La femme gorille

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.

John Carradine's first lead in a horror picture. He's a doctor and authority on glandular diseases who becomes interested in an extra-intelligent gorilla named Cheela. His plan is to use the blood of one of his human female patients to transfuse into the ape and turn her into a beautiful young woman (played by Acquanetta). The typical problem is that the ape tendencies keep on creeping back. This performer Acquanetta made several other films after this one, but she was always a terrible actress whenever she opened her mouth to speak a line. However, she pulls off the role as a human with primitive origins fairly well enough here by keeping mute and using her eyes and limited facial expressions. Sometimes things get a bit bogged down by an over-reliance on animal stock footage from THE BIG CAGE, but the presence of Carradine's mad doctor and a different breed of "girl monster" keep this a serviceable entry in Universal's horror series. **1/2 out of ****

"Captive Wild Woman" is a fun programmer from Universal. It's mostly notable for its exciting animal sequences, supervised by a man named Clyde Beatty (whose name is dropped in the script). John Carradine stars as a surgeon making a name for himself with his supposedly miraculous operations. Circus secretary Beth Colman (Evelyn Ankers) brings her younger sister (Martha Vickers) to Carradines' sanatorium for treatment, not knowing he's actually your typical mad scientist, obsessively transferring glands from one animal to another. He acquires the circus' new ape, Cheela (played by Ray Corrigan), and succeeds at transforming the gorilla into a stunningly sexy young woman (Acquanetta).

A wonderful cast all around also helps make this watchable: Milburn Stone is amiable as trainer Fred Mason, Lloyd Corrigan frets well as circus owner John Whipple, Fay Helm makes the most of her brief screen time as a worried nurse, and Paul Fix is a good drunken slime ball as ousted circus employee Gruen. Carradine refrains from hamming it up too much, delivering an enjoyable villainous performance. As you can see, he has no problem resorting to murder when he has to. Beatty doubles Stone for the long shots. And Turhan Bey recites the ending narration!

Handled in capable fashion by director Edward Dmytryk, this B monster picture is good, straightforward entertainment that leads to a thrilling climax.

Six out of 10.

Dr. Walters (John Carradine) has made great strides in his field of glandular transplants. But as his work progresses, the more unhinged his approach to his science becomes. Stealing a tame gorilla from the local circus, Walters transforms the gorilla into a beautiful woman whom he names Paula Dupree (Acquanetta). Upon taking Paula to the circus it's found that she has hypnotic powers over the lions and tigers and is promptly made part of the taming of the beasts act. But can Paula contain her true animal instincts?.

Sounds bonkers doesn't it? Well it is, but it's not the plot that makes the film so distinctly average. This is after all a low level Universal Pictures movie, we want, in fact demand, bizarre plots and berserker horror episodes. The problems exist with the complete lack of tension in the script, for a film that has a running time of just over an hour, you would think the big "transplant" and creation of "wild woman" would come sooner rather than later. But it doesn't, what we get is 45 minutes of musing about science and continual takes of circus animal training. With the latter containing some truly awful editing. Paula puts in an appearance late in the piece, then bang! it's pretty much the end and one can't help be disappointed after having stayed with it thus far.

Carradine hams it up and enjoys himself one feels, while Evelyn Ankers gives the other performance of note as Beth Colman. The film also serves as an interesting point of reference in the career of director Edward Dmytryk, who in the following few years would deliver some classics in a number of genres. He deserved better material here, hell they all did. But as ever with most of Universal's horror pictures, you end up taking the rough with the smooth and still enjoy yourself. A watchable yet frustrating experience it be. 5/10

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.