Untamed (1929 film)
Encyclopedia
Untamed is a 1929
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
drama
/comedy
/romance
motion picture
starring Joan Crawford
and Robert Montgomery
. Others in the cast include Ernest Torrence
, Holmes Herbert
, Gwen Lee
, and Lloyd Ingraham.
Directed
by Jack Conway
, the script
was adapted by Sylvia Thalberg and Frank Butler, with dialogue
by Willard Mack
, from a story by Charles E. Scoggins. Original music was composed by Louis Alter
, Nacio Herb Brown
and William Axt
. Lyrics were written by Arthur Freed
and Joe Goodwin. Costumes were designed by Adrian
.
Made during MGM's transition from silent
to sound
movies, Untamed was Crawford's first talkie. It was the first role as a leading man for Montgomery, who made several silents before this film. It was also the first commercially released film to feature an explicit sex scene that caused a slight controversy at the time.
In the opening scene, Crawford dances as she sings the theme song, "Chant of the Jungle," written by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, which became a hit in 1929
. She and Montgomery sing the Louis Alter and Arthur Freed tune "That Wonderful Something Is Love."
Untamed was a big success at the box-office.
. He asks his friend, Ben Murchison (Torrence), to come work with him on oil wells that have paid off. Just as Ben arrives with Howard Presley (Herbert), however, Hank is killed by an oil worker who has designs on Bingo.
She has now inherited her father's company and wealth. Ben is appointed her guardian. She calls him and Howard both uncles, though they are not related. She is sassy and without refinement, hitting anyone she disagrees with. Her "uncles" decide that the wild Bingo should move to New York City
, learn proper deportment and enter society. While they are aboard the ocean liner, she meets the young, good-looking and well-educated charmer Andy McAllister (Montgomery).
It is love at first sight for Bingo and Andy, who sing a few songs. In New York, Andy continues seeing her. Because she is wealthy and he isn't, however, he is afraid of what people might think and tells her that he cannot marry her and live off her money. To complicate the situation further, Bingo's Uncle Ben discourages the relationship. He even offers Andy money to leave her.
When Andy turns to Marjory (Lee), an irate Bingo loses her temper and shoots him in the shoulder. They make up immediately after the shooting and forgive each other. Changing his mind about leaving her, Andy decides that Bingo is the woman for him and wants to marry her.
1929 in film
-Events:The days of the silent film are numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound is on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona is released. The film is the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
/comedy
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
/romance
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
starring Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
and Robert Montgomery
Robert Montgomery (actor)
Robert Montgomery was an American actor and director.- Early life :Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the New...
. Others in the cast include Ernest Torrence
Ernest Torrence
Ernest Torrence was a Scottish born film character actor who appeared in many Hollywood films, including Broken Chains with Colleen Moore,Mantrap with Clara Bow, and Fighting Caravans with Gary Cooper and Lili Damita...
, Holmes Herbert
Holmes Herbert
Holmes Herbert was an English character actor who appeared in Hollywood films from 1915 to 1952.Born as 'Horace Jenner', Holmes Herbert emigrated to the United States in 1912. He was the first son of Ned Herbert , who worked as and actor/comedian in the English Theatre...
, Gwen Lee
Gwen Lee
Gwen Lee was an American film actress from Hastings, Nebraska. Her given name was Gwendolyn Lepinski.-Acting career:...
, and Lloyd Ingraham.
Directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Jack Conway
Jack Conway (film-maker)
Jack Ryan Conway was a film director and film producer, as well as an actor of many films in the first half of the 20th century....
, the script
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was adapted by Sylvia Thalberg and Frank Butler, with dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
by Willard Mack
Willard Mack
Willard Mack was a Canadian-born actor, director, and playwright.Born Charles McLaughlin, in Morrisburg, Ontario, at an early age his family moved to Brooklyn, New York. After two years, they relocated to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where McLaughlin finished high school...
, from a story by Charles E. Scoggins. Original music was composed by Louis Alter
Louis Alter
Louis Alter was an American pianist, songwriter and composer. Alter was 13 when he began playing piano in theaters showing silent films...
, Nacio Herb Brown
Nacio Herb Brown
Nacio Herb Brown was an American writer of popular songs, movie scores, and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s.-Biography:...
and William Axt
William Axt
William Axt was an American composer of nearly two hundred film scores.Born in New York City, Axt graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in The Bronx and studied at the National Conservatory of Music of America...
. Lyrics were written by Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed
Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
and Joe Goodwin. Costumes were designed by Adrian
Adrian (costume designer)
Adrian Adolph Greenberg , most widely known as Adrian, was an American costume designer whose most famous costumes were for The Wizard of Oz and other Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films of the 1930s and 1940s. During his career, he designed costumes for over 250 films and his screen credits usually read as...
.
Made during MGM's transition from silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
to sound
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
movies, Untamed was Crawford's first talkie. It was the first role as a leading man for Montgomery, who made several silents before this film. It was also the first commercially released film to feature an explicit sex scene that caused a slight controversy at the time.
In the opening scene, Crawford dances as she sings the theme song, "Chant of the Jungle," written by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, which became a hit in 1929
1929 in music
-Events:*January 1 – Pianist and composer Abram Chasins makes his professional debut playing his own piano concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra.*January 11 – Karol Szymanowski's Stabat Mater is premiered....
. She and Montgomery sing the Louis Alter and Arthur Freed tune "That Wonderful Something Is Love."
Untamed was a big success at the box-office.
Cast
- Joan CrawfordJoan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
- Alice 'Bingo' Dowling - Robert MontgomeryRobert Montgomery-Public officials and clergymen:*Robert Montgomery , or Robert Montgomerie, Archbishop of Glasgow, 1581–1585*Sir Robert Montgomery , Irish-born British Colonial official in India...
- Andy McAllister - Ernest TorrenceErnest TorrenceErnest Torrence was a Scottish born film character actor who appeared in many Hollywood films, including Broken Chains with Colleen Moore,Mantrap with Clara Bow, and Fighting Caravans with Gary Cooper and Lili Damita...
- Ben Murchison - Holmes HerbertHolmes HerbertHolmes Herbert was an English character actor who appeared in Hollywood films from 1915 to 1952.Born as 'Horace Jenner', Holmes Herbert emigrated to the United States in 1912. He was the first son of Ned Herbert , who worked as and actor/comedian in the English Theatre...
- Howard Presley - John MiljanJohn MiljanJohn Miljan was an American actor of Serbian origin. He appeared in 201 films between 1924 and 1958.He died from cancer.-Selected filmography:* The Lone Chance * Silent Sanderson...
- Bennock - Gwen LeeGwen LeeGwen Lee was an American film actress from Hastings, Nebraska. Her given name was Gwendolyn Lepinski.-Acting career:...
- Marjory 'Marge' - Edward Nugent - Paul
- Don Terry - Gregg
- Gertrude AstorGertrude AstorGertrude Astor was an American motion picture character actress, who began her career playing trombone on a riverboat.-Career:...
- Mrs. Mason - Milton J. Fahrney - Mr. Jollop
- Lloyd Ingraham - Henry 'Hank' Dowling
- Tom O'BrienTom O'Brien (actor)Thomas Patrick "Tom" O'Brien is an American actor since the age of sixteen, having first trained at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where he appeared in ACT's mainstage productions of The Holdup; and A Midsummer Night's Dream as Puck, opposite Annette Bening.O'Brien's feature...
- Moran, the Bartender - Wilson Benge - Billcombe, the Butler
Synopsis
An oil prospector, Henry "Hank" Dowling (Ingraham), has raised his free-spirited daughter, Alice "Bingo" Dowling (Crawford), in the jungle of South AmericaSouth America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. He asks his friend, Ben Murchison (Torrence), to come work with him on oil wells that have paid off. Just as Ben arrives with Howard Presley (Herbert), however, Hank is killed by an oil worker who has designs on Bingo.
She has now inherited her father's company and wealth. Ben is appointed her guardian. She calls him and Howard both uncles, though they are not related. She is sassy and without refinement, hitting anyone she disagrees with. Her "uncles" decide that the wild Bingo should move to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, learn proper deportment and enter society. While they are aboard the ocean liner, she meets the young, good-looking and well-educated charmer Andy McAllister (Montgomery).
It is love at first sight for Bingo and Andy, who sing a few songs. In New York, Andy continues seeing her. Because she is wealthy and he isn't, however, he is afraid of what people might think and tells her that he cannot marry her and live off her money. To complicate the situation further, Bingo's Uncle Ben discourages the relationship. He even offers Andy money to leave her.
When Andy turns to Marjory (Lee), an irate Bingo loses her temper and shoots him in the shoulder. They make up immediately after the shooting and forgive each other. Changing his mind about leaving her, Andy decides that Bingo is the woman for him and wants to marry her.