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With the end of the South African apartheid government and the events leading to that end of the past 50 years or so, Untamed was consigned to the 20th Century Fox vaults and has rarely been seen for a generation. Not that it was anything all that great to begin with.

Taken on its own terms and divorced from racial politics, Untamed is a sprawling Edna Ferber like saga of the founding of the Orange Free State and the journey of that group of Dutch settlers called Voortrekkers that made it happen. Tyrone Power is the leader of this group who has dreams of an empire. Dreams so big that Susan Hayward and their romance come in a definite second.

Power meets Hayward in Ireland where he's come to buy horses and the sparks fly at first sight. But he returns to South Africa and Susan marries good old reliable John Justin.

Later after the potato famine hits Ireland, the great Irish diaspora occurs and the Irish scatter throughout the globe. John and Susan go to South Africa and Sue not only meets Power again, but she also comes under the lustful eye of Richard Egan. Justin is killed, Sue wants Ty, Richard wants Sue, but Sue can't see him for beans.

I get the impression that there is a lot more to the original novel than what is shown here, but the story is poorly adapted. Using the comparison to Ferber, Richard Egan plays the Jett Rink part here. It's as though Jett Rink was crushing out on Scarlett O'Hara. Maybe they should have gotten Edna Ferber herself to adapt this work by another author, Helga Moray.

The action sequences are done well however. The Zulu attack on the laager is as well staged as in any John Ford western and the final battle between Power's commandos and Egan's outlaws is also exciting.

By the way the word laager is the South African term they gave for the circle of wagons that the voortrekkers made when camping for the night. We've seen many a western where they circled the wagons, but in South Africa they had a name for it. Voortrekker is the name of the Dutch pioneers who made the journey.

If you are a fan of the two leads as I am, make every effort to catch Untamed in the infrequent times it is shown.

Some rugged pioneer adventurers, headed by TYRONE POWER, SUSAN HAYWARD, JOHN JUSTIN and RICHARD EGAN, end up in South Africa fighting Zulus after fleeing Ireland because of the potato famine. This is one of those big sprawling Technicolor epics designed to lure patrons away from their TV sets in the mid '50s to watch spectacular action unfold against handsome landscapes.

Susan Hayward is the feisty Irish heroine who marries John Justin but has her eyes set on following her true love--Tyrone Power--to South Africa. When hubby Justin is killed in a Zulu attack, she sets her mind on winning Tyrone's hand in marriage. She has to cope with Richard Egan, who is also lusting after her. There's a very realistically staged fight with a bull whip between Power and Egan--and you know who wins. But the script has her mistreating both men, enough so to make you wonder what makes her tick. It's an oddly defined role.

The story is a sprawling one and Henry King has directed some of it with his usual skill. The supporting cast includes HOPE EMERSON and AGNES MOOREHEAD, so obviously the studio treated this one as a big epic adventure story that would look handsomely rugged on the big screen.

Hayward faces all her hardships in Scarlett O'Hara manner. "Then we'll plough and seed. And then we'll come back," she says at one point to Agnes Moorehead after the latest catastrophe. Tyrone Power spends much of his time off camera but you know he's going to be the hero who returns to help her begin a new life. She becomes a wealthy woman after bartering with a native for a hefty diamond, and meets Power again years later at the Governor's Ball. But she and Power have another stormy disagreement and the story goes on and on.

It's basically an unrewarding mixture of adventure and romance with poor character motivations and a muddled script that lacks a strong focus. Hayward does some extravagant overacting as the ill-tempered heroine, Egan has the strongest male role and Power is totally wasted.

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!"

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