June 7th Log

UNCONQUERED
1947, Cecil B. DeMille, United States
1st Viewing, DVD

A talent cast and awhole lot of Cecil B DeMille showmanship highlight this flawed but fun film. If you go in expecting something serious, or politically correct, or even historically accurate you are likely to be disappointed. If you are expecting to see another DeMille extravagant epic, you’ll likely have some fun watching this. The cast is a great one (Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Boris Karloff, Howard Da Silva, Ward Bond, among others) but their performances are far from standout, as like in just about everything involving DeMille the cast completely overacts. As in DeMille fashion the film moves from one extravagant set design to another before leading us towards a showdown finale between Capt. Christopher Holden (Cooper) and Martin Garth (Da Silva), a gun trader organizing an Indian uprising against the settlers for his own profit. Unconquered is not to be taken real seriously. It’s entertaining showmanship from the master showman. Even as pure entertainment the film is flawed and certainly not one of DeMille’s most memorable works, but as overblown campy fun Unconquered has its qualities (most notably being the glorious Technicolor picture).