Unconquered *** (1947, Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Howard Da Silva, Boris Karloff, Cecil Kellaway Ward Bond) – Classic Movie Review 7695

Producer-director-showman Cecil B DeMille’s 1947 pioneer picture Unconquered, in which American colonists battle the Indians, is engagingly overblown and amusingly daft. It is shot in glorious Technicolor.

Paulette Goddard plays Abby Hale, a cockney convict transported to the New World in 1764, where she is lusted after by lascivious trader Garth (Howard Da Silva), but bought and set free in Virginia by intrepid militia captain Christopher Holden (Gary Cooper).

Essential highlights of the extremely costly ($5,000,000) and colourful film include Goddard at the stake and in the bath, plus Boris Karloff, aka William Henry Pratt from Camberwell, south London, as a Seneca Indian chief called Guyasuta.

Unconquered proves a worthwhile vintage adventure epic experience, even if only for the great cast of character players and its enormous sense of self worth. The screenplay by Charles Bennett, Frederic M Frank and Jesse Lasky Jr is based on the novel by Neil H Swanson.

Also in the cast are Cecil Kellaway, Ward Bond, Katherine DeMille, Henry Wilcoxon, C Aubrey Smith, Victor Varconi, Virginia Grey, Porter Hall, Mike Mazurki, Gavin Muir, Alan Napier, Robert Warwick, Lloyd Bridges, Raymond Hatton, Clarence Muse, Syd Saylor, Si Jenks, Ray Teal, Chief Thundercloud, Noble Johnson, Jay Silverheels, Lex Barker and Jack Pennick.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7695

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