jamesrupert2014 Review of Untamed Women

Untamed Women (1952)

An early entry in the 'sexy cave-women' genre - cheap and silly

[3/10 · 27 October 2023]

As recalled by a concussed, possibly deranged, man found floating in a life-raft, a downed U. S. bomber crew drifted onto an uncharted volcanic island inhabited by primeval creatures and by comely women who were the descendants of ancient Druid refugees and whose menfolk had recently been eradicated by rampaging cavemen. The story is sketchy and ludicrous, and is largely an excuse to recycle special effects footage from 1940's 'One Million BC' (the source of 'dinosaur' footage in a plethora of B-movies and TV programs) as the men pointlessly trudge through the monster-infested wastelands before returning to their starting point (only to be threatened by 'One Million BC's exploding volcano, lava and rockslides). The 'untamed women' (or the 'dolls' as they are frequently referred to) are statuesque, perfectly coiffed epitomes of early '50's beauty and, of course, they immediately fall in love with the rugged American flyboys. Despite being a hold-over from a religion that faded away millennia ago, they speakith in a pseudo-Shakespearian English (verily, they soundith more like American Quakers than Elizabethans). No explanation is hazarded as to why the island is populated by antediluvian monsters and hirsute cavemen, so the women's diction is not the film's greatest mystery. The Americans include the usual Hollywood G. I. tropes, a wiseacre from Brooklyn, a farm-boy from Arkansas, etc and the script is essentially a series of clichés held together by occasional plot-driving sentences. No one would expect that acting ability was high on the list of prerequisites when casting the lovely Druidesses but the men are terrible (although they were probably up to the material they were given). For a film with an apparently negligible budget, the opening crash of the B17 is pretty well done (except for the scenes in the spartan cockpit) and the movie's ending is not as 'Hollywood' as I smugly anticipated. Unfortunately for young men in the 1950's, the heights of the 'sexy cave-women' genre would not be reached until Raquel Welch battled Mesozoic horrors in a fur-bikini in 'One Million Years BC' (the 1966 remake of the Hal Roach classic that provided the aforementioned saurian beasties) or when Victoria Vetri left her primordial two-piece at the side of the swimming hole in 1970's 'When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth'.