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.

Anything with Audie Murphy in it is worth a look-see so right there and then it is worth watching for that. We get a glimpse of the Wild West only more tamed but still a ways to go with people in town consisting of two factions; the respectable and the not so respectable. True to life depicting the hard ship and the rewards of living on the frontier in the later stages of its development toward becoming more civilized. Murphy plays a character that is peaceful, has virtue and wants to do right and hurt no one and it works but we are also pleased to find out he has boundaries too. As usual, we got horses, mules, trappers, Indians, gun-play, good guys, bad guys and a love interest. Some tender scenes with some mild violence and of course a happy ending to make it all go down just right. As Westerns go, this is not a stand-out or even a good word of mouth movie but an okay time spent if you do watch. Get a sandwich, a drink and settle in.

It's been sometime since I have seen this little cinematic gem. My take on it was that it was somewhat reminiscent of films like "Destry Rides Again" and "The Far Country", in so far as,the hero appears to be somewhat naive and innocent and caught in a love triangle. Murphy not only survives amorous flirtations of a conniving saloon girl, but overcomes various obstacles and intimidation's set fourth by a villainous Sheriff or legal authority. Audie Murphy does an admirable job as a naive back woodsman who winds up inadvertently sheltering an orphaned country girl(Sandra Dee). Beautiful Joanne Dru portrays the predictable saloon "bad" girl turned "good" girl that tries to manipulate Murphy to do the evil sheriff's (Gilbert Roland)bidding. Murphy finally realizes Roland's evil intentions toward Sandra Dee and the inevitable showdown occurs. Western fans have seen all this before, but if you are a true fan of western movies .... you go with the flow and enjoy every moment as the story unfolds. The one thing that a lot of folks don't realize about this film is the fact that it offers an interesting piece of movie trivia .... the mule featured in the film is just as famous as the featured stars (Murphy, Dee, Roland and Dru). Who was that famous mule anyway? None other than Donald O'Connor's old co-star - Francis "the talking mule". Does that surprise you? It shouldn't .... here is another example of "four legged trivia" ... What famous horse did Olivia DeHaviland (Maid Marion) ride in "The Adventures Of Robin Hood"? Would you believe a horse that was later sold to a cowboy star named Roy Rogers? You got it .... that horse was named Trigger!

I saw this movie once years ago and always thought it had been made in black and white,which shows how long ago it was it was when my parents still owned a black and white set.I do remember really liking it though and had always wanted to see it again,finally i got the chance a couple of days ago and it was as good as i remembered . The Wild And The Innocent is an unusual little western and i cant say its like anything else I've seen before or since.Its a sort of tale about morals and the decisions that people might make in life and how easy it is to make the wrong ones,there is always somebody corrupt around the corner who will prey on those that are naive and will use them for their own advantage. Audie Murphy plays a young fur trapper named Yancy who goes to town reluctantly with a young runaway girl named Rosalie{Sandra Dee},and together they get into all sorts of trouble through their naivety towards town life.He wants to help Rosalie find a job,and then he can go his separate way,but its not that simple.Towards the end of the film he wisens up when he finally realises that the job Rosalie has been offered is more than what the job description says,and he must try to save her before its too late. The Wild And The Innocent is a charmingly romantic film which seems to be sadly forgotten,i think it needs to be shown more as I'm sure there are a lot of viewers out there who would really appreciate this little movie if they only knew about it.As one reviewer on here as commented you need to look at the era it was made in to really appreciate it. I love this movie and the ending makes it all worthwhile,ill give it 9/10