Another of Cecil DeMille's series of long, often epic-intended, films. Here, the 'unconquered' refers to the hardy pioneers who carved out settlements in the ever changing westward frontier. Although the dramatized rescue of Fort Pitt from a long siege by an Indian alliance was historically important, its significance to would-be settlers in the Ohio valley is overdrawn. This victory-of-sorts is largely credited to the imaginative use of the corpses of British soldiers recently slain by the Indians some distance from Fort Pitt, positioned in wagons, so as to appear living from a distance(hopefully up wind!), scaring the besieging Indians into scattering. Historically, there was such a relief force, and they did engage a portion of the besieging Indians sent to ambush them at Bushy Run, as mentioned in the film. However, the macabre column of wagons bearing uniformed corpses is merely an excuse for Cooper's character(Chris Holden) to be seen as an imaginative hero in helping to save the fort and its garrison.Of course, DeMille always liked to have clear-cut villains and heroes. We can't really blame the Indians for wanting to snuff out the encroachments of Europeans into their traditional territories. Thus, we need a villain or so among the Europeans to contrast with Cooper's character. This is provided by the persons of Garth(Howard Da Silva) and his henchman Bone. Garth has formed an alliance with the Indians, in which he supplies them with firearms, powder and shot and they supply him with furs to sell. Thus, as long as the threat of Indian attacks scare away potential white settlers, Garth feels that he effectively controls British North America west of the Appalachians. I should add that the official policy of the British crown at this time was to exclude settlers west of the Appalachians, in accordance with Garth's position. However, it was unofficially understood that this was a temporary demarcation, and that the official frontier would gradually move westward. Also, the Indians objected to a British military presence at Fort Pitt, desiring it to be purely a trading post.Holden(Cooper) was aware of Garth's dealings with the Indians at the beginning of the story. Thus, to spite him, he bid against a good- looking indentured servant(Paulette Goddard, as Abby) aboard the ship from England they were all traveling on to Virginia. Holden outbids Garth, but leaves a disappointed Abby to her own devices, as he doesn't want her as a companion when he meets his tidewater fiancé. This turns out to be a bad decision, as he soon learns that, in his absence, his fiancé has married his wealthy stay-at-home brother. Meanwhile, Garth makes use of Holden's failure to sign Abby's indentured servant contract, to nullify his purchase of her. She is taken to a fair on the way to Fort Pitt, where Holden sees her, beginning s series of arguments as to who owns her, that persists until the end of the film. In the meanwhile, Abby is shuttled between Garth, Bones, Holden and even a war party of Seneca, with Boris Karloff playing their grumpy chief. The warring Indians don't become a major part of the story until rather late in the film. In one segment, Holden and 2 companions are trying to find various tribes with some sort of peace offering, but get bushwhacked by some mounted Indians. I much doubt if Indians of this heavily forested region rode horses! I've never before seen them depicted on horses. In escaping from the Seneca, Holden and Abby steal a canoe and go down a river. They go over a high Niagara-like waterfall, which Holden was familiar with. He knew there was a small tree growing near one side, thus aimed the canoe for this side and, miraculously, the two clung to this tree, as their canoe was smashed on the rocks below. The branch then conveniently bent under their weight to a small cave, where they could stand, and inch their way past slippery rocks to safety. This sequence is indicated as having been filmed in the Snake River, Idaho region. Thus, I feel safe in assuming that the wide waterfall depicted is Shoshone Falls: higher than Niagara. Audiences are said to have laughed at this escape artistry, as being implausibly convenient and faked.This film has its pluses, as well as minuses. DeMille keeps the drama rolling, with quite a few main characters, and typically tangled relationships between them. In the latter half, Holden's relationship with fort commander Simeon Ecuyer(Victor Varconi) is complex and interesting. European-raised Varconi speaks with an accent, as presumably did the historic Swiss-raised Ecuyer. Although it's listed as one of the top box office films for '47, judging by the slim number of reviews here, it doesn't seem to have aged well. For one thing, it's too long, in my judgment. Paulette was supposed to be a teenager, often referred to as 'the girl'. But, she was no 'spring chicken'. Her repeated abuse as an indentured servant(slave) and Indian captive smacks of a series of cheesy romance novels. At one point, she's about to be burned at the stake, while savages threaten her. Cooper arrives as a theatrical 'magic man' to achieve her rescue.Cooper had starred for DeMille in 3 previous films. This was Cooper's last film for Paramount, after a 20 year career there...DeMille liked to spread his epics taking place in North America around geographically. Thus, "the Plainsman" is an epic Western. "Northwest Mounted Police" is mainly a 'Canadian'. The prior "Reap the Wild Wind", which costarred Ms. Goddard, was a 'Southern', and the present film is an 'Eastern'.

While Cecil B. DeMille is known for his sweeping (and often rather dull) religious epics, he actually made quite a few historical films about the history of North America such as "Reap the Wild Wind", "The Story of Dr. Wassell" and "Unconquered". While I wouldn't say any of these historical pieces are great, I do find them much more entertaining and less over-the-top than his 'religious' films. But, like his religious epics, these films, too, usually feature large casts, big budgets and long running times.The movie begins with Paulette Goddard being sentenced to death or indentured servitude in America. While choosing between the two fates is easy, it's not easy to understand why Goddard was cast as an English woman--especially since she never sounded the least bit English nor tried to.On board the ship taking her to the Colonies (circa 1763--give or take a few years), she runs afoul of a scoundrel, Howard De Silva--a man who almost always played jerks and heavies until being cast as Ben Franklin in "1776". De Silva insists on buying her and is enraged when nice-guy Gary Cooper purchases her instead. But Cooper doesn't want a slave and soon sets her free--he bought her mostly to tick off De Silva (who he really, really hates). As De Silva is a cheat, liar and rogue, he pays for Goddard anyway and convinces the auctioneer to take payment from BOTH Cooper and him--and giving him Goddard!! Goddard is told that Cooper really didn't buy her--and meant her purchase as a joke and she believes this.In the midst of all this, there is discontent among the Indian tribes of the West (at this point, the West is the Allegheny Mountains--near Pittsburgh). According to this film (and I am sure today the tribes involved would STRONGLY disagree), De Silva stirred up the natives and got them to stop their in-fighting and band together for war against the White settlers. And, for some reason, it's up to Cooper to put a stop to it.Now at this point, the casting is very interesting. In the politically incorrect manner of the day, the leading Indian is played by a Westerner--in this case, Boris Karloff. Now the weirdest thing about this is that Karloff actually passed for an amazingly authentic-looking guy in the film--just like he did in an earlier version of "Last of the Mohicans".The bottom line is can Cooper avert an all-out war? Can be kill the evil De Silva? And, will he get the girl in the end? Considering it's a Hollywood film, you kind of suspect the answer to these questions!!! But, in spite of this predictability, the film is quite entertaining. I also liked SOME of the outdoor scenes--some were quite spectacular. However, and this is my biggest gripe, is that all too often, instead of relying on location shooting it was all too often clearly shot in a sound stage...too often! So, despite the nice color film and acting, the whole thing looked a bit too stagy for my tastes...and sometimes the painted backgrounds are ridiculously bad. But if that's the worst of it, I can live with this.

Unconquered is a milestone in the career of Gary Cooper. It was the last of four films he did for Cecil B. DeMille and his last featured role during his stay with the Paramount studio. I'd have to say that Coop went out with an expensive bang. The film illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of a DeMille project. The color photography by Ray Rennahan is first rate, the eye for historical detail about the colonial period in terms of costumes and sets superb. The spectacle is only as DeMille could create it. Yet he could make such an elementary mistake by having the Seneca Indians pursue Gary Cooper on horseback. It was only the plains Indian tribes west of the Mississippi that used horses. But the public wanted to see Indians on horses, they were used to seeing Indians on horses. So DeMille gave them what they wanted. DeMille himself in his autobiography confessed that he was not satisfied with the showdown of hero Gary Cooper and chief villain Howard DaSilva. He felt it was anti-climatic. I wish he had done it a bit better myself.The film is based on a historical novel The Judas Tree by Neil Swanson who also wrote Allegany Uprising about the same colonial period. The story takes place with the background of the uprising by Pontiac who was trying to unite all the Indian tribes and keep the whites on the east side of the Appalachian mountains. Paulette Goddard is a woman condemned to the gallows in London and is given a choice to go to the colonies as a bond servant. Of course she takes it and catches the eye of both Cooper and DaSilva. That's a common DeMille characteristic in his films, two men in heat over the leading lady. DaSilva is a trader with the Indians and his reasons for wanting to keep whites out of the western territories is so he can keep a monopoly of the fur trade. He's quite ruthless in his methods, even marrying the daughter of Chief Boris Karloff of the Senecas played by Katherine DeMille. Karloff's Senecas are allied with the Pontiac Confederation and their job is to attack Fort Pitt and the town it shields, the little village of Pittsburgh.Such events as the siege of Fort Pitt and the massacre at Venango are interwoven in the lives of Cooper and Goddard. He leaves Fort Pitt to rescue her and they both have quite a time escaping from the Senecas. The scene that is most talked about here is our hero and heroine going over Niagara Falls in a canoe chased in canoes by pursuing Senecas. What's most interesting about it is that it isn't done on location. Living up here for the past 10 years and seeing it as a kid, I can tell you the Falls doesn't look as primeval in real life as DeMille shows you how it looked in 1763. Yet even today it's quite a breathtaking site to see our intrepid two take the plunge.Back in 1947 we certainly weren't terribly concerned about presenting the Indian point of view on screen and DeMille is a man of his times. There was a good film done about a decade ago about Chief Tecumseh and his attempt at an Indian confederation. Maybe we will get one about Pontiac and his movement.Until then we have to watch items like Unconquered, enjoy the spectacle and fill in the blanks.

Cecil B. DeMille was one of the pioneers of the American film industry, and you have to give him credit for that. He was also one of the first to pack his films with gratuitous sex and violence, and you have to give him credit for that. He got away with it by inserting preachy moral "messages" that proved the "evil" of everything he had just shoved in your face, and you have to give him credit for that. His films were enjoyable in a goofy sort of way, but that doesn't apply to this one.There's one thing that DeMille could never be accused of, and that's cutting corners. His movies were expensive, and they looked it. They were usually also packed with well-known stars such as Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. The one thing that few of his movies had, though, was a coherent script, and this movie is a prime example. Stars, production values, spectacle...whatever advantages this film has are sunk by the absolutely idiotic dialogue the actors are forced to spew out. You have to wonder what the actors were thinking as they were reciting this drivel. You also have to wonder what the writers were thinking as they were whipping this junk up; didn't they realize that people don't even _remotely_ talk or act like they do in this movie? Everything in this film is overblown, overheated and overdone. The only other one of DeMille's films I can think of offhand that goes even further over the edge is "Northwest Mounted Police," which is so jaw-droppingly awful it should be classified as a comedy.As long as you realize what you're getting into, the movie is fun in a goofball, campy sort of way. If you're looking for anything else, forget it.