Born Reckless ** (1958, Mamie Van Doren, Jeff Richards, Arthur Hunnicutt, Carol Ohmart, Tom Duggan) – Classic Movie Review 9898

‘And Mamie rocks ’em with 7 red-hot reckless tunes!’

Director Howard W Koch’s 1959 Born Reckless stars Mamie Van Doren, Jeff Richards, Arthur Hunnicutt, Carol Ohmart, and Tom Duggan.

Hunnicutt and Duggan play Cool Man and Mark Wilson, the cowboys chasing after blonde sexpot Jackie Adams (Mamie Van Doren), a saloon singing trick rider. But they reckoned without the allure of rodeo champ Kelly Cobb (Jeff Richards), in this modest rodeo action drama with romance and songs.

There are eight of them, in fact, and the pneumatic Van Doren has five, including ‘I’m Just a Nice Sweet Home Type of a Girl’ [‘Home Type Girl’], and if you swallow that you’ll believe the movie. She also performs ‘Something to Dream About’, ‘A Little Longer’, ‘Separate the Men from the Boys’ and ‘Born Reckless’.

Van Doren cuts an attractively flamboyant figure and Hunnicutt gives a warm performance as the hard-drinking hand called Cool Man.

Also in the cast are Tex Williams, Don ‘Red’ Barry [Donald Barry], Nacho Galindo, Allegra Varron, Jim Canino, Karen Welch [Jovon Monteid], Orlando Rodríguez, Jack Lomas [Jack Loomis], Asa Maynor, Jeanne Carmen, and Doye O’Dell.

It is shot at Saugus, California.

Cinematographer Joseph F Biroc replaced Carl Guthrie.

Mamie Van Doren had previously appeared in Koch’s Untamed Youth (1957).

Born Reckless is directed by Howard W Koch, runs 80 minutes, is made by Aubrey Schenck Productions, is released by Warner Bros, is written by Richard H Landau (story and screenplay) and Aubrey Schenck (story), is shot in black and white by Joseph F Biroc, is produced by Aubrey Schenck, is scored by Buddy Bregman, and designed by Jack T Collis.

Koch asked a trainer to deliver ‘one mean bull’ to the set In December 1957. He delivered huge Brahma bull, which broke through a chain link fence and smashed the side of Koch’s new convertible parked nearby.

Films directed by Howard W Koch: Shield for Murder (1954), Big House, USA (1955), Untamed Youth (1957), Bop Girl Goes Calypso (1957), Jungle Heat (1957), The Girl in Black Stockings (1957), Fort Bowie (1958), Violent Road (1958), Frankenstein 1970 (1958), Born Reckless (1958), Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958), The Last Mile (1959), The Gun of Zangara (1960) and Badge 373 (1973).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9898

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