La paloma y el gavilán

This is a good example of why older Westerns, pretty much before 1965, were grittier and more credible than the ones that showed modern day dorks in the old West.

The movie seems light hearted, yet mixes in the grit just the way it fits in real life, in ways uncomfortable. Audie Murphy plays a very real character, a backwoods nineteenth century trapper who ventures into the big city. His "good eyesight" becomes critical as the film continues. Indeed, good eyesight is something of great value in the old West, and it makes the two main male characters what they are.

The supporting characters are also very believable for nineteenth century characters. A great diversion from the usual garbage that made you think more that the actors were playing video games off set. Fortunately, there has been a resurgence of the reality and grit that made the fifties great.

The "mood" comes across very clear and works great. The old West city struggles between civilization and savagery, as we see in the way the store owner played by Jim Backus behaves. The store owner depicts pretty much the status quo of the town.

This film has a lot going for it, particularly in believable character motivation.

Audie Murphy stretched his youthful appearance once too often in doing The Wild and The Innocent. Neither he or Sandra Dee are all that wild, but brother are they innocent enough. If this were done today, both probably would have had sex scenes with Joanne Dru and Gilbert Roland.

It's hard to believe such folks exist, but Murphy plays a mountain trapper, probably one of the last of his kind in the rugged Wyoming Rockies. Normally he goes to a trading post to sell his furs, but as he gets there the trading post has been burned down because some peckerwood played by Strother Martin sold some moonshine to the Indians with predictable results.

Murphy's got to take his furs to Casper and this is first time in the big city. God only knows what he would have thought of Chicago or New York if Casper, Wyoming is defined as a city. Strother Martin leaves his daughter, young Sandra Dee with Murphy and both go to Casper.

Which is having a Fourth of July celebration. Let's say that both Murphy and Dee get a big city education from Dru and Roland.

The characters are a bit too much to swallow. Murphy's education may be lacking, but I can't believe he didn't learn a bit about the birds and the bees living in the wild. In fact country folk probably have a far more relaxed attitude about sex as they see it in the livestock they raise.

Gilbert Roland is one of my favorite character actors, I love him in anything and another good performance here is Peter Breck as a cowboy tough who Murphy deals with quite expeditiously.

Still Murphy and Dee look like one very odd couple.

Anything with Audie Murphy in it is worth a look-see so right there and then it is worth watching for that. We get a glimpse of the Wild West only more tamed but still a ways to go with people in town consisting of two factions; the respectable and the not so respectable. True to life depicting the hard ship and the rewards of living on the frontier in the later stages of its development toward becoming more civilized. Murphy plays a character that is peaceful, has virtue and wants to do right and hurt no one and it works but we are also pleased to find out he has boundaries too. As usual, we got horses, mules, trappers, Indians, gun-play, good guys, bad guys and a love interest. Some tender scenes with some mild violence and of course a happy ending to make it all go down just right. As Westerns go, this is not a stand-out or even a good word of mouth movie but an okay time spent if you do watch. Get a sandwich, a drink and settle in.

The movie emphasizes that innocents can get into a lot of trouble in the city. The movie also makes a good statement about people being too lenient in accepting bad choices. When given a chance to improve their lives, some people will always accept the status quo instead of changing. Sandra Dee is a delight and Audie Murphy gives a great performance as someone who finally gets his eyes open to reality in time to save the girl. I truly enjoyed it and wished that they would release it on video.

Solid acting. Hooked from the first scene. C'mon man. It's a sweet story. If you hate this, then I know who you are.