bsmith5552 "The Wild and the Innocent" was a different sort of western for star Audie Murphy. In it he plays a naïve, innocent semi illiterate mountain man who sees the lights of a big town for the first time.Yancy (Murphy), his Uncle Lije (George Mitchell) and Lije's wife Kiri (Lillian Adams) are on their way to trade their beaver pelts at their usual trading post. Along the way, Uncle Lije is mauled by a bear and is unable to continue. Yancy is forced to carry on alone. The trading post has been burned to the ground as a result of drunken Indians made so by rot gut whiskey sold to them by the unscrupulous Ben Stocker (Strother Martin). Stocker, who is travelling westward with his wife and several children, offers up his eldest daughter, the unkempt Rosalie (Sandra Dee) for half of Yancy's furs. He refuses. But Rosalie leaves her family and attaches herself to Yancy much to his dismay. The two continue on to the nearest town and arrive on the 4th of July amid the celebrations.In town, Yancy gets into an altercation with drover Chip (Peter Breck) and is rescued by the town sheriff (Gilbert Roland) who takes a shine to Rosalie. Yancy meanwhile, takes his furs to the General Store run by Forbes (Jim Backus) who is playing in the town band. Yancy sees Marcy (Joanne Dru), a saloon girl and becomes smitten with her.The Sheriff in the meantime, cleans Rosalie up, dresses her in a fancy gown and begins to wine and dine her while all the time she pines for Yancy. Yancy unaware of the town's feelings, asks Marcy to the town dance. The townsfolk shun her and she is forced to explain the facts of life to the innocent Yancy. She tells him that the Sheriff is the owner of the Dance Hall and that Rosalie is with him.Yancy being a bible thumping sort, sees red and goes and gets his gun and goes after Rosalie and...............................................................................Murphy and Dee make a May-September couple. Murphy's character is supposed to be in his early 20s but in fact was 35 at the time and Dee only 17. Roland on the other hand, was in his 50s at the time making him a somewhat of a dirty old man.The best part of the movie is when Strother Martin is on the screen. His portrayal of the slimy slithering whiskey drummer is classic Martin.Not much action but "The Wild and the Innocent" is an enjoyable little opus nonetheless.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) When you are listening to music,to a classic concert you don't want it to switch to rock'n roll, all of a sudden. It breaks your mood. That's what this film does. It begins as a pleasing romantic western comedy, showing how the innocent Audie Murphy, who lives in the mountains, is going to sell his pelts and gets stuck with an also innocent girl (Sandra Dee). They get to the town of Casper, and are laughed off by the people, except for Joanne Dru and Gilbert Roland. Dru has aged, but is still a beautiful woman, and Murphy falls for her. Roland, who is the sheriff and also owns the saloon where Dru works, falls for Sandra Dee. Well,it ends up with Murphy killing Roland (in self defense), but still too strong for the mood of the film. I know that nowadays Tarantino switches from comedy to drama to whatever..., but that's Tarantino. Apart from that, this is an enjoyable film, with good performances.

Caz1964 I saw this movie once years ago and always thought it had been made in black and white,which shows how long ago it was it was when my parents still owned a black and white set.I do remember really liking it though and had always wanted to see it again,finally i got the chance a couple of days ago and it was as good as i remembered . The Wild And The Innocent is an unusual little western and i cant say its like anything else I've seen before or since.Its a sort of tale about morals and the decisions that people might make in life and how easy it is to make the wrong ones,there is always somebody corrupt around the corner who will prey on those that are naive and will use them for their own advantage. Audie Murphy plays a young fur trapper named Yancy who goes to town reluctantly with a young runaway girl named Rosalie{Sandra Dee},and together they get into all sorts of trouble through their naivety towards town life.He wants to help Rosalie find a job,and then he can go his separate way,but its not that simple.Towards the end of the film he wisens up when he finally realises that the job Rosalie has been offered is more than what the job description says,and he must try to save her before its too late. The Wild And The Innocent is a charmingly romantic film which seems to be sadly forgotten,i think it needs to be shown more as I'm sure there are a lot of viewers out there who would really appreciate this little movie if they only knew about it.As one reviewer on here as commented you need to look at the era it was made in to really appreciate it. I love this movie and the ending makes it all worthwhile,ill give it 9/10

bengleson Odd little films like THE WILD AND THE INNOCENT pop up from time to time and one has to wonder what brains trust bankrolled it. Surely it was the high-roller from the backwoods who yearned to see a family sort of western with just a nasty touch of two older guys, 54 year old Gilbert Roland and 35 year old Audie Murphy, panting after 15 year old Sandra Dee. Or maybe it was some perverse producer who wanted to humiliate Murphy and dress him up as a sort of country bumpkin Stan Laurel lookalike. Still, there's a bit of harmless fun to be had here, especially if you are at a mountain top Drive-in with your best gal and a drop or two of moonshine to keep you company.