A Mulher Fera

Mad scientist Dr. Walters steals a tame gorilla named Cheela from animal trainer Fred Mason for use in his experiments. Through the use of sex hormones (!) and a brain transplant, Dr Walters turns Cheela into a beautiful woman whom he names Paula Dupree. When Walters brings Paula to the circus where Fred works, it is discovered that Paula has a hypnotic power over animals, and Fred uses her in his animal act. Paula becomes attracted to Fred, but she goes ape (literally) when she discovers Fred is engaged to Beth Coleman.

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN has an unjustified bad reputation among fans of the classic Universal horror films. Because the film spawned two poor sequels, this pretty good programmer shocker is often unfairly maligned. The film has good performances from Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone and especially John Carradine. John Carradine plays the mad scientist Dr. Walters with a cool icy demeanor. Its a surprisingly low key performance from Carradine. Acquanetta is perfect as the beautiful woman whom Dr. Walters creates from an ape. She projects a perfect exotic animal sensuality. Of course her role here is helped by the fact she does not utter a single line of dialog. Acquanetta was a fine looking woman, but she was never much of an actress. Edward Dmytrk handles the director chores well, the film is well paced and moves along at brisk 61 mins. One shudders to think what would the film would have been like if the studio brass handed the directorial chores to one of studio's standard hacks.

One problem with the film is inserting animal training sequences with Clyde Beatty from an old Universal film, THE BIG CAGE. While Stone resembles Beatty, some of these scenes are poorly inserted. In one scene we see Beatty in the cage with the lions and tigers. Then we see Stone enter the cage! The editor should of most certainly have caught this. To make matters worse, the same error turns up again when the studio used the same footage in the films sequel, JUNGLE WOMAN.

While CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN certainly doesn't rank among the classic the Universal horror films, its not a bad little saturday double bill shocker. However, the premise was only good for one film. The films two sequels were not warranted. I can't believe Universal actually thought Paula the Ape Woman was a potential classic monster like Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy and the Frankenstein Monster. They should have quit while they were ahead.

Silly, forgotten Universal horror film, now found on DVD in a Best Buy exclusive set. This one concerns a mad scientist with Nazi undertones (John Carradine) who kidnaps a circus gorilla and turns her into a human being (played by Acquanetta). As a human, Acquanetta has an uncanny ability to control lions and tigers, and is thus employed at a local circus (the one whence she, as the gorilla, was kidnapped) to help big cat tamer Milburn Stone. If Milburn Stone looks familiar, it's because he became famous as "Doc" Adams on Gunsmoke. The movie is silly but fun, with Carradine hamming it up like he usually does. And, while Acquanetta does little acting, she has a hypnotic look with those giant eyes. Unfortunately, the film, like many of the Universal Horror movies, ends abruptly, with a weird narration about the Carradine character. The animal work is pretty stunning for the time, and the editing is mostly convincing that Stone and the big cats are in the cage simultaneously. I would credit director Dmytryk, who was far too competent to be directing this kind of crap (the next year he would do the wonderful Murder My Sweet). If you love animals, you might be sickened at what is done to them. Lions and tigers are thrown into a cage and forced to fight each other. The one big fight ends with a fire hose, and the tiger, at least, looked like it was badly injured. The film is completely forgotten nowadays, but it did spawn two sequels.

I watched the films in the wrong order, though it hardly seemed to matter as the second film, "Jungle Woman" isn't exactly a sequel as so much of the story has been changed. Instead of being the product of a truly evil scientist (John Carradine), the ape is transformed into a hot woman by a nice scientist and there's also no mention of the story in "Captive Wild Woman". Odd...but this sort of thing was not unusual in Universal's horror films of the 1940s...they often contradicted each other.

A lady has a sister with some odd glandular disorder...so she takes him to Dr. Walters (Carradine). Little do they know that the nice scientist is actually completely evil and plans on experimenting on the sick sister. He plans on using her body to help turn an ape he stole become human-looking...all thanks to the miracle of glands. Along the way, his stupid assistant* gets in the way, so he sacrifices her...all in the name of scientist.

The new creation Walter dubs 'Paula Dupree' and she soon becomes the assistant to Fred the lion and tiger tamer. This is because Paula can hypnotize animals to do her bidding just by staring at them...and staring is what Acquanetta was REALLY good at doing throughout this film. Apart from a little tantrum and sequence where she looks a bit like a cheap wolfman, she really isn't given much to do other than stare. And, this staring she-freak is in love with Fred...but without a conscience, there's no telling WHAT she'll do!

This is not a terrible film but is about what you'd expect from a second-tier Universal horror movie. It entertains (particularly because of Carradine's cool performance as the goofy doc!) and is pretty much what fans of the genre will enjoy. It's also just a bit better than its sequel.

By the way, the exotic looking Acquanetta was actually originally Mildred Davenport...from Wyoming! So, despite the press releases from Universal, she was NOT the Venezuelan Volcano!

Scientist and surgeon John Carradine, having worked miracles in the area of glandular research, now wants to change a stolen gorilla into a woman - why? We really never understand his motivation, but what we do get in Captive Wild Woman is a pretty entertaining ride that one can learn to expect from Universal Studios. Ferocious lions and tigers, a fairly good imitation of a gorilla, John Carradine hamming it up, Milburn Stone reminding me of Gunsmoke every minute he is on film, Evelyn Ankers wearing outfits that only Auntie Mame would wear, and the beautiful, silent Acquanetta all make this a very unique and welcomed addition to the Universal pantheon of horror goodies. Though not a great film, this one packs a punch for a 61 minute film. Never a dull lull in the action. Carradine plays a very suave, polished doctor that is utterly crazy, mad, and heartless. It is a pretty good performance from Mr. Carradine. The rest of the cast is very able. Ankers and the silent girl transformed from ape - Acquanetta - are appealing eye candy as well. A couple quick notations. Ms. Ankers is a secretary, yet has a wardrobe of a wealthy socialite. She apparently lives in a boarding house, as in one scene she is in a bed witnessing the ape woman coming into her room by the window - a landlady type comes to the door way across the other side of the room. The landlady yells and runs and the ape woman, rather than killing her intended victim inches away from her - runs way across the other side of the room and down the hallway to kill a woman for no reason. Hmmm. Despite these little observations, a highly recommended film. Hope this one comes out on DVD soon.

This is a terrific fun movie to watch, to see how great Universal Studio was back in the early 40s, when they could whip up this glittering little gem on a very low budget. For one thing, its technical crew and cast were all the very best. Evelyn Ankers shows her classic horror heroine side and her screams are among the best. Cult B-Actress, Fay Helm, plays one of her nurse roles and is fantastic, especially when she defies the mad scientist, John Carradine--also in top form--about the dangers of transfusing human blood into a gorilla. Sultry starlet, Acquanette, says not a word but is wonderful eye candy in her short, sexy skirts. Her transformation into a human gorilla is stunning. Lots of stock footage of animal tamer, Clyde Beatty, although it's supposed to be Milburn STone (later of "Gunsmoke" fame) in the lion cages. Wonderful photography and lighting. Vera West does outstanding job outfitting Ankers, especially in her fur hat and coat in the finale. Ankers supposedly hated making movies, especially the ones that Universal type-cast her in. Her talents were criminally wasted since she proved her talent in Sherlock Holmes "Pearl of Death" where she plays 3-4 roles and especailly "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" where she plays the heroic Kitty, the prostitute. Watch her go to town in "Weird Woman" where she plays one of her rare villains. Helm never had big roles but she always made the few minuts on screen really count. She was also "Jenny" in the "Wolf Man" and her greatest role as Margaret Ingston in the horror classic, "Night Monster" where she and another acting great, Doris LLoyd, steal the movie right out from under the hideous "Night Monster."