1947's "Unconquered" may not be regarded as one of director Cecil B. De Mille's top drawer Westerns, set as it is during the climactic days of the French and Indian War of 1763, but it is precisely for that reason that it surprises despite its bloated length of 2 1/2 hours and $4.5 million budget, his highest to date (this ensured its high grossing box office failure). Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard are paired for the last time, he as colonial captain Christopher Holden, in opposition to Howard Da Silva's treacherous fur trader Martin Garth, who seeks greater wealth and power by working with the various Indian tribes to secure the Ohio valley for himself. Paulette's Abigail Martha Hale is the British subject sentenced to be an indentured servant in the American colonies, coming between the two men, a virtual pinball bouncing back and forth as slave to the lascivious Garth, captive to the vengeful Senecas, or willing companion to Captain Holden, whose rescue of Abigail from certain torture and death earns him a court martial for desertion. His faceoff with Seneca Chief Guyasuta is the highlight at the midway mark, due to the surprise casting of longtime horror specialist Boris Karloff learning actual Native American language to play the part. Holden makes a grand entrance from the forest to confront the entire tribe, contemptuously referring to the warriors as women dressed up as torturers of captive women before using a magnetic compass as a threat to secure escape by making certain the tiny arrow points at Guyasuta's heart. As Garth's jealous wife, and daughter of Guyasuta, we see the director's daughter Katherine De Mille, Karloff's former costar and murdered mistress from 1935's "The Black Room," foiling her husband's attempts to kill Holden at the cost of her own life. Fine work from veterans such as Ward Bond, C. Aubrey Smith, Mike Mazurki, and Alan Napier, plus appearances from historical figures George Washington, even Mason and Dixon. The climactic siege of Fort Pitt was the most elaborate yet staged, and for all the exposition that precedes it the picture may not stick to accuracy but it never bores. Karloff had essayed many Native American roles during the silent era due to his dark complexion and exotic name, but only here and in Universal's upcoming "Tap Roots" did he do so in a speaking part, 10 1/2 minutes screen time under a makeup that took as long as Frankenstein's Monster, and enabled an Indian observer who knew no English to marvel at the actor's goodwill in his own language: "this man is as patient as a horse!"
Review of Unconquered
