Guilty Pleasures: Untamed

1955 Romance Drama
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Henry King

Starring
Tyrone Power
Susan Hayward
Richard Egan
Agnes Moorehead
Rita Moreno
John Justin
Hope Emerson
Brad Dexter

First we'll start with that guilty pleasures label.  Trust me, I find far more pleasure in the movie than I do any guilt.  I am fully aware that it's not as good as it could have been or should have been and I am aware that critics savaged it.  But the hell with all that.  I don't care.  I've always loved Africa-themed stories, it is gorgeously filmed and has two of my very favorite stars... no wait, make that four favorites.  It had my name written all over it.

Untamed is a big sprawling story and feels like something based on an Edna Ferber novel.   It also has a distinct feel of a big western.  It opens in Ireland in 1847, around the time of the great potato famine.  Tyrone Power is in from Africa visiting Susan Hayward's family with the intent of buying a few of their best horses.  Back home he is the leader of the Dutch Free State, a Boer operation of commandos fighting the British.  They are having great success in their efforts.  For Power it is living a dream and he doesn't allow anything or anyone to get in his way.

That includes Hayward who is immediately attracted to him.  She may live in a grand home while he lives in the jungle but he tells her she is uncivilized which she resents.  One wonders how she would have responded to willful and undisciplined which is closer to the truth.  They enjoy brief moments of romance but she is upset when he leaves with his horses without saying goodbye.

She ups and marries John Justin, a neighbor, and although she hasn't much passion for him, they do have a child and all seems well until the famine drives them out of Ireland.  Along with Moorehead as the child's nursemaid, they decide to relocate to South Africa.

The family purchases some land but it is a considerable distance from where they disembark so they join an oxen-driven wagon train that is departing for the area.  In the film's most exciting sequence, the wagons form a circle (or laager in Afrikaans) while a couple thousand Zulus attack them.  The folks in the wagon train number only 100 or so but they have guns while the Zulu have only spears.  Nonetheless, the settlers are about to be overrun when Power and his forces arrive to save the day.  Just as Power arrives, Justin is killed, leaving Hayward a free and needy woman.

Power is surprised to find Hayward in his country but he warms up to her which she misinterprets that he is now seeing things more her way.  They run into Egan who is a friend of Power's.  Egan falls hard for Hayward but when he discovers after a long period of mooning that she only has eyes for Power, he goes mad with jealousy and the two men get into a fight involving bullwhips.  

Hayward and Moorehead farm the land with the help of a few locals.  Egan comes on board and manages the property for her, whipping it into shape.  He tries again to whip Hayward into shape and when that again fails, he marches out and begins chopping down her prized tree, which she has already told him to not do.  At the same time, a fierce storm kicks up and a large branch falls on Egan.  His leg is seriously injured but there's no way to get a doctor to him quickly so Hayward has her lead worker cut it off.

Her decision is what is required for Egan to move on.  He becomes the leader of an outlaw band that is Power's enemy.  At the same time Hayward must leave her beloved home and land because she can no longer handle it without Egan.  As she is selling off her possessions, a tribesman gives her a diamond about the size of a lime, making her very wealthy.

She buys an estate in Capetown and becomes influential in local government.  Power shows up again and she is instrumental in helping him some on political issues.  They resume their shaky affair and she becomes pregnant which he doesn't know because he's off to the Boer Wars again. 

By the end of the film her extravagances have taken all her money and she loses her mansion.  She sets out to return to the old homestead, still not knowing how she's going to make it, and runs into a skirmish involving both Power and Egan, the latter of whom is now a certified louse.  Of course he dies.  As luck will have it (and not much sense), Power suddenly gives up his cause, hops in the seat of the covered wagon and heads off with Hayward, Moorehead and the two boys.

I'm not real clear why Hayward's character had to be such  a... a... well, you know.  It was hard to like her which, in turn, made it difficult to care about her which, in turn, made the whole movie a lost cause for some.  And frankly, my dears, I don't like it one bit.  It might have been a better movie had there been a little restructuring on the lead character.  That's not all.  Why don't we know more about what Power's up to instead of merely hearing about it... or largely so?  A little more of that would have given the film more value, more real drama and a little less of Hayward undulating.  Dressing up the film with gorgeous visuals does not hide the fact that there's an occasional pulpy mess feeling to it.  I blame Fox.  They didn't try to make it all it could have been.

While not the top-billed star, Hayward has the leading role.  It could easily be said that she also has the title role although she certainly shares it with South Africa.  One might even question why she took it, especially in the same year that she made one of her greatest films, I'll Cry Tomorrow.  

I think there's a couple of avenues worth exploring.  One avenue is well traveled... she needed the dough.  She was going through a highly-contentious divorce with B-actor Jess Barker and the custody of their twin sons was at stake.  Her sky-rocketing fame, the uneven income, the drinking, the insults were the frequent results of a greater issue which was each was only a mediocre spouse and parent.  And of course, the final stinger is that both just wanted to be right... come what may.

She needed to be away from home, to concentrate on something else and she was grateful that Fox, her home studio, would come to the rescue.  It was a grand time for her to be playing a character who is in a perpetually bad mood because she certainly was.  She'd be working with Power again... it had been four years since they appeared in Rawhide.  And the studio wanted to reteam them.

She was thrown a wrench when Barker's lawyers forbade Hayward to take the twins out of the country.  Fox rescued by informing that not only would she not need to go to Africa but, in fact, none of the principal actors would.  Most of Untamed, therefore, was filmed at Fox's large Malibu ranch,   Fox still sent a crew to South Africa to film much that is seen on screen but just not with principal actors. I'm not saying that I spotted the difference, even in the great wagon train sequence, but it felt like a cheat when I did learn of it.

Another piece of the lure for Hayward signing on is this part had a touch of Scarlett O'Hara.  Hayward always regretted that she didn't nab that iconic role.  But she was always looking for something suitable.   She likely partially accepted her role of a willful southern belle in Tap Roots (1948) to get as close to Scarlett was possible.  She felt Untamed could be another chance.  The story had an epic feel, it was about another tough, beautiful woman who has an attachment to the land and several suitors.  Even if the comparison is far-fetched, it can be said that Hayward capitalized and was very good at playing strong women who suffer a great deal.  

One thing that made her very happy was that Egan was in the cast. In real life they had been lovers for a spell, around the time they were making Demetrius and the Gladiators (1952).  He was not married and she was separated... and though the romance cooled, the friendship didn't.

I regard this as one of Egan's best films.  In one of the few times he played a villain, I must say the man was convincing.  There is that deep voice, of course, that if it wants to go to the dark side, it sounds downright scary.  And the actor always was given to staring or maybe watching is a better word... but silently.  Again, when there are nefarious issues backing that watching, it is chilling.  He's one of the best reasons for seeing this film.  One nice twist is he didn't start out in the story as a villain.  He was a nice guy but he was sick in love with Hayward and it wasn't returned. 

Egan & Power laughing after their big fight scene

I wonder why Power accepted a role where he wasn't the central character.  His performance is fine without it being anything outstanding.  I think a character so enmeshed in discourse, fighting, strife would be a little more fired up in the home scenes and instead he acted as though he had just come off the golf course.  And one reason he didn't have the largest part is because he's always off fighting somewhere and the camera doesn't stay with him. 

Power, too, was having marriage problems.  His tempestuous quasi-marriage to C-actress Linda Christian was unraveling, becoming daily gossip column fodder, and he was glad he was going to South Africa and awfully unhappy when that changed.  It was not difficult for him to find a place to stay.

He knew he took on the role because it would end his long servitude to Fox and he was eager to try some things the studio wouldn't consider, particularly being the villain.

Of course, we didn't have one fiery redhead in Untamed, we had two... Hayward and Moorehead.   One might have expected fireworks but these two, like two cats in a cage, stayed wary enough of one another to respect limits.  They had worked together in 1947's The Lost Moment and would make the ill-fated The Conqueror in 1956.  

Moorehead and Egan also buddied up on this film which was why they enjoyed seeing one another again on The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956) and Pollyanna (1960).  And Moorehead and Power also worked together on stage.

Old friends Moorehead and Power on the set

Does anyone remember Hope Emerson?  She was a big woman, over 6' tall, and that size often found her playing a villain.  I am sure at least twice she was a prison warden or matron.  She was a good person here... an old hand at maneuvering through South Africa's ways and a big help to Hayward and her clan.

We've written of director Henry King before.  He was one of Fox's most trusted directors.  His specialty seemed to be delivering portraits of Americana in historical dramas on an epic scale.  He and Power were the best of friends, having previously made nine films together and would make one more.  Hayward also made three films with the director.

Franz Waxman's dramatic score is one of the film's definite highlights.

I must include a short blurb on the movies' Production Code, those arbiters of Hollywood's and the country's morals and refinement.  Not much got by them but how in the hell Hayward having a baby out of wedlock (if you need to, google that expression) in 1955 got by them is way beyond me.   

So there.  Of course, in anticipation of writing this, I watched Untamed one more time.   It was a snowy Sunday afternoon, I had snacked up, put my favorite bankey over me and settled in for some good Technicolor fun.

Here, take a peek:

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