La femme gorille

I watched the films in the wrong order, though it hardly seemed to matter as the second film, "Jungle Woman" isn't exactly a sequel as so much of the story has been changed. Instead of being the product of a truly evil scientist (John Carradine), the ape is transformed into a hot woman by a nice scientist and there's also no mention of the story in "Captive Wild Woman". Odd...but this sort of thing was not unusual in Universal's horror films of the 1940s...they often contradicted each other.

A lady has a sister with some odd glandular disorder...so she takes him to Dr. Walters (Carradine). Little do they know that the nice scientist is actually completely evil and plans on experimenting on the sick sister. He plans on using her body to help turn an ape he stole become human-looking...all thanks to the miracle of glands. Along the way, his stupid assistant* gets in the way, so he sacrifices her...all in the name of scientist.

The new creation Walter dubs 'Paula Dupree' and she soon becomes the assistant to Fred the lion and tiger tamer. This is because Paula can hypnotize animals to do her bidding just by staring at them...and staring is what Acquanetta was REALLY good at doing throughout this film. Apart from a little tantrum and sequence where she looks a bit like a cheap wolfman, she really isn't given much to do other than stare. And, this staring she-freak is in love with Fred...but without a conscience, there's no telling WHAT she'll do!

This is not a terrible film but is about what you'd expect from a second-tier Universal horror movie. It entertains (particularly because of Carradine's cool performance as the goofy doc!) and is pretty much what fans of the genre will enjoy. It's also just a bit better than its sequel.

By the way, the exotic looking Acquanetta was actually originally Mildred Davenport...from Wyoming! So, despite the press releases from Universal, she was NOT the Venezuelan Volcano!