"The Jungle Captive" is the third woman starring the Ape-woman, which is tough to imagine since the Ape-woman was killed at the end of the previous film, "Jungle Woman"! While this seems impossible, it turns out a mad scientist (Otto Kruger...andis there any other type in these films?!) has had his henchman, Moloch (Rondo Hatton) steal the corpse. What's he planning on doing with the corpse? Reviving it, of course...and if it means using another woman's blood and even brain, so be it...all in the name of science! Can the police find her in time before it's too late?
Like all the horror movies of this time period, this isn't exactly a candidate for The Criterion Collection! But, despite being low-brow and silly, it IS entertaining. The film also has a few pluses...Kruger is excellent as the nutty scientist and it's nice to see cops who are NOT idiots (which is the usual cliche in thes movies). Worth seeing if you like the genre.
The Jungle Captive
1945
Action / Horror / Sci-Fi
The Jungle Captive
1945
Action / Horror / Sci-Fi
Keywords: murdermad scientistlaboratorymorgueape
Plot summary
Once again, Paula Dupree, the Ape Woman, is brought back to life, this time by a mad scientist and his disfigured assistant, who also kidnaps his female lab assistant in order to have a female blood donor. By this time, Paula has brain damage from her experiences in the last film, so there's not much for her to do except wander around.
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Why would anyone commit murder just to get the Ape-Woman's dead body?!
Mother of mercy, is this the end of Paula Dupree?
Universal Pictures did the third and last of its Ape Woman series with Vicky Lane taking the place of Acquanetta as the woman turned into a primeval ape woman. She was killed in the last film, but another one of those crazy scientists has brought her back to life and even more he's brought her back to a human condition.
But poor Vicky, she may look like a swimsuit model, but she has no human brain. Never mind we've got Amelita Ward to keep her supplied with human blood and maybe a human brain if Otto Kruger can complete his experiment.
Poor Otto has a problem. His assistant Rondo Hatton killed a morgue attendant getting the Ape Woman's body so the cops in the person of Jerome Cowan are investigating. And Ward has a boyfriend Phil Brown also a scientist and also inquiring.
So those are the elements of the plot of this Universal horror flick which made a whole lot of good actors like Kruger and Cowan look embarrassed. Still they were professional enough to give credible if not decent performances in this Thanksgiving feast of a movie.
Why didn't these scientists just ship her to a zoo to find a horny gorilla?
The end of a trilogy, and I ain't singing any torch songs about it.
"We're scientists, not sentimentalists". So says Otto Kruger, joining Karloff, Lugosi, Zucco, Atwill and many others playing God in the form of a mad scientist. Assisting him in his experiments and nefarious schemes is the deformed Rondo Hatton whose enlarged facial features made him the perfect movie monster, and one you truly felt sorry for, especially when Kruger mocks him for his ugliness.
After "Captive Wild Woman" and "Jungle Woman" came this third entry in the short lived series surrounding human experiments gone wrong. It's a typical Universal B movie, exciting in parts and ridiculous in others. Following Acqunetta in the part of the snorting creature is Vicky Lane, pretty much doing nothing but modeling a fur mask and gloves as she goes on the attack until made to look like a real woman. Amelita Ward plays Kruger's lab assistant, giving her blood to the inhuman creature who seems incapable of female emotions.
Jerome Cowan plays an investigator obviously suspicious of Kruger and company, while Phil Brown plays Ward's fiancée, another scientist who suspects nothing of the supposedly noble Kruger. Speeding by in the predictable hour long B running time, this is a fine time filler, with more of the same of most of the 1940's horror films yet giving Rondo Hatton a real diverse character to play that makes him more noble than the "normal" looking Kruger.