Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Audie Murphy never took an Oscar home, but he was an adequate actor. Some roles gave him more leeway to experiment, while others confined him to formulaic roles. Nevertheless, Murphy is thoroughly convincing as a wet-behind-the-ears young man named Yancy who has spent his entire life in the mountains with his trapper uncle and Native American wife. A rugged frontiersman and a crack shot with a rifle, he knows nothing about social customs. He knows nothing about women, prostitution, and little about the outside world. Co-writer & director Jack Sher and "Joe Butterfly" scenarist Sy Gomberg have fashioned a solid, unpretentious, offbeat western that happily doesn't cast Murphy as a gunfighter. Instead, he plays a man out of touch with reality when he get his first taste of city life on the frontier. Murphy does a good job of playing a naïve young man. "The Wild and the Innocent" isn't a town tamer western, a cavalry western, a revenge oater, or a wagon train chronicle. This Universal-International release could qualify as a coming-of-age saga. After Yancy's uncle is attacked by a bear one evening, Yancy must ride out by himself to sell their pelts. The owner of the General Store in the nearest town is leaving when Yancy catches him and he recommends that Yancy sell his furs in Casper. This means that he must ride two extra days. He encounters a liquor salesman, Ben Stocker (Strother Martin of "Cool Hand Luke"), when he is told to go to Casper. Stocker is a low-down, no-account, scoundrel, and he is responsible for driving the General Store manager away. Stocker has a good-looking daughter, Rosalie (Sandra Dee of "Gidget," who he tries to pawn off on Yancy. Yancy refuses all of Stocker's proposals, but Rosalie slips away from her terrible father. She wants to ride with Yancy and get herself a job in Casper. Initially, Yancy wants nothing to do with her, but eventually he lets her join him. Rosalie is as naïve about life as Yancy. When the two arrive in Casper, and they learn some important lessons about life and love. The town of Casper is ruled by the Town Marshal, Paul (Gilbert Roland of "The Bad and the Beautiful"), who owns and operates a bordello. He learns about Yancy's arrival after a rowdy cowpoke, Chip (Peter Breck of "Shock Corridor"), tries to rough him up, and Yancy baptizes Chip in a horse trough. Chip sloshes up out of the horse trough and tries to shoot Yancy, but his gun is too wet to fire. These two have a running feud throughout "The Wild and the Innocent" and they clash later during a dance on Independence Day. Chip challenges Yancy to a gunfight, but Yancy prefers to bodily attack Chip. Incredibly, Yancy stomps on Chip's hand and breaks it when the young galoot tries to shoot him. Meantime, Paul takes an interest in Rosalie and wants her all to himself. Yancy lays his eyes on a prostitute, Marcy (Joanne Dru of "Red River"), and he becomes infatuated with her. They get together, but Yancy wants her, but he must learn the hard way about the social stigma surrounding prostitution. Basically, Yancy is a man of considerable resource but no guile. While all this is going on, Rosalie gets a job in a whore house, but she doesn't want to work there. Eventually, Paul and Yancy clash. Yancy learns that Paul made the citizens breathe easier after he took over the duties of town marshal. Yancy topples Paul from power as the town boss, decides to leave Casper, and finds himself pursued by Rosalie. The opening and ending scenes serve as book markers. Jack Sher does a solid job of staging the bullet-riddled action. "The Wild and the Innocent" ranks as one of Murphy's better movies.

The title sounds like it might have been one of those exploitation flicks from the Thirties or Forties. In a way, I guess the picture delivers a bit on that idea if you think about it. A hillbilly gal (Sandra Dee) ditches her thieving father (Strother Martin) and siblings and hitches her star to Yancy Hawks (Audie Murphy), but due to the naiveté of both, she winds up as a dance hall saloon gal. This could have been a real downer if she ever actually went to work, but fortunately Yancy made the save just in time.Anyone growing up during the era will recall Sandra Dee as a teenage heartthrob and I imagine she fluttered a few when this picture came out. Ben Stocker (Martin) had it right when he said she'd be real purty once you cleaned her up, but gee, I thought she was worth more than a couple of furs. Murphy's character had one of the best lines in the story when he told old Ben that "the Lord sure made a mistake lettin' people like you have children". Ouch! For his part, Yancy initially had his eye out for saloon gal Marcy Howard (Joanne Dru), but I couldn't understand why he couldn't put two and two together when he found her passed out among the ferns. Yancy was a bumpkin in more ways than one, and even though I can imagine that there once might have been people as clueless as he was, it still had a hard time translating on screen.In it's own way, the story had a nice, happy ending if you can get past the idea of thirty five year old Murphy finally hooking up with a teenager half his age. But it wasn't as ridiculous as Sheriff Paul (Gilbert Roland) putting the move on her himself, I'm glad the picture didn't go too far in that direction. You know, I had to wonder what the town folk must have really thought about their saloon owner lawman. Right after Yancy shot the sheriff (sounds like a good idea for a song), one of the citizens says to Yancy, "That was great shootin', fella". Not too much sympathy there for a guy who cleaned up the whole town.

It could be that I'm a hopeless romantic at heart, but I really enjoyed this little film. I have searched far and wide for a copy for my own personal library. I have not given up on my search. One has to remember the era this movie was released in and true appreciation can then be determined. Can anyone enlighten me as to the studio that released this film so that I can have them check their archives for consumer availability? I am a real Audie Murphy fan and as such enjoy all the movies he appeared in during his short life. I watch each time "To Hell and Back" is shown. I'd throughly enjoy seeing this movie again if for no other reason than to make my own tape of it - that shows how much I liked it!

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.