BY FRED BLOSSER
Universal
Pictures released three horror films about Paula Dupree, the Ape Woman, as it
attempted to refresh its aging portfolio of monster series in the early
1940s. “Captive Wild Woman†debuted in
1943, followed by two sequels, “Jungle Woman†(1944) and “Jungle Captiveâ€
(1945). Paula Dupree never made a
lasting impact on popular culture as other Universal horror characters did,
coming too late in the studio’s 15-year horror run to gain much traction. By 1945, when “Jungle Captive†was dumped
onto a double-bill with “The Frozen Ghost,†the cycle was on its last
gasp. There was never an Aurora
scale-model kit for the Ape Woman in the mid-1960s as there were for the
studio’s more famous monsters, and nary a word about Paula when Universal
started making noises a few years ago about reviving its trademarked monsters
for a new “Dark Universe†film franchise. The “Dark Universe†concept has since tanked. Maybe they should have thought about the Ape
Woman. At any rate, even if Paula never
made much of a stir in the public imagination at large, she was seriously
creepy and unforgettable for us impressionable kids who saw the trilogy on
late-night “Shock Watch†TV packages in 1961. Now, Scream Factory has released the Ape Woman series in a new Blu-ray
set, “Universal Horror Collection: Volume 5,†its fifth licensed compilation of
vintage Universal horror and thriller films. “The Monster and the Girl,†also in the package, is an unrelated 1941
Columbia Pictures melodrama that shares the theme of a killer ape with vengeful
human emotions in a noirish 1940s setting. It’s an unexpected fit with the other three pictures, but a good one.
“Captive
Wild Woman,†directed by Edward Dmytryk, introduces Paula. Big-game trapper Fred Mason (Milburn Stone)
returns from Africa with new lions for the John Whipple Circus. His prize find, though, is a friendly female
gorilla, Cheela. A demented but
outwardly urbane medical scientist, Dr. Sigmund Walters (the inimitable John
Carradine), meets Fred and Cheela through Fred’s fiancee, Beth (Evelyn Ankers),
whose sister he is treating for a hormonal disorder in his isolated clinic, the
Crestview Sanitarium. Fred proposes to
become Cheela’s personal trainer, but the gorilla mysteriously disappears --
stolen by Dr. Walters, who sees unusual potential in the ape’s high level of
intelligence. Using hormones from Beth’s
sister Dorothy (Martha MacVicar, who later changed her screen name to Martha
Vickers) and human brain tissue from another unwilling donor, Dr. Walters
secretly transforms Cheela from gorilla into human as a beautiful brunette,
whom he calls Paula Dupree (Acquanetta). When Paula saves Fred from an attacking lion by giving the lion her
Cheela stare, Fred decides that her uncanny ability would be an asset in his
act, having no clue that Paula was once Cheela. It doesn’t hurt her chances in show biz, either, that she looks gorgeous
in a sparkly, short-skirted circus outfit. But Paula remembers Cheela’s fondness for Fred, and when she becomes
jealous of Beth, her anthropoid tendencies return and she reverts partway to
gorilla form.
Undiscriminating
audiences in 1943 may not have thought much about the film’s ping-pong between
the John Whipple Circus and Crestview Sanitarium. B-movie escapism was B-movie escapism. Nor would they have been bothered by Fred
Mason’s lion-taming techniques, which would now fall within PETA’s definition
of animal cruelty. As a cost-saving
measure, those scenes were recycled from “The Big Cage,†a 1932 Universal
production starring Clyde Beatty. For
the new footage of Fred in close-up, Milburn Stone’s hair was styled to make
him look, not very convincingly, like Beatty. It takes an awfully long time before the Ape Woman actually appears, 45
minutes into the picture’s thrifty 61-minute running time. When she does, it’s in an effective
time-lapse scene, Mr. Hyde or Wolf Man style, in which the beautiful Paula
grows fangs, develops leathery skin, and finds her hairdo stiffening into a
gorilla bouffant. The wonderful Jack P.
Pierce makeup almost redeems the delay in bringing the character on stage. The Ape Woman immediately claims a victim in
a nighttime home-invasion and murder, reminiscent of the linchpin horror scene
featuring Erik the Ape in Universal’s 1932 Bela Lugosi thriller, “Murders in
the Rue Morgue.†The aftermath of the
killing sets up the crowning scene of the film for John Carradine, when Dr.
Walters berates the monster for her indiscretion: “They’ll put you on trial, throw question
after question at you,†the great Carradine storms. “You won’t know what anyone’s
saying.†The actor delivers the lines
with all the sincerity and intensity of a soliloquy from “Macbeth.†Since Paula is still in full Ape Woman mode,
the disconnect between what Walters is saying and who he’s saying it to is
sublimely surreal. You may not even have
to be a fan with warm, half-century-old memories of “Shock Watch†to enjoy
“Captive Wild Woman†on those terms.
“Jungle
Woman†starts off well with an attack by a half-human figure shown entirely and
impressionistically in shadow, but it suffers from the problems often inherent
in sequels. Paula Dupree (Acquanetta)
comes under the care of kindly Dr. Carl Fletcher (J. Carroll Naish) through
circumstances that allow director Reginald LeBorg to reuse footage from
“Captive Wild Woman,†including scenes already recycled from “The Big
Cage.†This front-loading of familiar
footage, combined with a framing story of Dr. Fletcher testifying before a
coroner’s jury on a murder charge, gets the story off to a lethargic start
after the promising opening scene. Milburn Stone and Evelyn Ankers, returning as Fred and Beth, have more
screen time in the recycled footage than they have in LeBorg’s new footage, as
witnesses at the coroner’s hearing. As
in “Captive Wild Woman,†Paula reverts to murderous Ape Woman form when she
becomes jealous of Dr. Fletcher’s daughter Joan (Lois Collier) over the
affections of Joan’s fiancee Bob (Richard Davis). “Jungle Woman†shares a 61-minute running
time with “Captive Wild Woman,†but it seems a much longer movie.