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Both leads were perfectly cast in the silly romance Untamed. Joan Crawford played a wild gypsy, who, after being exposed to civilization for the first time, still acts like a savage beast. Robert Montgomery plays a refined society playboy who falls for Joan's beauty and tries to kindly educate her with better manners. She tries to scare off female competition, and Bob tells her she just can't go around threatening to punch people in the nose. "Why not?" she asks.

In her early, very pretty days, Joan eats up her scenes with energy and hilarious melodrama. The film itself is very dated, so I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch it unless they're a fan of the cast. Nowadays, it's looked at as misogynistic to try and tame a woman's wild impulses and get her to act like a "lady". But in 1929, it was very funny to watch the glamorous Joan Crawford embarrass herself in polite society. Give this movie a watch if you like her early days, and you'll be rewarded with a couple of dance numbers, as well as a song from Robert Montgomery!

Yet another one of those late 1920s - early 1930s "a poor man cannot possibly marry a rich woman because everyone will think he's doing it for her money only" movies. It's a bit of inconsequential trivia, and overlong to boot (85 minutes), but it's fun to watch a young, beautiful Joan Crawford as a fiery Latin America wildcat - cum - New York society girl, and Robert Montgomery already shows in this early role why he was one of the best leading men of his era. The film does feature one sequence that I've never seen before: an impromptu boxing match (complete with ring and bell) in the middle of a high-society party! And although the ending is predictable, the means by which we get there are not. ** out of 4.

Joan Crawford made her talking debut in this film Untamed about a young woman raised in the jungle and not used to civilized ways. Within the first 10 minutes of the film her father is killed and a pair of old oil wildcatters, Ernest Torrance and Holmes Herbert, become her new guardians. It seems that her father with oil leases and such has left her mighty rich young woman.

Rich she may be, but it's like leaving Paris Hilton's fortunes to Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. On ship Joan takes a liking to Robert Montgomery, but Torrance is constantly scheming to break them up fearing Montgomery is a fortune hunter. As for Bob, he has his pride.

The rest of the film is Torrance's machinations, Herbert warning against same, Joan not being used to civilized ways, and Bob's pride. That about sums this film which I fear hasn't worn well.

Crawford overacted a bit as did Torrance, but nearly everyone was doing that in those early talkies. But her voice registered well, no John Gilbert troubles for her. She also sang two songs in the film and Montgomery joined her in one of them. Good thing MGM didn't give him any more musical gigs in his career. But as for acting Montgomery's voice registered well for sound.

The story itself however was a bit much. It gets highly melodramatic at the end. Good thing Crawford had better things coming in her career and shortly.

From her first scenes looking bronzed as a Tahitian as she sings and dances on the beach at night, to the porcelain aristocratic beauty she presents later in the film, Joan Crawford shines in a role that she seems born to play. The film combines melodrama and comedy to bizarre contrast, and features a number of choice supporting performances (and accents!) Young and handsome Robert Montgomery plays the object of Crawford's affection, and such is the level of her love that when she is told that "the woods are full of men like him", she replies, "take me to the woods." This film also might show her earliest use of a Crawford trademark prop, the revolver.

Although having too much money might have been a drag in those heady pre-Depression days, watched today and certainly if watched a year after this was made, the story seems beyond trivial. This isn't a film which could be described as entertaining which is surprising considering it was Joan Crawford's first talkie.

Whereas we're acclimatised to the peculiar attitudes and issues explored in 1930s pictures, the vapid story of UNTAMED: should a man marry a girl who has more money than he has, is firmly rooted in the twenties and that feels a little too remote for us to engage with. This isn't helped by having a script that even in 1929, when people had only seen a handful of these new talkies, must have already sounded clichéd! Some of the lines those poor actors are forced to speak are cringingly banal. For such an auspicious production - their superstar's first talkie and considering it's an MGM picture, this is very disappointing. MGM's policy of not rushing into making talkies usually paid off since none of their pictures exhibited those infamous SINGING IN THE RAIN type teething troubles and MGM actors, right from the start acted as though they were in talkies, not silents. Although this film is technically proficient, despite various pathetic attempts to inject life into it, it feels completely flat and void of any emotional engagement.

The main ingredient which was thought to be able to bring this to life was simply to have Joan Crawford be Joan Crawford. In 1929, she had such a massive fan base that MGM considered that sufficient but the reviews at the time told a different story. Although she knew how to act in a talking picture and displays none of that over-gesturing silent film style many of her contemporaries were plagued with, she's still plagued with unrealistic dialogue and an unrealistic character so comes across as far from natural as you can imagine. At the start of the film she's meant to be a wild 'untamed' teenager. Since Joan Crawford was herself a wild 'untamed' teenager and was still only 23 when she made this, she's atrocious. Miss Crawford's idea of how a teenage girl acts is to exuberantly waves her arms around whilst stropping around like a five-year old boy on the verge of a temper tantrum. Of all the actresses around at the time, you'd think if anyone could portray an untamed teenage girl it would be Joan Crawford but you'll be surprised.

She's not particularly any more convincing once she's 'civilised' but neither surprisingly is Robert Montgomery. Even in his very earliest pictures he was always thoroughly believable and engaging. He too is however given an unrealistic character to play in this silly story so because you can't believe in him, you can't emote with him, you couldn't care less what happens to him.

But the very worst thing about this film is at the very start when Joan Crawford is singing with a group of South Americans. Look behind her - what in God's name is that man with the guitar supposed to be doing? It might sound trivial but it wouldn't have taken too much effort to get someone who could actually play the guitar rather than someone who looks like he's high on acid believing to be stroking his dog. Sloppy production!

''Untamed'' surprised & delighted me, in the way, that I've never seen Joan play such a sassy, upbeat role before...... It's totally different from all her other roles, and I don't think, she played another similar part after...... Joan plays her part ''Bingo'', so charmingly & adorably...... (in a way, naive & innocent) It's really not something, Joan fans are used to watching...... This proves again, Joan's versatility, and her capability to do comedy...... Even though, certain parts in ''Untamed'' were silly & offbeat...... I really didn't seem to care, or really noticed it...... Because, Joan & Robert Montgomery had such marvelous chemistry together..... (It's always a refreshing & fun experience watching them every time) They had so much give and take, in their scenes together....... ''Untamed'' is obviously dated, but in a classy, old fashioned way...... What ''Untamed'' has, that other same genre movie lacks today is, ''classy romance''....... I recommend Joan & Robert Montgomery fans to check out this movie...... Really wished Joan & Robert could've made movies together...... They're simply superb, each time they team together......

But not too bad, with some comedic moments, my favorite unintentional one being when Montgomery knocks back a shot and the liquid dribbles down the shoulder of his tuxedo!! Cut! Wait, just leave it in, who will notice. This is an early talkie, anyhow. Next scene! Joan is lovably fresh in her first talkie as the improbably nick-named Bingo, falling head over heels in love with poor but noble Andy McAllister. When she gets the monkey off her back (literally; she's grown up in the jungle), she moves to the city with her "uncles" (really her father's friends who are charged with her care) and enters society, with a little help from the MGM make-up, hair, and deportment departments. Can Bingo and Andy make a go of it? Will Andy go back to his girlfriend? Will Bingo realize one of her "uncles" likes her in that special way? As others have said, it's a wildly improbable tale but it is fun to watch such an early talkie, when everything was so awkward and painful, like adolescence. Montgomery in the fight scenes was indeed pale and slender; in fact, a muscular double had to be used for him during the strip-search scene in "The Big House." Oh, well. Men were littler then. Some of us like the suave, intellectual type.

Not a bad way to spend 90 minutes. Interesting to note the use of card titles in this movie, and also Joan's rather stilted emoting, both holdovers from the silent days which really were just days behind at that point. Such a curiosity in this day and age...

Untamed is a dusty old creaker that has the distinction of being Joan Crawford's first talkie after years of mostly forgettable silent films. The plot is about an oil heiress named Bingo (Crawford) raised in the jungle by her father. She's pretty much a wild child though nothing like Tarzan. More like a hillbilly or something I guess. She's uncouth, as the kids might say. Anyway her father is killed and his two friends (Holmes Herbert and an overacting Ernest Torrence) decide to take her to New York to become civilized. On the ship she meets Robert Montgomery and falls in love. Being this is Joan's first talking picture, I'll cut her some slack. Her acting in the dramatic scenes was pretty bad but she does better with the comedy. Overall, a curio but nothing more. If you're a die-hard fan of Joan's, check it out. Otherwise you're not missing anything.

.. this very early talking film from directory Jack Conway and MGM.

The film opens with wild child Bingo (Joan Crawford) singing and dancing with the other citizens of the Amazon. Funny that they all have western clothes and guitars. I can only imagine that they ate a visiting movie crew that was shooting a western and took their clothes and instruments afterwards. But I digress.

A man who wants Bingo for himself (John Miljan) gets into a fight with her wisp of an aged scarecrow father and stabs him to death. As a result, Bingo is "adopted" by two kindly bachelor fellows who have been friends and partners with her dad over the years - "Uncle Ben Murchison (Ernst Torrence) and "Uncle" Howard Presley (Holmes Herbert). They take her back to New York City with them, but on the way over she meets and falls in love with fellow passenger and recent college grad Andy McAllister (Robert Montgomery). Ben breaks this up in a hurry and makes Bingo promise that she will spend some time in New York with the hundreds of men her age that she will meet before she settles on Andy, who is the first civilized man she's ever seen. Andy seems somewhat relieved to have her matrimonial minded mitts off of him for a while.

Then precisely one title card announces that we should be prepared for a shock the next time we see Bingo, as well we should. Before, Bingo was ready to "sock in the nose" anybody who disagreed with her or got in her way. Now she dresses in the finest fashions and even says the word "rahther" instead of "rather". This can only be the work of the early sound film diction coaches, but again I digress. With Bingo being an heiress due to her dad's oil wells, Uncle Ben is hoping that Bingo got Andy out of her system so that she might turn her interest towards the more suitable "Uncle" Howard, Ben's longtime friend. But Bingo's love for Andy is stronger than ever and pretty soon it becomes obvious that you can take the girl out of the jungle but it is hard to take the jungle out of the girl. Complications, many of them incompatible with polite New York society, ensue.

Story wise, this film flowed pretty well for an early talkie- It didn't drag at any point. This was Joan Crawford's talkie debut, and she does great. Ernst Torrence is given a large role here because of his stage training and his absolutely wonderful Scottish accent - he steals every scene. Robert Montgomery plays Crawford's love interest, and although this website says "So This is College" preceded this film, I have to wonder if this one was shot first because Montgomery doesn't have much screen presence here. Unbelievably, he doesn't project much at all and I have a hard time believing Joan's character's obsession with him. But he improves a lot and quickly.

There are problems in several scenes when what was probably meant to be background music provided by on-set musicians nearly overcomes the actor's voices. It all looks antiquated in the extreme, but I enjoyed it the same way one enjoys seeing and hearing an antique piano played.

Fun to watch an early "talking" but the acting is marginal and the fight scene laughable. Fun seeing Montgomery and Crawford in the earliest part of their careers. But you can tell western electric was still playing around with sound trying to get the levels right. Sometimes background music overpowered dialogue.

Untamed is famous for being Joan Crawford's first talkie, a curiosity. I had heard it was only a mediocre film by both fans of Crawford and those who really do not care for her. I was surprised that I liked it so much considering these reviews; Untamed is a good quality early talkie and a bright spot in Crawford's early career.

Crawford plays "Bingo," an untamed girl from the jungles of South America whose father dies, leaving her with a large oil inheritance. Some old friends of the family escort her to New York where she is to live in luxury, but they are startled when she abruptly falls in love with Robert Montgomery. They convince her that there are hundred of men like him in New York; she goes there to find that she yearns for him more than ever. She finds that he misses her too and the two plan to get married, until Crawford's uncle meddles again. The end of this film is quite shocking, and there are plenty of moments to entertain throughout.

Unlike her later 1930s films, Crawford is wild and free here, sort of like a Trilby yet to find her Svengali. Her personality is radiant and she acts much more like a savage than a society girl. This pre-code film has her kicking her legs up to throw up her skirt, sleeping in a man's room, seeing him before he is dressed, drinking large quantities of alcohol during Prohibition, and condoning violence, an unladylike characteristic. Montgomery is terribly handsome in this film, a great romantic lead for Crawford. Perhaps this is the reason they starred in several other films together. The two sing several times here; neither has an outstanding voice, but the music helps add some realism and entertainment to the screen.

Overall, this is not only a curiosity, but a great early film. It does not suffer from the slow pacing, static camera, wordy dialogue, and loud silences that other early talkies did. Be sure to give it a proper chance.

Untamed (1929)

** (out of 4)

After her father is murdered, Bingo (Joan Crawford) gets taken away from the South American jungles and heads to New York City. Even though she pretty much grew up as a wild child, her father's friend (Ernest Torrence) is given control of her and he objects when she falls in love with a poor boy (Robert Montgomery) so the two kids must prove that they're right for one another. This early talkie from MGM is about as predictable as it can get and it's highly doubtful that the viewer isn't going to know what's coming from around each corner so this film is pretty much just for Crawford fans who must see everything the actress did in her career. The entire film has a pretty strange vibe to it because when we first meet the Bingo character she's doing some crazy tribal dance and you really think that she's some wild child that you'd expect to see in a Lon Chaney film. After no time she settles down to be quite normal and this here is never really explained but Crawford's performance was pretty interesting. She was somewhat over-the-top in a good way while playing the wild child but she settled down during the section portion of the film and in the end she's the only reason to watch this thing. It's rather amazing to see how well she transformed into a sound star and you have to think that she was among the best to do so. Montgomery isn't too bad in his part but the screenplay does him no favors. Torrence is a tad bit all over the place but I still enjoyed watching him. At just 85-minutes the film is a little creaky in spots and there's no doubt that the pacing is a bit off. Still, Crawford fans might want to check it out but others should stay clear.

Joan Crawford's first talkie reveals her to be irresistibly sexy and personable, but her role is hamstrung by the inane plot and contrived dialogue. Unfortunately, this is characteristic of most early MGM talkies. Ernest Torrence is notable as the guardian of Joan's character, but the rest of the cast, Robert Taylor included, is submerged in the froth of this lightweight comedy. See it for Joan, but don't say you weren't warned.

This creaky and absurd film starts out promisingly enough, as young Joan Crawford does a decidedly risque dance to native accompaniment. It's all downhill from there, and the film's climax is particularly absurd, as Crawford makes up with lover Robert Montgomery immediately after shooting him! Not one of the brightest stars in MGM's firmament.

Early talkies such as "Untamed" always astound me as to how they supplanted silent films. The art form had achieved a new peak at the end of the silent era, then, audiences and studios decided to patronize this sort of shoddy drivel. The best that may be said of "Untamed" is that it proved Joan Crawford, in her first sound film, could be a star in the talkies. Her voice was fine, and her eyes expressive. She shines in the scenes where she returns to the type of flapper role that initially made her a star in the silent "Our Dancing Daughters" (1928). Her singing and the opening dancing scene are awkward, but as others have mentioned, she proved her musical talent in other pictures. Worse yet are her histrionics in her father's death scene, which is too early in the picture to deserve to be so maudlin, and her ludicrous actions in response to beau Andy's drunkenness in the denouement. The inane story and dialogue do her no favors, nor does her character being named "Bingo."

At least, Crawford can throw a better punch than her co-star Robert Montgomery. Apparently, he learned a bit about boxing in the time between his hilariously-bad bout here and his starring as a prizefighter in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941), which doesn't feature impressive fight scenes by any means, but at least they're not ridiculous like this one. The only boxing scene I recall being possibly worse than this was seeing Wallace Beery whiffing haymakers in "The Champ" (1931). In "Untamed," the filmmakers fail to conceal the pulled, mostly liver punches with fast-motion and jump cuts. Compared to this contest, Montgomery's singing is far superior. Meanwhile, Ernest Torrence, who was one of the best character actors of the silent era (with his imposing stature, he was a natural villain), unfortunately, delivers many of his lines with an irritatingly-elongated drawl, as if the dialogue weren't complete rubbish already.

The melodrama is classist, colonialist and sexist, concerning the "civilizing" of the "untamed" Bingo and her and Andy not marrying because he's not rich enough to buy her expensive jewelry, and his "Scotch pride" won't allow them to live on her wealth. The plot is episodic, jumping from a rather racially-offensive sequence where the father is murdered by a lascivious racial "other" in South America, to the jungle-wild Bingo flirting with Andy aboard an ocean liner while Uncle Ben rails against the folly of the whippersnappers' love when he's not trying to squeeze out a drink from a broken bottle of hooch on the floor (hey, what happened to the monkey Chico, anyways?), to Bingo being the life of the party as a New York flapper as she continues her hot-and-cold nonsense affair with Andy and continues to argue it out with her uncle. A carry-over from the silent era, title cards separate the acts and describe ellipses.

"Untamed" also suffers from the usual creakiness from only the second theatrical season of regular talkies, including being a production confined to sound stages and background noise, such as during the party scenes, tending to drown out dialogue. Editing from long to less-long, if not medium or close-up, shots tend to look like jump cuts, especially when not concealed by matching on action. Missing fourth walls are especially apparent in stagy scenes in the cramped ship cabins and in a sequence where their lack is literally exposed by the camera following characters through three rooms of a men's club. The film's average shot length of 12.6 seconds is made lethargic by being compounded by awkward editing, a lack of close-ups and camera movement and an abundance of bad dramaturgy. "Untamed" fails in most regards to tame the new medium of talking pictures.

But, again, what happened to Chico? He's the real star in this one; it's too bad he only had one scene.

One of the first MGM soundies full of music, dance, drama and Joan Crawford! The early Crawford personality emerges as a feisty, likable, love-of-life character and she is wonderful! She is so different from her later 50's and 60's roles. If you have not viewed any of Crawford's silent movies or the early soundies, you should consider it. You can see the emergence of her acting abilities and even peg some of her acting characteristics that she carried with her throughout her entire 50 year career. Ernest Torrence is an engaging father figure, a marvelous character actor. Robert Montgomery (who appeared with JC six times) is the love interest torn between culture and animal. Lloyd Ingraham appears as the Crawford character's father early on. A must-see for film lovers interested in viewing early sound films.

Raised in the jungles of South America, sweaty oil heiress Joan Crawford (as Alice "Bingo" Dowling) returns to the United States after acquiring her estate. Along the way, Ms. Crawford meets doughy student Robert Montgomery (as Andy McAllister). They are mutually attracted, but find themselves on opposite sides of the tracks. While rich, Crawford is "Untamed" and must be civilized. She is helped into New York society by guardian Ernest Torrence (as Ben Murchison) and hit-man Holmes Herbert (as Howard Presley). In a startling scene, they have left one of Crawford's male admirers with his eyeballs removed. This film was Crawford's first "talking" feature. She and Mr. Montgomery are not always presented in a flattering manner, but the film delivered on its implicit sex appeal.

**** Untamed (11/23/29) Jack Conway ~ Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Ernest Torrence, Holmes Herbert

The first talkie for pretty much every actor or actress from this Era is either lesser known or painfully mocked. Perhaps the only actress with a lucky first talkie was Greta Garbo.

Despite this being "A Crawford film I hate" in my book, I don't technically hate it. I wouldn't watch it again, but if it were playing on TCM one day or I saw a copy in a store, I would probably watch/buy it.

Untamed does, after all, have an unfair advantage in my book by having Joan Crawford, who I like, and Robert Montgomery, who I also like. It's very creaky, and manages to be overlong despite only having a runtime of just under 90 minutes. But it's also the first talkie of both stars, and both would go onto better (and much worse) things. Joan definitely looks the part of "wild girl" when she's supposed to, blunders in society when she's supposed to, and has chemistry with Bob. Her character is definitely adorable. She also kind of looks like Gloria Swanson in the first thirty or so minutes of this film- did anyone else notice that? For someone who "couldn't act" She does a decent job. So does Robert Montgomery.

There are rather obvious fade to black scenes where you can tell that there were meant to be title cards, but hey, it was 1929. The stars get a chance to charm their way through the film, even with rather stupid dialogue (Joan's characterization is adorable, unfortunately Robert is stuck playing a cad even more caddish than his usual cad), sing off-key (far from the worst I've ever heard), mime playing a guitar romantically (not Joan), and get into a fight (looks kind of comical, but there you go- it was 1929).

Maybe it would be better if I viewed this film as a quaint little antique, but I don't like looking at films like this like that, and I don't like people who look at films like this like that.

I came for Joan, and I saw Joan, and I was satisfied, and that was all that mattered.

Who cares that the plot stunk?

Oil prospector Henry "Hank" Dowling raised free-spirit daughter Alice "Bingo" Dowling (Joan Crawford) in the South American jungle. She is the center of attention with all the locals. After Hank die, Bingo inherits the vast oil riches. Family friend Ben Murchison is her guardian. They and friend Howard Presley are headed for New York City. On the ship, she falls for Andy McAllister (Robert Montgomery).

This is Crawford's first non-musical talkie lead and Montgomery as leading man. This is an early talkie and the sound is pretty good. Considering that she's a wild child and he's a proper gentleman, I really want a much better meet-cute. I never really fall in love with this relationship. Crawford is good and Montgomery is pretty good. I can see what this is trying to be. I just want it to be better.

"Bingo" is exactly the word! This film hits all the right spots and its not all about Joan Crawford, who simply sparkles. I fell totally in love with her character!

It is not by accident that IMDb lists 107 films by Director Jack Conway between 1912 and 1948. This was his 72nd film according to that chronology and his expertise shows. I found it thoroughly engrossing and continuously entertaining. I laughed aloud often -- some really great gags and a fine early sit-com.

I don't know much about the writer Charles E. Scoggins, but co-writer Sivia Thalberg is credited with 15 films and is the sister of Irving Thalberg. That ought to tell you this film deserves close attention. Don't allow yourself to think of it as "cornball" and just engross yourself in it. You won't be disappointed.