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Universal's most well-known monster movie €™s include Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster and even Creature from the Black Lagoon's Gill Man has his fans. Undoubtedly few people are familiar with the €œApe Woman. € The trilogy began with 1943's Captive Wild Woman, starring horror staples John Carradine and Evelyn Ankers. Although these flicks never achieved the level of popularity enjoyed by Universal's other cinematic beasties, this first film in the series entertains with its own set of funky little charms, coming across more as a "beauty and the beast" tale rather than an outright horror movie.
Milburn Stone &
Evelyn Ankers
Circus animal trainer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) has just returned from the heart of the jungle with a sizable haul of wild creatures to add to the show. In addition to numerous tigers and ferocious lions, Fred also has Cheela, an unusually intelligent ape. It's this particular specimen that piques the curiosity of Dr. Walters (Carradine), a brilliant scientist in the field of glandular disorders who harbors some decidedly unethical desires. Obsessed with crossing species and toying in God's domain, Dr. Walters absconds with Cheela and, through his ghastly experiments, transforms the ape into an exotic beauty he names Paula (Acquanetta) and who takes a quick liking to Fred. But after seeing the object of her affection in the loving arms of his girlfriend (Ankers), there's nothing to stop Paula's primal instincts from rearing their ugly and deadly head.
Captive Wild Woman's themes are familiar to anyone who's seen a
John Carridine
& Evelyn Ankers
Frankenstein flick. It's a standard cautionary tale that warns of the dangers of going too far in the name of science. In this film, the danger involves tempting Mother Nature a little too much, an idea that becomes paralleled by Stone and Carradine's characters. Just as Walters is a mad scientist toying with genetics in order to create all-new lifeforms, Fred's entire job revolves around taming nature's wildest beasts.
To me, Captive Wild Woman touches upon themes more effectively explored in Jacques Tourneur's Cat People, specifically those involving repressed sexuality and deeply-seeded instincts. Such themes are given a less serious polish here and are geared more towards spectacle than social commentary, but they're present nonetheless, giving the story a whole new sense of depth just on the "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" level.
As I mentioned before, Captive Wild Woman works less as a horror flick than it does as a rather bizarre love triangle. The only real thrills are the animal footage, which is fairly exciting but comes across more as a collective effort to pad out the already thin running time. You do still get to see some pretty decent make-up effects when Paula's primitive self starts to emerge. As for the acting, the cast unspectacularly but diligently fulfills their duties. Stone is the square-jawed hero, Carradine is the sinister villain, and as her character doesn't speak a word, one can tell Acquanetta was hired more for her eye candy appeal than her acting abilities.
While not as atmospheric as Dracula or flat-out fun as Creature from the Black Lagoon, Captive Wild Woman is offbeat and entertaining enough to warrant at least a little more exposure amongst Universal's classic horror slate. It's a silly-sounding premise that somehow pulls itself together into a more swift-moving and thematically-intriguing package than it easily could've turned out to be.
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Writers: Griffin Jay and Henry Sucher (story by Ted Fithian and Neil P. Varnick)
Cast: John Carradine, Acquanetta, Milburn Stone, Evelyn Ankers, Lloyd Corrigan
Rating: No MPAA Rating (nothing offensive)
Classic Movie Guide Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Run Time: 61 minutes
Studio: Universal Pictures
Format: Black-and-white, fullscreen
Photo credits: Universal Pictures
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