Unconquered - Digitally Remastered DVD [1947]

As the title suggests this dvd is really great it is just as I remember it when I first seen it at the movies in 1952.

This typically overwrought Cecil B DeMille offering does not compare well with Raoul Walsh's delicious noir western "Pursued" also filmed in 1947, or Howard Hawks magisterial and very realistic "Red River" made the following year. This film could be considered more a leatherstockings western in the James Fenimore Cooper mould, rather than the traditional cowboys and Indians films more associated with that genre. But it is to that family of films that this one belongs. DeMille learned his trade in the silent era, and a lot of the over the top melodrama from that period is carried over to his sound films. The film is mainly studio bound and relies on sumptuous sets where clearly much of the 5 million dollar budget was spent. It is also notable for the beautiful use of technicolor which brightens an otherwise listless affair.

The film is set in the mid eighteenth century, where Paulette Goddard plays a convicted felon who is given the choice of a free trip to the colonies with no return ticket, or the gallows. She sensibly chooses the trip across the pond, where she is sold as an indentured white slave. (This was apparently based on the true story of a white slave woman sold in early American history) Firstly to the likeable Gary Cooper, and then through dishonest means to the less likeable Howard Da Silva. It then soon becomes clear that Da Silva is fermenting an Indian uprising which frontiersman Cooper aims to stop. Will Cooper be able to prevent a massacre on the frontier, and will he get his girl?

When this film first came out it was nicknamed "The Perils of Paulette", which is very apt given what poor old Paulette Goddard has to endure in the film. Not only sold as a slave with the ever present threat of rape hanging over her, but she is also threatened with whipping and burning at the stake. In one scene very reminiscent of the original Pauline she even shoots over Niagra Falls in a canoe. She manages to make Evil Kneival look like a big woosy. Paulette also struts about in varying states of undress, including a trademark DeMille bathtub scene, presumably to please the male punters at the time. All very nice but not enough to lift the film! Cooper made his fourth and last appearance for DeMille in this film, giving his usual solid performance. Cooper is given ample support from Ward Bond and ex wrestler Mike Mazurki who adds his considerable physical presence to proceedings. A very youthful looking Lloyd Bridges also has an early screen appearance. The very English Boris Karloff plays a scheming Indian chief. Ever the perfectionist Karloff even went to the trouble of learning some of the Seneca dialect. It was nice to see the Highlanders come to the rescue in one scene with bagpipes playing, and also to hear the Salter clan get a nice mention. You will need to watch the film for that. The film is digitally remastered and has a nice crisp picture, although truth be known there was not a lot wrong with it before. The film runs for a tiresome 146 minutes, which for such dull fodder is way too long. This is very average fare that has not dated very well.