Trailer—Unconquered

Unconquered

I find all the criticism of the movie amusing! Lack of accents, the choice of Paulette Goddard, etc., you folks are missing the point. It is a great movie in the tradition of all great movies, simply entertaining! I watched this as a kid in the 50's and still enjoy the story of Fort Pitt at the edge of the end of civilization. The story was accentuated by the fact I had an uncle living in Pittsburgh and every time I visited him the though of Indians, the frontier and colonists came to the forefront of my mind. Think Indiana Jones, sit back with your popcorn and simply enjoy the movie!

If you hate political correctness, you may love, "Unconquered." This film, from 1947, doesn't have the contemporarily familiar themes of evil settlers, or land thieves. In fact, the Indians are the bad guys in this one. The Indians, aided by a corrupt Englishman, have decided to wipe out white settlers in a race war. Gary Cooper is quick to the rescue. All the while he attempts to regain his bond slave, escape the gallows for treason, and fight his nemesis who happens to be the Indians' best friend. This is a strong film.

Cecil B. DeMille directed a film with a cast of all time giants of the movie screen, Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Boris Karloff, Ward Bond and even Katherine DeMille. However, these great actors were not able to make this film a success because of the screenplay by Charles Bennett. In 1763 in colonial America, Martin Garth(howard Da Silva), a trader, secretly trades guns to the Indians in order to stop the westward movement of settlers, Garth tries to purchase young Abby Hale (Paulette Goddard), a British servant for his own interests, but a Virginia Capt. Christopher Holden(Gary Cooper), outbids the trader and then frees her. Garth encourages an Indian rebellion on Fort Pitt led by Chief Guyasuta (Boris Karloff). This picture gets very boring and pointless. Karloff acts perfectly as an Indian and you can hardly hear his lisp or British accent!

I saw this film in the theater when I was nine. All I and my contemporaries cared about was shooting and dying. Years later I wondered why Colonel Bouquet spoke accented English. Some mild research turned up the fact that Colonel wa an historic figure. Bouquet was a Swiss mercenary who commanded troops for the Brits. Who ever expected that level of hitoricity from De Mille. I leave to others to research whether the flag over the british fort was correct.