Stevieboy666 John Carradine plays an evil, mad scientist who steals a huge ape from a circus and through his experiments turns it into a woman at his sanatorium. Story wise it's silly but amusing, and it is reasonably well made. Much of the film takes place in a circus, however, and this is where lies my problem. Yes, the film is now old and things were different then but sadly this does feature lions and tigers in cramped conditions and being horribly abused, several times a lion and a tiger fight each other. All for our "entertainment". I could find no pleasure in this, only repulsion, hence 2/10.

bkoganbing The only reason that Captive Wild Woman is remembered today is for being one of the training films of Edward Dmytryk. We all have to start somewhere and stuff like this is where Dmytryk learned his craft. The following year he entered A list directors with Murder My Sweet so it might have been worth it.As a film subject for one of Svengoolie's horror fests it's perfect. For fans of camp horror films what's better than John Carradine trying to make himself a woman out of a gorilla. The mild mannered Carradine as director of an insane asylum has the perfect cover for his ghoulish experiments where an ordinary ape by planting a few human glands from a female turns into the sultry Acquanetta. Now imagine if Carradine was gay, he'd get a male gorilla and try for Tyrone Power.Milburn Stone is in the cast as a Clyde Beatty like lion tamer and that's Beatty in long and rear projection shots. Now having seen Beatty in films all I can say is that he was a great lion tamer as an actor. Acquanetta soothes even the savagest beast around him, but she gets jealous when Stone pays more attention to Evelyn Ankers and those gorilla instincts return.This one is so bad it's one of the biggest hoots out there. My only question is how did Bela Lugosi miss being the mad scientist?

kevin olzak 1943's "Captive Wild Woman" was a first in many ways- Universal hired Ben Pivar to produce a series with a female monster, and signed veteran character player John Carradine with the intent of making him a 'horror star,' successful on both counts. Acquanetta also was introduced to the movie-going public, after small roles playing native girls in "Arabian Nights" and "Rhythm of the Islands," in the title role of Paula Dupree, the human result of glandular experiments conducted by Dr. Sigmund Walters (Carradine), injecting massive amounts of female sex hormones into a captured ape, plus the necessary brain transplant from the doctor's interfering nurse (Fay Helm). Acquanetta's wide-eyed performance is entirely mute, a wise decision considering the resulting sequel "Jungle Woman," quickly followed by another, "The Jungle Captive," where the character, now played by Vicky Lane, has again been rendered mute. Jack Pierce's makeup design was similar to The Wolf Man, appropriately ferocious but recognizably simian. The only weakness is a heavy reliance on stock animal footage originally filmed for Clyde Beatty's "The Big Cage" (1933), which in all probability was the main reason why this movie was made in the first place (roughly 20 minutes out of 60). John Carradine, in the first of a long line of mad scientists (over 40 years!), is initially quite charming, obviously a dedicated specialist, but once he sets up the theft of the ape, he reverts to type (his next would be Monogram's "Revenge of the Zombies"). Included in the SON OF SHOCK Universal package issued to television in the late 50s, "Captive Wild Woman" aired four times on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater: July 6 1974 (following 1967's "Mission Stardust"), May 29 1976 (following 1958's "The 39 Steps"), July 9 1977 (following 1967's "Satanik"), and Mar 12 1983 (solo).

bensonmum2 Captive Wild Woman is proof that not all of the Universal horror movies of the 30s and 40s should be considered "classics". I've seen worse movies, but this is certainly one of the poorer Universal efforts I've thus far run across. The plot description on IMDb ("A mad scientist transplants human glands into a gorilla, turning the ape into a beautiful young woman (Acquanetta). However, a severe emotional jolt soon reverts her back into her primitive self with disastrous consequences.") only describes about half the movie. Seriously, the story of the gorilla turned to woman and back again doesn't take up half the movie's already short 61 minute runtime. The other half is made up of scene after seemingly endless scene of lion taming. It gets dull pretty quickly and zaps whatever energy the movie might have otherwise had going for it. Ape-turned-woman Acquanetta doesn't do much of anything other than stand mutely outside the cage and stare at the lions. How exciting is that? But if you've seen any of her other movies, having her stand like a statue is probably the extent of her acting ability. Milburn Stone is alright as the lion tamer. He also has the enviable task of man-handling Evelyn Ankers at every opportunity. Speaking of Ankers, she's wasted in a "do nothing" role. Finally, there's John Carradine. While he's actually very good, his screen time is too limited what with all the lion taming going on.More rampaging gorilla, someone other than Acquanetta playing the gorilla woman, more Carradine, something for Ankers to do, and less lion taming – that's what Captive Wild Woman needed.