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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.

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.

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.

An Audie Murphy western from 1959. Murphy plays a fur trapping rube sent by his family into town to ply his wares. On his journey he comes in contact w/a family of bumpkins led by a scheming father (Strother Martin) out to steal his furs but when caught, he offers up his daughter played by Sandra Dee. Once in town, Murphy, who prides himself on his decency & book smarts, finds himself constantly undermined by drunk cowboys, dance hall ladies & even the sheriff who provides his unwelcome companion to become the newest member of the establishment he owns. Running a slim ninety minutes or so, this intriguing tale wins many points for taking its time carving out the episodic nature of this story as our hero gains wisdom & experience in the face of the casual barbarity of the town's denizens. One of Murphy's best. Also starring Jim Backus (Thurston Howell the 3rd from Gilligan's Island) who plays the general store owner who is at constant odds w/his wife.

Quite possibly the most bizarre mainstream Hollywood feature film of all time, "The Wild and the Innocent" can in part be explained as another thrown together assembly line vehicle for Audie Murphy, green lighted without a reality check. As an actor Murphy is underrated in large part because he churned out countless films that each year could range from a quality western like "The Unforgiven" (1960) to something absolutely horrible like "Battle at Bloody Beach" (1961).

But things got interesting when the producers cast breakout teen sensation Sandra Dee in the role of mountain waif Rosalie Stocker. It is now commonly accepted that Dee's mother added two years to her age when she started out as a young model in New York. She was actually born in April 1944 and this film was shot in November 1958 so you basically have a precocious 9th grader playing a femme fatale in a triangle with one actor in his mid 30's and another whose leading man days included silent features with Clara Bow. But the oddest thing is that despite the need for considerable suspension of disbelief about many things in this screenplay, Dee successfully sells her character as the motivating force for the entire story. Go figure.

By 1958 Dee had already made six feature films and had long been exhibiting anorexic tendencies to which many attributed her incredibly youthful appearance rather than suspecting her actual age. She had considerable natural talent and took direction well but had clearly been acting in all those prior roles. Her performances were pleasingly underplayed until "Gidget" earlier in 1958 where she successfully broke out and demonstrated her considerable range.

But how to play Rosalie Stocker was a mystery and Jack Sher was basically a writer who had only directed two films and was inexperienced giving acting for the camera direction. So I suspect that Dee's Rosalie was pretty much a natural portrayal with Sandra Dee basically just playing Sandra Dee. Yet not only does it work but it is the reason for seeking out the film.

Dee's physical fragility and tentativeness make it onto the screen, exactly the qualities that sell Rosalie. When she is poured into sexy outfits she is visibly uncomfortable with the effect she is having on men. The contrast is incredible. To a viewer she becomes the "Innocent" in the title and is believable as the object of desire and the main motivation to men seeking redemption.