Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely the worst movie.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

20Th Century Fox produced and released some epic motion pictures in Delux Color and CinemaScope in the 1950's such as The Robe, The Egyptian.Untamed was one such movie with would be advertised as monumental and sweeping in it's scope.. The story of a young women named Katie O'Neill Kildare born of the Irish landed gentry who loses everything in the Irish Potato Famine of 1847. She and husband Sean migrate to South Africa and join Boar pioneers to become part of the Great Trek and help settle the Orange Free State.Susan Hayward was queen of the 20TH Century Lot at that time and got first pick of any of the roles that the studio had available. She hoped Untamed would be her Gone With the Wind and any resemblance between Katie and Scarlett O'Hara is purely intentional.Fox matinée idol Tyrone Power is Boar military commander Paul Van Riebeck who is sort the Ashley Wilkes of this tale and Katie pursues him as Scarlett pursues Ashley.Richard Egan portrays Kurt Hout a Boar settler who is in lust with Katie and is always more then willing to play the chump for her. Agnes Moorehead and Hope Emerson were two of my favorite Hollywood...er.. ah...actresses and their involvement in any film always upgraded it's quality. Veteran director Henry King was 20TH Century Foxes top drawer helmsman and a personal friend of Powers. He ha also directed Hayward in several of her best films.King kept the story very visual.Untamed starts out with a bang.Paul Van Riebeck comes to the O'Neill Estates in Ireland to purchases horses from Squire O'Neill , Katie's father.Paul and Katie dislike each other at first so you know that they will soon passionately in love with each other. Paul can't let his feelings for Katie interfere with his duty to his cause so he returns to South Africa to resume his mission, leaving Katie heartbroken. Like Scarlet, Katie just isn't used to being dumped by a man.So it's not surprising that when the opportunity presents itself shes off to South Africa with her husband and child in tow to... start anew.For me the best part of Untamed is the trek and the Zulu attack. This segment is dramatic, exciting and beautify filmed. After the Commando's rescue of the wagon train,however, the story slides into soap opera and becomes fairly predicable. A good film for Hayward and Henry King fans with one of Egan;'s better performances and of course Agnes Moorehead and Hope Emerson.

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 ****

Fox's UNTAMED (1955) is a splendid romantic adventure story set in 1850's Africa. Beautifully photographed in Cinemascope and DeLuxe colour by Leo Tover it was nicely written for the screen by Talbot Jennings, Frank Fenton and Michael Blankfort and was based on the novel by Helga Moray. Tyrone Power was the star and once again was directed by his favourite director and friend Henry King. Co-starring, in the pivotal female lead, was the lovely Susan Hayward. And rounding out the fine cast was Richard Egan (never better), Agnes Moorhead, Brad Dexter, John Justin and Hope Emerson. Although he was the star in two Cinemascope productions for Columbia Pictures - "The Long Grey Long" (1955) and "The Eddie Duchin Story" (1956) UNTAMED was just one of only three Cinemascope pictures Tyrone Power would appear in for 20th Century Fox, his home studio for more than 15 years. The others being "King Of The Khyber Rifles" (1953)and "The Sun Also Rises" (1957). The latter being the only one to be released on DVD. Quite unbelievably neither "Khyber" nor UNTAMED have ever been issued in any format whatsoever! WHY?Time and place is immediately established by Susan Hayward's voice-over at the opening of UNTAMED as she informs us "This is County Limerick Ireland - the year is 1847". Hayward is Katie O'Neill the spirited daughter of rich land owner and horse breeder Squire O'Neill (Henry O'Neill). A Boer leader Paul Von Riebeck (Power) arrives from South Africa to buy some horses and after Katie causes him to be unseated from his horse during a Fox hunt ("I came to Ireland to buy horses - not to be killed by one") the two fall in love. But love isn't strong enough to hold Von Riebeck in Ireland and as a Dutch Free State commander must return to Africa to build up his country. Heartbroken, Katie later marries neighbour Sean Kildare (John Justin) and the following year when the potato famine ravages and decimates Ireland Katie and her family, along with the thousands of Irish, emigrate to Africa to start a new life. After the movie's excellent set piece of a Zulu attack on their settler's wagon train in which Katie's husband is killed she meets up again with Von Riebeck and after many eventualities, including a well staged Bullwhip fight between Paul and rival Kurt (Richard Egan), Katie and Paul finally come together for a happy ending.Complimenting the picture throughout is the lavish music score by the great Franz Waxman.There is a rich full orchestral romantic main theme heard first under the titles and given different treatments as the story demands. Also there is a ravishing love theme for the tender scenes with Katie and Paul. Augmented by biting brass figures the Zulu attack on the settler's wagons is scored for an array of African percussion instruments and is rousingly and dramatically rhythmic. Waxman's evocative music perfectly captures the movie's complex moods of adventure, love, pathos, bitterness and jealousy. Alongside "Prince Valiant" (1954) UNTAMED is Waxman's finest adventure score!UNTAMED is a somewhat forgotten minor epic and is possibly so because of its unavailability on either disc or tape which is something of a shame on the part of Fox Home Entertainment. But for those who are familiar with it it remains a memorable, enjoyable and colourful Cinemascope romance with two great stars in a picture that should be appreciated more and better known than it is.

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.