Untamed

source: Untamed

I'm sorely tempted to side with two of the previous reviewers and give this movie a nil rating, but it's not really all that bad! Copyright 1955 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 11 March 1955. U.S. release: 3 March 1955. U.K. release: July 1955. Australian release: 4 August 1955. 111 minutes. Censored to 109 minutes in the U.K. SYNOPSIS: Katie O'Neill (Hayward) meets Paul Van Riebeck (Power), a South African Boer bigwig, when he comes to Ireland to buy horses. They fall for each other, but Paul does not want to get married until he establishes a Boer state in South Africa. COMMENT: Impossibly trite. For once it's easy to choose the movie's worst feature. The banal script wins hands down over the hammy and amateurish acting and the consistently lackluster direction. The plot is, to say it as kindly as possible, such utterly ridiculous tosh, even the most unsophisticated audience would laugh it off the screen. It's also racist and badly dated. If were not so laughably unbelievable, it would have been blandly offensive. What passes for characterization are actually the most superficial and poorly motivated of cardboard figures. Even worse is the dialogue which for sheer banality and lack of drama would be difficult to match. Admittedly, the story, poorly motivated though it is and proceeding in a series of fits and starts, does lay on a bit of action and it is set against some awesome and fascinating backgrounds. But the actors were handed an impossible task to bring warmth and sympathy to such posturing, paste-board characters. Susan turns on all the synthetic mannerisms at her command; Egan grimaces and rants; Power just says his lines. The support cast players have little impact. King's direction is dull and even some of the action scenes are limply staged. The film runs on and on, seemingly without end. Despite some obvious back projection, the locations rather than the actors or the story, make the most impression.

Everyone works hard to make this grand-scaled hokum as enjoyable as possible. As a redheaded Irish spitfire, Susan Hayward finally gets her chance to play Scarlett O'Hara, but packs all her chiffons and crinolines [with matching shoes and stockings] in a covered wagon and sets off to cross the veldt with wise Agnes Moorehead and a cast of thousands [well, hundreds]. She's chasing Tyrone Power across South Africa, although he's something of a stiff, but she also loves hearty Richard Egan. The script stuffs in everything from a fancy dress ball to an emergency amputation. Henry King directs it all with some intensity, especially a harrowing and spectacular Zulu attack, and uses the wide screen well to capture the spaciousness of the land. Should be seen on the big screen at least in letterbox].

I love "Untamed," but not in the same way as previous commentators. It is arguably the dumb-funniest piece of Hollywood formulaic crap every produced. Basically, Henry King remade "Gone With The Wind," set it in South Africa using standard Western gimmicks. Christ, they must have raided "Gunfight at OK Corral's" wardrobe, and cocked every cowboy hat on one side. But the joke's on them because it is such overwrought camp that I can't stop laughing. It's great! I especially love the way Susan Hayward keeps dumping, picking up, and re-dumping every sap who comes along. Plus, this chick's got to be the luckiest woman on the face of the earth. Nevermind the nasty image of her swindling starving natives by trading her worthless junk for their precious metals. Who else but a "Wild Irish Rose" stumbles upon a diamond the size of a goose-egg? And when the money runs out (no one knows why), she intrepidly sets off with her brood to mine for more gems, murderous claim-jumpers notwithstanding. Tyrone Power used this film as a practice session for "The Sun Also Rises." He's limp throughout. Richard Egan, however, is hilarious as Hayward's ubiquitous dumpee. He defends her against attacking Zulus. She dumps him. He offers to marry her. She dumps him. He plows her fields, plants her crops and builds her house. She not only dumps him again, but amputates his leg! In the end, Egan turns outlaw, still carrying a torch for Hayward. It is here that Rita Morena, the long-suffering half-breed wench, delivers the coup de grace: "...WHAT'S LEFT OF HIM IS MINE!"

I am sure this will shock many readers, especially since she was such a popular and well-paid actress. However, I truly believe that Susan Hayward was a horrible actress--or at least she agreed to allow herself to be typecast as a horrible actress. Having seen most of her films, I can name example after example of films where she played, or shall I say over-played characters. Her acting often consisted of over-emoting and acting petulant. Don't believe me? Try watching "I Want to Live" (for which she inexplicably received an Oscar--and which was satirized by John Waters with "Female Trouble"), "David and Bathsheba", "The Conqueror", "Where Love Has Gone" and "Valley of the Dolls". All of these films are made almost hilarious due to her acting and the terrible scripts. Calling them soap opera-like is an understatement and because of this I would consider her a great 'overactress'. It's a shame, as she COULD provide a decent performance, as early in her career she was less bellicose and rather good in films like "They Won't Believe Me" and "Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman". But by the 1950s, it was all emotion and fire and not much else. "Untamed" is yet another example of the usual Hayward formula. The film is in color and is quite glossy, features big-name supporting actors, has Hayward playing every emotion as if it's her last and her character is simply more a caricature than anyone you think could really have existed. To put it bluntly, despite the look and budget, this is a bad film...mostly due to her insane character. When the film begins, Katie (Hayward) meets Paul (Tyrone Power). Despite them soon separating, you KNOW that they'll eventually have each other. However, very inexplicably, in the interim, she marries another man (who you just KNOW will be soon dead) and is pursued by a crazy guy (Richard Egan). It all goes on and on and on in a nice South African locale, though the film feels more like a western combined with "Peyton Place" instead of a serious film. It's also very episodic, often makes little sense and is a bit silly. The bottom line is that the film is mildly entertaining if you are looking for a laugh. But considering that it's NOT a comedy and you are not supposed to laugh at Hayward when she goes off on her screaming tirades (and it happens a lot!), it's a rather sad film. Pretty but sad.

For some unknown reason, Susan Hayward falls in love with Tyrone Power, but he's in love with South Africa. He has the beautiful, incredible Susan Hayward in his arms and he wants to leave for South Africa? In any case, he feels his calling, and he plans to travel there from Ireland. She declares her love and says she'll marry him and go with him. The next day, he leaves without her. How mean and hurtful! How are we supposed to root for him? Years later, Susan is seen sailing into South Africa, married and with a child. This was her great plan: to marry someone else, bear his child, and then reunite with Tyrone to prove how much she's loved him all these years? How are we supposed to root for her? Neither of the leads are nice people, and their motivations are really tough to get behind. It's clear someone wanted this movie to be a lush, love triangle epic, but the end result hardly succeeded. Try Elephant Walk if you want a similar setting with better characters.

'Untamed' could and should have been good. Have always loved adventure films, with splashes of drama and romance. All the cast members have been great in other things, having seen a number of Tyrone Power films recently. Henry King did a fair share of good and more films, cannot sing my praises of 'Song of Bernadette' enough. Have always loved Franz Waxman as a composer, both his film scores and his concert music arrangements. Although there is a good deal to like here, 'Untamed' came up rather short and was something of a disappointment. It looks wonderful and has some great scenes, but the cast are mixed, the characters never really connected with me and it does suffer badly from trying to do too much. 'Untamed' can never be accused of not trying, if anything it tries too hard and everything that sounded so interesting on paper is not done enough with. There are a fair share of good things here. The production values are truly lavish with all of the photography leaving me in awe, the best of it is absolutely stunning, and the settings certainly looked as though a lot of time and money went into them. Waxman's score has a lot of rousing character and sweeping lushness without being over-bearing. King's direction has some inspired moments. Namely in the well-staged action-oriented sequences. The zulu attack stuck with me. The cast were mixed, but some come off well. Richard Egan is charismatic and feisty, as is Rita Moreno, and John Justin is imposing. Ever the consummate scene stealer, Agnes Moorehead is always guaranteed to make any film she appeared in better and that's the case here. It is a shame that Tyrone Power doesn't have an awful lot to work with and is quite bland. Susan Hayward overplays her role and comes over as very annoying. As said the characters didn't connect with me in that none are interesting or worth getting behind, plus they are ones with muddled and under-explored character motivations that don't ring true. Hayward's character writing and acting was so overdone that it was hard to believe that anybody saw anything in her, Power's has so little to it and although Egan does do a fine job in his role his character's too much of an idiot. While King's direction has moments, it could have done with more tension and urgency in other places. The script came over as both over-stuffed, from trying to cram too much in, and undernourished, from not doing anywhere enough with the material. Which was true for the story too, really liked the action but generally it fails to excite or charm, the romantic chemistry is off because of not being able to care for the characters and there is too much content and too much of it glossed over. Not bad overall, but a disappointment. 5/10

It takes the great Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s to drive Susan Hayward and her new husband along with their baby out of Ireland and having heard all about South Africa from the dashing Tyrone Power who had previously visited her father, they embark there. Of course, Hayward conveniently meets up with Power there and decides to get free territory there. How convenient that Sean, her husband, gets killed and Hayward is left to become impregnated by Power. Power, as the leader of the Free Dutch has no time for Hayward and she then falls for Richard Egan, the heavy in the film. Rita Moreno is as fiery as ever but is given little to say or do here. Her jealousy of competitor Hayward is from the moment she sees her. Power learns of his son and Egan, now as evil as they come, still wants Hayward. The lavish cinematography and endearing story make this one interesting film.

Henry King is ,par excellence, the director of the storybook works.The titles speak for themselves,particularly in this phase of his career ,the fifties:"the snows of Kilimandjaro" (1952),"love is a many splendored thing"(1955)"The sun also rises" (1957) and "tender is the night" his final effort (1961).All these movies feature some of the most beautiful actresses that Hollywood has ever known:both Hayward and Gardner in "kilimandjaro" ,Gardner alone in "sun" ,Jones in "love" and "night". Susan Hayward is the star here.She plays a bold and impetuous heroine,a la Scarlett O'Hara,with whom she shares the Irish blood.Like her,she's always compelled to pick up the pieces and she does it with persistence. Like her she becomes a merry widow very soon.Tyrone Power( one of King's favorites:"Llyod s of London (1936)"captain from Castille (1947)"prince of foxes"(1949)and finally the impotent officer in "sun also rises")is the noble hero,full of panache.His parts look like each others in King's movies.Richard Egan has the only ambiguous role:generally cast as the villain ,he shows a friendly side in the first part. But what matters is the cinematography:using the cinemascope as few can do,Henry King work wonders when it comes to directing movements in the crowd:the Zulu's attack ,with its splendid panoramic shots displays an extraordinary sense of space.A gigantic African western in which the Zulus play the part of the Indians.Another sublime plan :the tree struck by lightning during the fight Heyward/Egan. Detractors will say that psychology is not King's forte:they simply do not understand that the interest does not lie in the characters but in their confrontation to a hostile environment .Actually the beauty of the landscapes enhance the characters who've got to rise to the occasion. In 1992,Ron Howard casts Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in "Far and away".OK they sail for America,but they are Irish and they start over in a new land.Nothing really changes.

This movie is by far one of the best with Susan Hayward and Tyrone Power. I have seen it many times over and enjoy seeing it again. If anyone ever gets the chance to view it, please do so.. You won't be disappointed.