Cecil B. De Mille is legendary for his epic biblical spectacles, notably his final film The Ten Commandments (1956), but he made many more American history adventure epics. Unconquered (1947), a pre-revolutionary war frontier drama with Gary Cooper as a pre-American patriot, was the last of them.
Cooper plays Captain Christopher Holden, a Virginia militiaman on a secret mission to uncover a conspiracy by a trader plotting to claim a piece of the territories as his own domain. Paulette Goddard is Abby, a British woman unjustly convicted for murder and sentenced to 14 years of indentured slavery in the colonies.
Their journeys intertwine when she's cheated out of her freedom by Martin Garth (Howard Da Silva), a trader-turned-slave trader who married the daughter of a Native American Chief (horror icon Boris Karloff in redface and broken English) and uses his connection to unite the local tribes to wage guerilla warfare on the British forts.
Holden is framed by Garth and sentenced to death by a military tribunal and escapes with the help of Abby, who puts her own life on the line to help him save the imperiled settlers from the treachery of the Native tribes. It's the De Mille recipe of nationalism, patriotism, casual racism, leering exploitation, gruesome violence (both suggested and shown), and women under threat, all told on a big canvas with an epic sweep punctuated by scenes of action spectacle—from a canoe chase over a raging waterfall to sweeping battle scenes.
The film earned an Oscar nomination for its special effects and features often impressive Technicolor cinematography, but it gets bogged down in a convoluted plot that sprawls across its almost two-and-a-half-hour running time. Many films of the era displayed casual racism, especially when it came to portrayals of Native Americans on onscreen, but De Mille plays on the worst stereotypes perpetrated by the movies. And his exploitation of women in peril and in scenes of partial undress, including a lurid scene of attempted flogging and a bath in a rain barrel featuring Goddard, is extreme even for the director, who built a career out of exploiting sex and sin on screen.
It might appeal to fans of Cooper and historical epics, but De Mille's archaic attitudes have aged poorly and may limit a broader interest. The Blu-ray debut includes commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton. Optional or Not a necessary purchase.