La reine du rodéo

Kelly Cobb (Jeff Richards) is a cowboy who travels the rodeo circuit. This All-American hunk might resemble Clark Kent, but he knows his way around the ladies. Jackie Adams (Mamie Van Doren) is a trick rider who finds time to sing in the dance halls of the cow-towns on the tour. With her platinum hair and her voluptuous figure, she attracts men even when she is not trying--frequently requiring Kelly to rescue her.

With its rock and roll music and its obligatory fistfights, "Born Reckless" might be another vehicle for Elvis Presley. Although most of the music is performed by someone "on stage", note that Van Doren sings one ballad (backed by an orchestra and choir) on a front porch, lamenting the fact that it's difficult to be patient when a girl is waiting for her man to settle down. So, this film has some elements of a musical.

It also has rodeo stock footage, a lame ending, and a plot as predictable as a poolside fight. Ostensibly it's a story about dreams for the future, but it's mostly a chance for viewers to ogle the two stars. The story is not compelling, but--surprisingly--Mamie's voice sounds pretty good in a couple of her numbers.

A typical rodeo film. fistfights, bronc riding. ten gallon hats. Stars mamie Van Doren and Jeff Richards. Van Doren has a VERY interesting bio on imdb, if you have a couple minutes... makes for a fun read. pretty x-rated. Richards had a much quieter life; had started as a baseball player, but moved into acting after getting an injury. Some songs sung in the nightclubs. maybe some of them were actually sung by VanDoren. Arthur Hunnicutt is the sidekick. Hunnicutt was oscar nominated for Big Sky... always played the western character, and usually with the big beard. When Kelly (Richards) meets interloper Liz (Carol Ohmart), things get tense. Will that put an end to Jackie? (VanDoren) This Warner Brothers film has many similarities to UA's The Misfits (Gable, Monroe), but Reckless was first! Misfits would come a couple years later, with bigger stars, but the stories are almost the same. Reckless written by Richard Landau... had started out by writing short documentaries; worked up to films and then television series. little bits and pieces of various shows. Directed by Howard Koch; had some pretty big achievments in his life: was president of the Academy, was head of production at Paramount Studios, and was VP of Sinatra Enterprises. not a bad life!

This is a pretty good feature about some rodeo competitors and its best assets are a typically amusing hayseed performance by Arthur Hunnicutt, some sharp black and white rodeo competition photography by Joseph Biroc and Mamie van Doren's shiny blouse.

A good script allows the actors to give good performances, including Miss van Doren, who was often used as little more than a peroxide job and a large, pointy bra. A sense of anomie suffuses the production as everyone grabs a few happy moments in a tough, dying world. The following year's THE MISFITS, starring another pneumatic platinum blonde is acclaimed, but this unassuming second feature makes the same points and has more range.

I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining Born Reckless was. The on screen chemistry between lead actor Jeff Richards and Mamie Van Doren was obvious. The film reminded me a bit of the earlier 1956 film Bus Stop which also starred three main characters being the sex symbol Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, and the veteran actor Arthur O'Connell. In Born Reckless the resemblance of the three main stars being Jeff Richards, Mamie Van Doren and veteran actor Arthur Hunnicutt to the earlier successful film Bus Stop was no mere coincidence.

Mamie Van Doren was not only nice eye candy to watch but she could really sing and she showed us how good her singing lungs actually were by singing several entertaining numbers throughout this romantic musical. There certainly was a lot of teasing going on between Jeff Richards and Mamie Van Doren but we can all relate to our significant others appearing jealous from time to time now can't we?

Jeff Richards is a rodeo star named Kelly Cobb trying to make just enough stake money to settle down and purchase his own ranch and raise cattle but Mamie Van Doren who plays Jackie Adams one of Kelly's love interests is worried that Kelly will stay in the rodeo game too long and end up a cripple as other rodeo stars had not known when enough was enough.

This is a fun movie that is well acted, with some entertaining tunes, and of course with Mamie Van Doren being the one belting out the hit songs, who wouldn't enjoy this film? I give it a 7 out of 10 IMDB rating. I will be looking to watch it again on TCM sometime soon too!

Mamie has about five good Country song and dance numbers while worrying about her man, Kelly Cobb, a rodeo champ who has been drawn into the clutches of another woman (Carol Ohmart) Bland and polished with the big studio budget as they come. It's curious why an A grade studio like Warner Brothers decided to run with such a slim B grade rodeo opera. Without James Dean, they were no doubt trying to repeat Fox's success with Marilyn Monroe. Nice rodeo riding tricks help pad the time of a predictable show with a rather tame story book ending. One rock n roll number might have you laughing quite a lot..