Untamed

Both leads were perfectly cast in the silly romance Untamed. Joan Crawford played a wild gypsy, who, after being exposed to civilization for the first time, still acts like a savage beast. Robert Montgomery plays a refined society playboy who falls for Joan's beauty and tries to kindly educate her with better manners. She tries to scare off female competition, and Bob tells her she just can't go around threatening to punch people in the nose. "Why not?" she asks.

In her early, very pretty days, Joan eats up her scenes with energy and hilarious melodrama. The film itself is very dated, so I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch it unless they're a fan of the cast. Nowadays, it's looked at as misogynistic to try and tame a woman's wild impulses and get her to act like a "lady". But in 1929, it was very funny to watch the glamorous Joan Crawford embarrass herself in polite society. Give this movie a watch if you like her early days, and you'll be rewarded with a couple of dance numbers, as well as a song from Robert Montgomery!

One of the first MGM soundies full of music, dance, drama and Joan Crawford! The early Crawford personality emerges as a feisty, likable, love-of-life character and she is wonderful! She is so different from her later 50's and 60's roles. If you have not viewed any of Crawford's silent movies or the early soundies, you should consider it. You can see the emergence of her acting abilities and even peg some of her acting characteristics that she carried with her throughout her entire 50 year career. Ernest Torrence is an engaging father figure, a marvelous character actor. Robert Montgomery (who appeared with JC six times) is the love interest torn between culture and animal. Lloyd Ingraham appears as the Crawford character's father early on. A must-see for film lovers interested in viewing early sound films.

Untamed (1929)

** (out of 4)

After her father is murdered, Bingo (Joan Crawford) gets taken away from the South American jungles and heads to New York City. Even though she pretty much grew up as a wild child, her father's friend (Ernest Torrence) is given control of her and he objects when she falls in love with a poor boy (Robert Montgomery) so the two kids must prove that they're right for one another. This early talkie from MGM is about as predictable as it can get and it's highly doubtful that the viewer isn't going to know what's coming from around each corner so this film is pretty much just for Crawford fans who must see everything the actress did in her career. The entire film has a pretty strange vibe to it because when we first meet the Bingo character she's doing some crazy tribal dance and you really think that she's some wild child that you'd expect to see in a Lon Chaney film. After no time she settles down to be quite normal and this here is never really explained but Crawford's performance was pretty interesting. She was somewhat over-the-top in a good way while playing the wild child but she settled down during the section portion of the film and in the end she's the only reason to watch this thing. It's rather amazing to see how well she transformed into a sound star and you have to think that she was among the best to do so. Montgomery isn't too bad in his part but the screenplay does him no favors. Torrence is a tad bit all over the place but I still enjoyed watching him. At just 85-minutes the film is a little creaky in spots and there's no doubt that the pacing is a bit off. Still, Crawford fans might want to check it out but others should stay clear.

From her first scenes looking bronzed as a Tahitian as she sings and dances on the beach at night, to the porcelain aristocratic beauty she presents later in the film, Joan Crawford shines in a role that she seems born to play. The film combines melodrama and comedy to bizarre contrast, and features a number of choice supporting performances (and accents!) Young and handsome Robert Montgomery plays the object of Crawford's affection, and such is the level of her love that when she is told that "the woods are full of men like him", she replies, "take me to the woods." This film also might show her earliest use of a Crawford trademark prop, the revolver.

The first talkie for pretty much every actor or actress from this Era is either lesser known or painfully mocked. Perhaps the only actress with a lucky first talkie was Greta Garbo.

Despite this being "A Crawford film I hate" in my book, I don't technically hate it. I wouldn't watch it again, but if it were playing on TCM one day or I saw a copy in a store, I would probably watch/buy it.

Untamed does, after all, have an unfair advantage in my book by having Joan Crawford, who I like, and Robert Montgomery, who I also like. It's very creaky, and manages to be overlong despite only having a runtime of just under 90 minutes. But it's also the first talkie of both stars, and both would go onto better (and much worse) things. Joan definitely looks the part of "wild girl" when she's supposed to, blunders in society when she's supposed to, and has chemistry with Bob. Her character is definitely adorable. She also kind of looks like Gloria Swanson in the first thirty or so minutes of this film- did anyone else notice that? For someone who "couldn't act" She does a decent job. So does Robert Montgomery.

There are rather obvious fade to black scenes where you can tell that there were meant to be title cards, but hey, it was 1929. The stars get a chance to charm their way through the film, even with rather stupid dialogue (Joan's characterization is adorable, unfortunately Robert is stuck playing a cad even more caddish than his usual cad), sing off-key (far from the worst I've ever heard), mime playing a guitar romantically (not Joan), and get into a fight (looks kind of comical, but there you go- it was 1929).

Maybe it would be better if I viewed this film as a quaint little antique, but I don't like looking at films like this like that, and I don't like people who look at films like this like that.

I came for Joan, and I saw Joan, and I was satisfied, and that was all that mattered.

Who cares that the plot stunk?