Untamed Women |
USA • 1952 • 70m •
   • Directed by: W. Merle Connell. • Starring: Mikel Conrad, Doris Merrick, Richard Monahan, Mark Lowell, Morgan Jones, Midge Ware, Judy Brubaker, Carol Brewster, Autumn Russell, Lyle Talbot, Montgomery Pittman, Miriam Kaylor. • Music by: Raoul Kraushaar, Mort Glickman.     During World War II, an American bomber pilot is rescued after drifting at sea aboard a raft. After being administered truth serum, he tells the doctor a story of how he and the three survivors of his plane crash washed up on an island that was inhabited by a tribe of beautiful primitive cave-women, dinosaurs and a group of savage cavemen who are bent on abducting the women for breeding purposes.
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Review:
The "Untamed Women" have modern 50s suburban hairstyles and makeup, are plain and uncharismatic (they can't "act" at all, of course), have no muscle tone, are forced to mouth an unconvincing and unintentionally hilarious mix of Elizabethan English and pseudo-Shakespeare, and generally generate less erotic interest than the JC Penny lingerie catalog. The worst of the lot (because she is on camera more than the rest) is high priestess "Sandra", who couldn't read a line believably at gun point and couldn't "die" convincingly on camera if you actually shot her. (Not that I am suggesting anyone should. Bad performances are not a capital crime.)
The men aren't much better, although some of the fault lies in the ham-handed clichés of the screenplay. Quite early in the movie I began to hope that the comic relief guy (from "Brooklyn", of course) would fall into a volcano as soon as possible. His role (and performance) was even worse than Sid Melton's similar role in "Lost Continent.") I didn't think that was possible, but the actor,director, and screenplay managed to top Sid in almost every way. Um, does this call for a "Bravo" or a Bronx cheer?
Also memorably awful were the, um, "battle" sequences where the heroes battled the "Hairy Men", i.e. shot them. The Hairy Men are notable for their complete lack of energy or interest in the proceedings; they fight as though their limbs are made of wet noodles,and when they get "shot", they fall down as if struck by narcolepsy.
One other sign of a really shoddy budget screenplay is the way the movie ends; the whole tribe of women perishes "off camera" as the movie shows stock footage of a rock slide and a volcano eruption.So do their tormentors, the "Hairy Men". It's pretty obvious that the director either lost interest or ran out of money and just decided to pretend he'd resolved the plot with a deus-ex-machina ending that wasn't justified by anything that had come before.
Lyle Talbot is in here in a small part in the scenes that bookend the movie,and he gives his usual sturdy, dependable performance. It only makes the rest of the movie worse by comparison.
Review by lemon_magic from Wavy Wheat, Nebraska from the Internet Movie Database.
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