Untamed (1955)
9/10
Romantic action melodrama, short in action and long on romance...
8 August 1999
Warning: Spoilers
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...
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