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the audience applauded

Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

Excellent adaptation.

I'm sorely tempted to side with two of the previous reviewers and give this movie a nil rating, but it's not really all that bad! Copyright 1955 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 11 March 1955. U.S. release: 3 March 1955. U.K. release: July 1955. Australian release: 4 August 1955. 111 minutes. Censored to 109 minutes in the U.K.SYNOPSIS: Katie O'Neill (Hayward) meets Paul Van Riebeck (Power), a South African Boer bigwig, when he comes to Ireland to buy horses. They fall for each other, but Paul does not want to get married until he establishes a Boer state in South Africa. COMMENT: Impossibly trite. For once it's easy to choose the movie's worst feature. The banal script wins hands down over the hammy and amateurish acting and the consistently lackluster direction. The plot is, to say it as kindly as possible, such utterly ridiculous tosh, even the most unsophisticated audience would laugh it off the screen. It's also racist and badly dated. If were not so laughably unbelievable, it would have been blandly offensive. What passes for characterization are actually the most superficial and poorly motivated of cardboard figures. Even worse is the dialogue which for sheer banality and lack of drama would be difficult to match.Admittedly, the story, poorly motivated though it is and proceeding in a series of fits and starts, does lay on a bit of action and it is set against some awesome and fascinating backgrounds. But the actors were handed an impossible task to bring warmth and sympathy to such posturing, paste-board characters. Susan turns on all the synthetic mannerisms at her command; Egan grimaces and rants; Power just says his lines. The support cast players have little impact. King's direction is dull and even some of the action scenes are limply staged. The film runs on and on, seemingly without end. Despite some obvious back projection, the locations rather than the actors or the story, make the most impression.

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.

This movie is by far one of the best with Susan Hayward and Tyrone Power. I have seen it many times over and enjoy seeing it again.If anyone ever gets the chance to view it, please do so.. You won't be disappointed.

Katie O'Neill (Susan Hayward) first meet Paul Van Riebeck (Tyrone Power), a leader of the South African Boers, when he comes to Ireland on a horse-buying trip... The two fall in love, but Paul, intent on establishing a Dutch Free State back home, has no time to settle down and refuses to marry her while he has this commitment... Several years pass and Katie has wed Shawn Kildare (John Justin). When the great potato famine of the 1850s strikes Ireland, Katie, still in love with Paul, persuades Shawn that they should go to South Africa to start a new life... They sail with their infant son and his nurse, Aggie (Agnes Moorehead), and in Capetown, join a group of homesteaders on a trek to the interior, where en route, Katie catches the eye of handsome Kurt Hout (Richard Egan), leader of a band of outriders... A surprise Zulu attack on the wagon train is broken up by the timely appearance of Paul Van Riebeck and his men, but during the fighting, Shawn is killed... Paul does what he can to comfort Katie but finds that Kurt Hout, an old friend, already has made clear his interest in the newly widowed homesteader... When the wagon train finally reaches its destination, Hoffen Valley, Katie convinces Paul to settle down with her, but their happiness is short-lived... Paul leaves to continue his work with the Free State movement, unaware that Katie is carrying his child...Kurt, very upset for not being desired, becomes a dangerous outlaw, enemy of the authority... Rita Moreno plays his mistress...Katie is the example of the brave intelligent, ambitious, lucky lady... She proves her courage, persistence and full determination to win as a wife, a mother, and a woman in love... Filmed in the "grandeur" of CinemaScope, "Untamed" is a romantic action melodrama, short in action and long on romance...The role of Kurt Hout was originally intended for Victor Mature, but he was replaces by Richard Egan...