Unconquered (1947) DVD9 - Western Adventure - Gary Cooper, Paule

2014.07.19


Unconquered (1947) DVD9 - Western Adventure - Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard [DDR]

Unconquered is a 1947 Western Adventure film produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard. The film depicts the violent struggles between American colonists and Native Americans on the western frontier in the mid-18th century during the time of Pontiac's Rebellion, primarily around Fort Pitt (modern-day Pittsburgh).
The film cost $4 million, $1 million of which was spent on the actors salaries. The salary costs were the largest in de Mille's career to date.

CAST:-
Gary Cooper as Captain Christopher Holden
Paulette Goddard as Abigail 'Abby' Martha Hale
Howard Da Silva as Martin Garth
Boris Karloff as Chief Guyasuta
Cecil Kellaway as Jeremy Love
Ward Bond as John Fraser
Virginia Campbell as Mrs. Fraser
Katherine DeMille (the director's daughter) as Hannah
Henry Wilcoxon as Capt. Steele
C. Aubrey Smith as Lord Chief Justice
Victor Varconi as Capt. Simeon Ecuyer
Virginia Grey as Diana
Mike Mazurki as Dave Bone
Porter Hall as Leach
Matthew Boulton as Captain Brooks
Richard Gaines as Colonel George Washington

Produced and Directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Music by Victor Young
Running time 146 min.

MOVIE REVIEW:- Unconquered (1947)
Based on Neil Swanson's Unconquered, a Novel of the Pontiac Conspiracy, the film focuses on "Abby" Hale (Paulette Goddard), who is condemned to death by a British court, then offered clemency if she will become an indentured servant in America. There is a bidding competition between Captain Christopher Holden (Gary Cooper) and Martin Garth (Howard Da Silva), which Holden wins. He then sets her free. Unfortunately, Garth is a sore loser; he kidnaps Abby and takes her to the western frontier, where he is involved in illegal arms sales to the Native Americans. Soon, Holden becomes involved in the conflict with the warring tribes and is reunited with Abby; he also has further confrontations with Garth and his henchman (Mike Mazurki).

THE 'WHITE SLAVE' LETTER
The original Neil Swanson novel, on which the film was based, was prefaced by an excerpt from a genuine historical document, providing much of the background: a letter concerning the Holdens of Virginia, written by one of their descendants in the frontier village of St. Anthony in Minnesota, at the great falls of the Mississippi, in the summer of 1862 - a century after the time of the plot.

"My great-grandmother was a slave. She was white. She was an English girl. Yet she was exhibited and sold at auction, not by barbarous Algerian but by the brutal laws of her own people. For it was even possible, in those days, for a man who had grown weary of his wife to put a rope around her neck, lead her to a public market, and there sell her.

This girl was a virgin. She was accused of murder, tried, found guilty, sentenced to the gallows-and then given the harsh choice of death by hanging or of slavery. (In a court in London) To live was to hope. She chose life, and so became the property of a man who lusted for her, though he had a wife.

She was young when these things happened-only seventeen-and it is said that she was very lovely. I tell you of her so that you may see how far a journey we have come from the day when, in America, a white girl could be sold and bought as you would sell or buy a cow, a horse, a dog - could be lawfully and publicly stripped naked, whipped, shamed, and degraded"



TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:-
Video Codec: MPEG-2
Video Bitrate: 4514 kbps
Video Resolution: 720x480
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1
Frames Per Second: 23.976
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 448kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 6
Audio Languages: English
RunTime: 146 mins
Subtitles: NONE
Ripped by: Trinidad [DDR]
Duration: 146 mins