Captive Wild Woman (1943)

STRANGEST OF SIGHTS... The brain of an animal... the form of a woman!

An insane scientist doing experimentation in glandular research becomes obsessed with transforming a female gorilla into a human...even though it costs human life.

Captive Wild Woman (1943) is a sci-fi horror film, starring John Carradine, Milburn Stone, Evelyn Ankers, and Acquanetta. It was released by Universal Pictures and was directed by Edward Dmytryk. The film comes from Universal but it doesn't fall into the category with Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man.  In fact, it's a bit goofy. The amazing thing is that it must have done well at the box office because it spawned two sequels...Jungle Woman and Jungle Captive. 

Most elements are traceable to glandular disorders.

 Without question John Carradine steals the show.  His mad scientist portrayal is sinister. He's going to complete his experiments....so what if people have to die.  This is science and it's actually Carradine's first leading role in a film. Evelyn Ankers is here, from Wolf Man fame, but her character or performance isn't very memorable.  Most of the movie is footage of lions and tigers getting whipped by a lion tamer. Seriously, at least half the movie is animal training sequences with Clyde Beatty from an old Universal film, The Big Cage.  If you're into Jungle Animals this is your film. 

Acquanetta is here as the woman that was created from the ape.  She has a certain animal magnetism but her performance is helped by the fact that she doesn't utter a single line of dialogue. There are more whip cracks than actual dialogue it seems in the film.  It''s a quick moving film that clocks in at about 61 minutes.  If you're a fan of old Universal horror you might want to take a gander if you want to view one of the lesser known titles. But I felt like a Captive Wild Man after about 40 minutes of the film.  

Arggggggggg

End Narrator:  So, behind these gates is buried the legend of a mortal who went beyond the realm of human powers and tampered with things no man should ever touch. 

Kevin Booker
Trivia:
The fight between a lion and a tiger in a circus was arranged but was real, and filmed live without editing.

Milburn Stone, generally used by Universal as a supporting player, played the lead because his wiry frame and naturally curly hair matched the archival shots of Beatty. 

Relies extensively on the use of archive footage from The Big Cage.

This was John Carradine's first leading role on screen, filmed from December 10-31, 1942. Release took place July 2, 1943. 

Clyde Beatty receives special thanks for "His cooperation in staging the thrilling animal sequences in this film"