Tant que soufflera la tempête

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!"

'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

Farmers throughout Europe, unsuccessful with their returns, journey to South Africa to take advantage of the free and fertile land, but must pass through hostile Zulu territory first. The wagon train sequence will be familiar to any western fan: it's the Settlers versus the Indians all over again, with the Zulu tribe on the attack and out for blood (we don't even know why they are so hungry for war). Susan Hayward plays a farmer's wife from Ireland who ends up widowed and caught between two men who desire her, Tyrone Power's leader of the Boer Fighter Commandos and Richard Egan's hot-blooded homesteader. Four screenwriters adapted Helga Moray's novel, but none were able to lift this one out its vat of musty clichés. The picture does look good in widescreen and vivid color, yet the characters are neither likable, sympathetic, nor interesting. ** from ****

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.

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 [or at least in letterbox].