Somewhere in the mountains of Wyoming, Yancy Hawks (Audie Murphy) lives with his uncle and his uncle's wife. Trappers, the two men have been in the mountains for years; in fact, Yancy's never been out of them and in a town before. After his uncle is mauled by a bear and needs to be still in order to recuperate, Yancy is sent on to the trading post to get needed supplies. To his dismay, he discovers that the trading post has been closed and in order to sell his pelts and purchase what he needs, he will have to go into the big city---to the general store in Casper.
Enroute to the "big city," Yancy comes across a man (Strother Martin) traveling westward with a whole passel of kids. Saying she would make a good wife, the man offers to trade his daughter, Rosalie (Sandra Dee), for half of Yancy's furs. Insisting that he would have to love a woman in order to marry her, Yancy declines the man's offer and continues on his way.
Not long afterwards, the dirty, unkempt Rosalie, who has run away from her pa, re-enters Yancy's life. Sure that her father would have traded her to the first man who would take her, she chose to strike out on her own. Since she figures she'll be able to find a job in the big city, and since that is Yancy's destination, Rosalie requests that he take her with him. Although he doesn't really want the responsibility of the girl, Yancy agrees, and two very innocent, naive souls soon have their first-ever taste of city life.
The city's 4th of July celebration is in full-swing, so after cleaning up and getting some new clothes, both Yancy and Rosalie enjoy a night on the town. Not knowing exactly what a dance hall girl is, Yancy is soon quite smitten with one of them (Joanne Dru). Meanwhile, Rosalie, who is in love with Yancy and yearns for him to notice her, is romanced by the town's sheriff (Gilbert Roland) and offered a job at the dance hall. She's unsettled about the type of gown she must wear and the kind of work she's expected to do, but since she has to support herself, what choice does she have?
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Both Yancy and Rosalie are so innocent that the sheriff makes the comment that one doesn't know the kind of world he's in and the other doesn't even know she's pretty. Will these two innocents get taken for a ride in the big city? Will Yancy realize Rosalie loves him? Or will he keep his attentions on the dance hall girl? And what will Yancy do when he discovers Rosalie will soon be part of the dance hall establishment? How it all plays out is the balance of this very delightful film.
Although I'm calling this 3-stars, it's more like 3.5---it's cute, fun, sweet, totally charming, and somewhere between "like it" and "really like it" for me. There are a few parts which caused me to giggle like crazy. First, when new clothes are bought for Rosalie---one of the items is a corset, and she has no idea what it is, nor does Yancy. She tells him that she was informed it was to "hold her up." Yancy's response, "Hold you up where?" was quite comical. Later, after she had donned her new gown over the corset, Yancy told her to take the corset off, that it made her bulge in places. (Yes, the innocence of those statements is laughable to us today, but that is part of the film's charm.)
Besides the delightfully winsome storyline, it's fun seeing Sandra Dee in this change-of-pace role. I think she did a great job. The Big Valley's Peter Breck portrays one of the rowdy, drunken cowpokes who wants to bully the ill-equipped-for-city-life mountain man. Breck seemed totally in character, as on The Big Valley, he is usually the first one of the Barkley brothers to get into a scuffle. Audie Murphy is perfect in this role; in fact, his character is much how I think of him in real life---an unsophisticated, small-town guy, able to stand right there with the best of them. Oh, and it must be mentioned that Audie is incredibly handsome at this point in his career! While he was in his mid-30's here, his naturally youthful looks allowed him to believably portray a character who was probably supposed to be in his late teens. (Audie was 17 years older than Sandra Dee, and, quite honestly, that fact didn't even occur to me until I was doing this post and realized her birth year---she actually could have passed for early 20's here. And since Audie looked younger than his years, their pairing worked.)
The movie is corny, predictable, and (of course) very dated, but it's also charming, sweet, and unpretentious. Put on your 1950's lenses, sit back, and enjoy a trip back to a more innocent time.
While not out on DVD or on the TCM schedule anytime soon, The Wild and the Innocent is available in its entirety on YouTube. It's in four 20-minute parts, and although it's always a bit of a pain to watch in parts, it's definitely better than nothing. I do hope you get a chance to see this.
Happy viewing!
NOTE: All photos in this post were obtained from the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Website (HERE)