The Jungle Captive (1945)

Director:

Harold Young

Writers:

Dwight V. Babcock (screenplay)
Dwight V. Babcock (story)

Release Date:

29 June 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Once again Paula ape woman is brought back to life, this time by a mad doctor and his disfigured assistant...

Plot Keywords:

Ape | Mad Doctor | Smock | Medical Research | Police Investigation

Cast

Otto Kruger	...	Mr. Stendahl
Amelita Ward	...	Ann Forrester
Phil Brown	...	Don Young
Jerome Cowan	...	Insp. W.L. Harrigan
Rondo Hatton	...	Moloch
Eddie Acuff	...	Bill, morgue wagon attendant
Ernie Adams	...	Jim, morgue wagon attendant
Charles Wagenheim	...	Fred, first morgue attendant
Eddy Chandler	...	Motorcycle Cop
Jack Overman	...	Detective at Lab
Vicky Lane	...	Paula Dupree

Also Known As:

Wild Jungle Captive (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

63 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:H | USA:Approved (PCA #10903)

Company:

Universal Pictures

Quotes:

[first lines]
Johnny, errand boy: Ah, my dear Ann! So glad to see you again after all these minutes. Twenty of them, at least.
Ann Forrester: *Fifty* minutes, Johnny.
Johnny, errand boy: Fifty minutes! Fifty years away from you, Ann.
Ann Forrester: You're not flattering me Johnny. Now what have you been doing?
Johnny, errand boy: Waiting for the specimen at Dr. Lees'.
Ann Forrester: I could check with Dr. Lees' office nurse, you know... but I'll let it go at that.
Johnny, errand boy: Ah, gee, thanks Ann. Dr. Lee would like to have reports quickly as possible.
Ann Forrester: I don't think we can run another test this afternoon, Johnny.
Johnny, errand boy: Well, that's OK with me. But if the boss wouldn't spend so much time experimenting with those rabbits, he'd get down to his own...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Son of Svengoolie: The Jungle Captive (1945) (#1.75)" (1980)

OK 3rd in overlooked Universal horror series

As in the first movie in this series, Captive Wild Woman, we're introduced to an apparently kind man who is apparently pursuing beneficial medical research. As in that movie, we just as quickly find out he is a mad genius, with little regard for human life.

The movie quickly picks up where the second on the series left off, where Paula, the Ape Woman was in a morgue. Mr. Stendahl (the end credits in the copy I viewed named him Dr. Stendahl, but he is usually called Mister) has developed a process for bringing back life to the dead through blood transfusions and electricity. Supposedly, he wants to bring back life to Paula because she's a step up from the rabbits he had been using, but avoids the ethical problems of using a human subject. Since he doesn't care, however, if people die (his servant Moloch kills a man while stealing Paula), it's unclear why he doesn't simply revive a dead human body, or kill a human, and then revive them.

After he brings Paula back to life, she is still in her ape-woman form. Unlike in the second film Jungle Woman, where she could change back and forth between ape-woman and woman, in this film (as in the 1st) she requires human blood and hormones to appear as a woman. To become more human, she would require a transplanted cerebrum from a human, again as in the first. In order to learn how to turn Paula into a human, Stendahl had to have Moloch steal the files of Dr. Walters (from the 1st film) from the office of Dr. Fletcher (from the 2nd film). Apart from these references to the earlier films, no one from those films returns to this one; the only recurring character is Paula herself, and she is played by a different actress. There does not seem to be any footage used from the previous films, except perhaps a short close-up of Paula's hand transforming while she is strapped to a table. There was a shot like that in the first film, but they may have just re-created it.

Stendahl's reasoning for wanting to turn Paula into a human after reviving her is just as questionable as his reasoning for wanting to revive her. He thinks turning her into a woman would prove he could bring a human back to life. It would seem to me that it would only prove he could turn an ape-woman into a human, or at any rate, something like a human.

People seem divided as to whether the second or third film is the worst of the three, and I'm not sure myself. They're all decent, at least, but there is no question the first was the best of them.