Three years ago, Parsta (Byron Keith), an Indian Maharajah who has been
turned into a guide in Africa due to a curse, has found Velda (Jacqueline
Fontaine), a savage girl who was reared by the apes and who can speak the
language of the animals. Parsta has managed to overcome her and brought
her back to civilisation, where she has soon fallen in love with Joseph.
Back in the now, despite Parsta's warnings, Joseph's brother Arthur
(Allan Nixon) wants to take her back to the jungle to see which side of
her will win out ver the other, the savage or the civilized side (why he
wants to find that out is at anyone's guess). So he has mounted a little
expedition, consisting of him, Velda, Joseph, photographer Cyril (Cliff
Taylor) and Parsta, but Parsta dies before the expedition even starts.
Soon - demonstrated by a weird dance by Velda with a shrunken head - it
becomes clear that Parsta's curse has passed on, but more of that later
...
At first its our little safari on a walk through the jungle, every now
and again stopping to observe the scenery and jungle animals aplenty, all
friends of Velda (and all stock footage of course), then they are even
attacked by some native tribe, but Velda manages to scare them away, and
finally they decide to go into gorilla country - not a pleasent spot to be
in, unless you are a gorilla. Once there, Velda soon catches the eye of
not one but two gorillas, who start a fight over her, while our heroes,
trying to save her, get killed.
In the end, Velda walks away with the victorious gorilla.
You might have guessed it, Untamed Mistress is utterly silly,
and it's not at all helped by a pointless story (why again are they going
into gorilla country), carelessly intercut footage of African wildlife or
native dances, nor by the fake looking gorilla costumes or even Velda's
dress which she chose to go into the jungle (now I have never been on a
safari, but my guess is her long dress is about the least suitalbe piece
of textile to wear on such an endeavor), or her weird dance sequence (that
is more reminiscent of a tame striptease performance than anything else).
And then there are of course wooden actors, bland dialogue and off-screen
narration, a pointless prologue about the Maharajah's curse, and so on ...
All this makes the film great, an unjustly masterpiece of inept but
totally entertaining moviemaking, right up there with the best films of Ed
Wood. This one just has to be seen to be believed, it's a laugh riot -
granted you will laugh at all the wrong moments, but it's great fun
nevertheless.
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