Untamed Women (1952)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This film begins with an Army pilot named "Captain Steve Holloway" (Mikel Conrad) undergoing treatment in a hospital after suffering from a head injury which has affected his memory. As it so happens his bomber was hit by Japanese flak and he and his crew were subsequently forced to ditch the plane somewhere in the Pacific. After drifting in a life raft for 8 days they finally come upon an uncharted island where they are taken prisoner by a small party of native women back to their camp. At first the high priestess named "Sandra" (Doris Merrick) wants to have them killed. However, after much dancing and deliberation the rest of the women convince her to have the men mate with them instead. Unfortunately, this idea doesn't appeal to Sandra who unties them and forces them into the wilderness where they encounter all sorts of dangerous prehistoric animals and flesh-eating plants—and it's then that things become even more hazardous for everyone concerned. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather low-quality B-movie from the 50's which suffered from substandard acting and an even worse script. Likewise, although the special effects weren't that bad for this particular time-period, it should be noted that much of it was acquired directly from a previous film "One Million B.C." which diminishes my regard for the imagination and talent of those involved in producing it even more in my view. That said, I don't consider this to be a very good film and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

There's something rotten in the South Pacific, and it ain't Bloody Mary's teeth. One of the truly laughable movies of the 1950's yet not worth a cult following, this is truly a stinker. Man-hating women imprison fighters in World War II stranded on Druid Island, lost from.civilization for millennium yet complete with modern hairstyles and an uncanny ability to reproduce more women without a man around, at least one that lived to tell about it. Stock footage from One Million Years B.C. adds pre-historic creatures that are obviously enlarged mammals you'd see on a zoo, skewed to look creepy. These creatures give better performances than any of the human actors who were obviously reading cue cards. Actually, the male actors are reading the lines more realistically while the females are very one note in how they recite their lines. The explanation of how the women decide to free the men is pretty lame, although the leader of the Druids seems to know the dangers they might face. When one of the men is attacked by a supposed flesh eating plant, it actually appears to be two newspapers smacked over his face to emulate the obviously phony monster.The giant Jaramillo monster is perhaps the silliest looking of the critters, while what is supposed to be a dinosaur like critter is nothing more than a harmless gecko. The camera on the newly filmed footage moves at odd speeds at times, giving an impression of intended fast action. Stock footage of the volcano exploding is great, but I wanted to yell at the stupid characters, If the falling rocks don't get you, the lava will! Also laughable are "The hairy men" who look like residents of Dogpatch more than cavemen.If the film makes any point, it is the message that any female rib society will instantly collapse when men appear out of nowhere because no matter what their feminist leaders say, the others will ultimately be controlled by their hormones.

A recommendation. Watch this film while trying to do something meaningful, time-sensitive, and pressing. You won't be able to do so, as the intense, gripping visuals on screen combined with taut, precisely metered dialogue will inevitably and quickly rivet your attention this masterpiece.This is an important film, one which I had the privilege of viewing late one Sunday night recently on THIS TV movie channel. Hopefully, THIS will air it again, because as is the case with masterworks of layered subtlety, one must repeatedly examine the subject matter to discover all its nuances.The great Lyle Talbot contributes mightily the intellectual psychodrama of this period piece.Thespian Talbot's role as physician is deftly counterbalanced by what appears to be stock footage of cannibalistic spear-toting savages interspersed with imagery of Dinosaurs thrashing about, chasing the savages and women clad in loincloth all over what appears to be a desert wilderness outside L.A.Yes, this is one not to miss. As astute reviewers here note, this film indeed proves that the late Edward D. Wood, Jr. did not direct all the lousy films, in fact he had quite a bit of competition during his heyday.But given the inane, preposterous, utterly non-credible nature of this pile of celluloid trash, Mr. Wood would surely have lamented not having so done.A sprawling epochal film of taste and beauty, layered with spears, loincloths, and girlies, one which will delight discriminating viewers for many a decade hence.Please, if you see no other film this year, see "Untamed Women".Paul Vincent ZecchinoCritic of Critical MassManasota Key, Florida18 April, 2011

Okay, so it's a notch or two below the works of Orson Welles, but connoisseurs of tacky B-movies from the 1950s will find much to enjoy in this tale of four Air Force men who crash their World War II plane in the South Pacific and who then wind up on an island inhabited by a colony of beautiful women dressed in cavewoman chic. Especially notable is the dialog spoken by these women. Here are my four favorite lines: (1) "Thy lips are parched and dry." (2) "The ways of men are strange to us, O Sandra our priestess and protector." (3) "The strange-tongued one speaketh in riddles." (4) "They be only four and ye be many." There are visual delights as well, such as the footage of nervous-looking lizards crawling around miniature rocks and trees in an attempt to palm themselves off as some kind of dinosaurs. And then there's the exploding volcano in the final reel! However, these charms can't equal those found in "Island of Lost Women" because that movie has a more attractive cast. The females in "Untamed Women," for example, look like runner-up beauty queens from a small high school in Oklahoma, and the men are routine specimens who keep their clothes on. On the other hand, the females in "Island of Lost Women" rank on the va-va-voom scale and the two men are hot-looking hunks who shed their shirts faster than gay strippers at a New Year's Eve party.And finally, would someone explain why a woman from a two-thousand-year-old Druid culture living on an uncharted Pacific island be called "Sandra?"