historically, there was such a relief force, and they did engage a portion of the besieging Indians sent to ambush them at Bushy Run, as mentioned in the film. However, the macabre column of wagons bearing uniformed corpses is merely an excuse for Cooper's character(Chris Holden) to be seen as an imaginative hero in helping to save the fort and its garrison.Of course, DeMille always liked to have clear-cut villains and heroes. We can't really blame the Indians for wanting to snuff out the encroachments of Europeans into their traditional territories. Thus, we need a villain or so among the Europeans to contrast with Cooper's character. This is provided by the persons of Garth(Howard Da Silva) and his henchman Bone. Garth has formed an alliance with the Indians, in which he supplies them with firearms, powder and shot and they supply him with furs to sell. Thus, as long as the threat of Indian attacks scare away potential white settlers, Garth feels that he effectively controls British North America west of the Appalachians. I should add that the official policy of the British crown at this time was to exclude settlers west of the Appalachians, in accordance with Garth's position. However, it was unofficially understood that this was a temporary demarcation, and that the official frontier would gradually move westward. Also, the Indians objected to a British military presence at Fort Pitt, desiring it to be purely a trading post.Holden(Cooper) was aware of Garth's dealings with the Indians at the beginning of the story. Thus, to spite him, he bid against a good- looking indentured servant(Paulette Goddard, as Abby) aboard the ship from England they were all traveling on to Virginia. Holden outbids Garth, but leaves a disappointed Abby to her own devices, as he doesn't want her as a companion when he meets his tidewater fiancé. This turns out to be a bad decision, as he soon learns that, in his absence, his fiancé has married his wealthy stay-at-home brother. Meanwhile, Garth makes use of Holden's failure to sign Abby's indentured servant contract, to nullify his purchase of her. She is taken to a fair on the way to Fort Pitt, where Holden sees her, beginning s series of arguments as to who owns her, that persists until the end of the film. In the meanwhile, Abby is shuttled between Garth, Bones, Holden and even a war party of Seneca, with Boris Karloff playing their grumpy chief. The warring Indians don't become a major part of the story until rather late in the film. In one segment, Holden and 2 companions are trying to find various tribes with some sort of peace offering, but get bushwhacked by some mounted Indians. I much doubt if Indians of this heavily forested region rode horses! I've never before seen them depicted on horses. In escaping from the Seneca, Holden and Abby steal a canoe and go down a river. They go over a high Niagara-like waterfall, which Holden was familiar with. He knew there was a small tree growing near one side, thus aimed the canoe for this side and, miraculously, the two clung to this tree, as their canoe was smashed on the rocks below. The branch then conveniently bent under their weight to a small cave, where they could stand, and inch their way past slippery rocks to safety. This sequence is indicated as having been filmed in the Snake River, Idaho region. Thus, I feel safe in assuming that the wide waterfall depicted is Shoshone Falls: higher than Niagara. Audiences are said to have laughed at this escape artistry, as being implausibly convenient and faked.This film has its pluses, as well as minuses. DeMille keeps the drama rolling, with quite a few main characters, and typically tangled relationships between them. In the latter half, Holden's relationship with fort commander Simeon Ecuyer(Victor Varconi) is complex and interesting. European-raised Varconi speaks with an accent, as presumably did the historic Swiss-raised Ecuyer. Although it's listed as one of the top box office films for '47, judging by the slim number of reviews here, it doesn't seem to have aged well. For one thing, it's too long, in my judgment. Paulette was supposed to be a teenager, often referred to as 'the girl'. But, she was no 'spring chicken'. Her repeated abuse as an indentured servant(slave) and Indian captive smacks of a series of cheesy romance novels. At one point, she's about to be burned at the stake, while savages threaten her. Cooper arrives as a theatrical 'magic man' to achieve her rescue.Cooper had starred for DeMille in 3 previous films. This was Cooper's last film for Paramount, after a 20 year career there...DeMille liked to spread his epics taking place in North America around geographically. Thus, "the Plainsman" is an epic Western. "Northwest Mounted Police" is mainly a 'Canadian'. The prior "Reap the Wild Wind", which costarred Ms. Goddard, was a 'Southern', and the present film is an 'Eastern'.

While Cecil B. DeMille is known for his sweeping (and often rather dull) religious epics, he actually made quite a few historical films about the history of North America such as "Reap the Wild Wind", "The Story of Dr. Wassell" and "Unconquered". While I wouldn't say any of these historical pieces are great, I do find them much more entertaining and less over-the-top than his 'religious' films. But, like his religious epics, these films, too, usually feature large casts, big budgets and long running times.The movie begins with Paulette Goddard being sentenced to death or indentured servitude in America. While choosing between the two fates is easy, it's not easy to understand why Goddard was cast as an English woman--especially since she never sounded the least bit English nor tried to.On board the ship taking her to the Colonies (circa 1763--give or take a few years), she runs afoul of a scoundrel, Howard De Silva--a man who almost always played jerks and heavies until being cast as Ben Franklin in "1776". De Silva insists on buying her and is enraged when nice-guy Gary Cooper purchases her instead. But Cooper doesn't want a slave and soon sets her free--he bought her mostly to tick off De Silva (who he really, really hates). As De Silva is a cheat, liar and rogue, he pays for Goddard anyway and convinces the auctioneer to take payment from BOTH Cooper and him--and giving him Goddard!! Goddard is told that Cooper really didn't buy her--and meant her purchase as a joke and she believes this.In the midst of all this, there is discontent among the Indian tribes of the West (at this point, the West is the Allegheny Mountains--near Pittsburgh). According to this film (and I am sure today the tribes involved would STRONGLY disagree), De Silva stirred up the natives and got them to stop their in-fighting and band together for war against the White settlers. And, for some reason, it's up to Cooper to put a stop to it.Now at this point, the casting is very interesting. In the politically incorrect manner of the day, the leading Indian is played by a Westerner--in this case, Boris Karloff. Now the weirdest thing about this is that Karloff actually passed for an amazingly authentic-looking guy in the film--just like he did in an earlier version of "Last of the Mohicans".The bottom line is can Cooper avert an all-out war? Can be kill the evil De Silva? And, will he get the girl in the end? Considering it's a Hollywood film, you kind of suspect the answer to these questions!!! But, in spite of this predictability, the film is quite entertaining. I also liked SOME of the outdoor scenes--some were quite spectacular. However, and this is my biggest gripe, is that all too often, instead of relying on location shooting it was all too often clearly shot in a sound stage...too often! So, despite the nice color film and acting, the whole thing looked a bit too stagy for my tastes...and sometimes the painted backgrounds are ridiculously bad. But if that's the worst of it, I can live with this.

I must confess I really like Cecil B. DeMille's pseudo historical epics. They are as fascinating to watch as a head on collision between two (2) trains and about as subtle. So lets get this clear if your looking for any sort of historical accuracy, LOOK ELSEWHERE! For hand-wringing political correctness BEGONE! The Colonial Settlers are good, the Indians bad and the British are incompetent, thats it. If you are expecting dialog by way of Hamlet thats not going to be here either. Like Harrison Ford said about George Lucas, "You can write dialog like that, but we can't say it".The fun of this film is to watch it unfold in all it's glorious Three (3) Strip Technicolor and follow the adventures of Paulette Goddard with Gary Cooper as they move from one (1) set piece to another. For thats what this film is as series of set pieces. Or as what some critics of DeMille felt, he did not make motion pictures but moving paintings, though very entertaining ones."The Perils of Paulette" is what the critics referred to this picture upon its original release. I think very few actresses were put upon more then she was in this movie. She was bound (chains, rope or leather), almost whipped, almost burned at the stake, almost drowned going over a waterfall, almost raped, etc. If this had been a pre-code film I am sure we would have seen something like the excesses in 'THE SIGN OF THE CROSS'! It would have been interesting to see what ended up on the cutting room floor that could not make it past the censors. Supposedly during filming she blew up and walked off the set until DeMille could bring things down to an acting (or pain tolerance) level, referring to DeMille as a SADIST! DeMille liked troopers such as Barbara Stanwyck and did not forget this. When Paulette wanted the role of 'Delilah' DeMille told her to take two (2) drop dead pills and effectively ended her career. When the 'UNCONQUERED' was finished CB issued gold medallions to those he felt were real troopers. Boris Karloff got one (1) and the drummer boy (for not flinching when a ball of fire bounces off his drum), not Paulette.When you watch a Cecil B. DeMille film the important thing is not to take it seriously and just enjoy the ride. There are alway some neat things that you can pick up. Though he plays fast and loose with history (most directors do to this day; Michael Moore, Oliver Stone) he gets a lot of details right. The firearms, swords, uniforms even the shape of the British star fort are all right on. There is also excellent attention to detail on the day to day life of this period of history. He did build his films from the ground up and if did not convey historical accuracy gave a good imitation. Sort of a 1940's version of virtual reality. It looks great but is not all there.