Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

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.

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.

I was amazed that Katie (Susan Hayward) could be such a bitch - so self-centered, so arrogant, so unappreciative, and so willfully embroiling Paul (Tyrone Power) and Kurt (Richard Egan) in a contest over her affections - and not be justifiably rewarded, even a little, by film's end. She slaps Paul in the face, teases and flirts, then rejects, then accepts Kurt, all while being in love (?) with Paul. I found it most incredible that Paul could lower himself to the point of actually pursuing (let alone ending up with) her after she tells him that she'd married her husband and had a child with him, watched him die (without a twinge of emotion) defending her and the wagon train, and came to South Africa in the first place just so she could be near him, Paul! This woman is unscrupulous to the nth degree, and that she could avoid any degree of lasting hellfire, and could repeatedly twist the two male love interests (Paul and Kurt) around her little finger throughout the film, was wholly unsatisfying. Kurt was somewhat hotheaded, and I'd have expected him to come to the end he does. But Paul seemed more rational, and should have disassociated himself from this woman as soon as he got that slap - but didn't. Life may be unjust, but in the movies we expect to see villainy uncovered and subject to its own reward. Not only was Katie not so repaid, but the male leads looked stupid in the process for not seeing who and what she really was. Thumbs down, all around!

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!"