Strictly average movie

Beautiful, moving film.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Blistering performances.

"Captive Wild Woman" is a fun programmer from Universal. It's mostly notable for its exciting animal sequences, supervised by a man named Clyde Beatty (whose name is dropped in the script). John Carradine stars as a surgeon making a name for himself with his supposedly miraculous operations. Circus secretary Beth Colman (Evelyn Ankers) brings her younger sister (Martha Vickers) to Carradines' sanatorium for treatment, not knowing he's actually your typical mad scientist, obsessively transferring glands from one animal to another. He acquires the circus' new ape, Cheela (played by Ray Corrigan), and succeeds at transforming the gorilla into a stunningly sexy young woman (Acquanetta).A wonderful cast all around also helps make this watchable: Milburn Stone is amiable as trainer Fred Mason, Lloyd Corrigan frets well as circus owner John Whipple, Fay Helm makes the most of her brief screen time as a worried nurse, and Paul Fix is a good drunken slime ball as ousted circus employee Gruen. Carradine refrains from hamming it up too much, delivering an enjoyable villainous performance. As you can see, he has no problem resorting to murder when he has to. Beatty doubles Stone for the long shots. And Turhan Bey recites the ending narration!Handled in capable fashion by director Edward Dmytryk, this B monster picture is good, straightforward entertainment that leads to a thrilling climax.Six out of 10.

It shows a lack of confidence by the writers to introduce a character such as this and not give her a line of dialog, and not even indicate that the character is mute. The exotically named Acquanetta is the titled character, a lady ape transfered into a lady human, and the Clyde Beatty like Milburn Stone is the object of her affections. Unfortunately for her (or Evelyn Ankers as Stone's fiancée), he doesn't feel the same way about her, and the actress whose name sounds like a hairspray goes ballistic. You can't blame it on her, though; It's the animal in her, as Ethel Merman would sing. Put the blame on where it belongs, and that is of course (as it is in most Universal horror movies) a mad scientist, in this case, the oh, so dramatic John Carradine.It isn't just mankind rebelling against the laws of nature which is disturbing, but the ridiculousness of the big cat trainers, made totally evident here. But even though this shows a realistic part of circus life, that isn't the issue of why this film is so bad. It is obvious that the script was rushed together to capitalize on the success of "The Wolf Man". The transformation of the titled character from gorilla to human to half human/half gorilla is done with weak special effects, and the dialog is absolutely absurd. The one real scary moment comes when Acquanetta makes her attempt on scream queen Ankers. The actors are sincere, but even they must have been put off by the "here we go again" syndrome. Certainly watchable if you like "Mystery Science Theater" type cinema without the wisecracks, but you'll probably come up with a few of your own.

Dr. Sigmund Walters (John Carradine) is a mad scientist (of course) who wants to put the glands of a human into a gorilla (for some reason). He has to kill to do it but it works and the gorilla turns into beautiful Paula Dupree (Acquanetta). She falls for lion tamer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) and gets angry when she realizes he has a girlfriend (Evelyn Ankers). She then begins to revert to her gorilla form...Even for a horror film this plot is pretty stupid but they pull it off. It moves quick, has good acting and some very exciting lion taming at a circus (even though they reuse the same shots multiple times). Stone is just OK but Carradine hams it up, Ankers looks beautiful and screams nicely and Acquanetta doesn't have a word of dialogue but looks incredible. A silly but very enjoyable Universal horror film. Not one of their classics but lots of fun.

Brilliant, but ruthless and unscrupulous scientist Dr. Sigmund Walters (nicely underplayed by John Carradine) turns a huge wild ape into a beautiful, yet still deadly mute woman named Paula Dupree (an impressively expressive pantomime performance by the ravishing Acquanetta). Paula gets a job keeping animals tame in a circus. Complications ensue when Paula falls for rugged and dashing animal trainer Fred Mason (a likable portrayal by Milburn Stone) and reverts back to a hirsute bestial state. Director Edward Dmytryk, working from a compact script by Griffin Jay and Henry Sucher, relates the engrossing plot at a steady pace, maintains a serious mood throughout, and stages the thrilling climax involving a fierce thunderstorm and a hulking rampaging gorilla (veteran simian thespian Ray Corrigan in a nifty suit) with considerable rip-snorting aplomb. This movie further benefits from sound acting by a sturdy cast: Carradine keeps his trademark eye-rolling hammy tendencies on a leash for once, Acquanetta's dark exotic beauty adds credibility to her admittedly far-fetched role, plus there are praiseworthy contributions by the fetching Evelyn Ankers as Mason's concerned girlfriend Beth Colman, Lloyd Corrigan as jolly circus owner John Whipple, and Fay Helm as the reluctant Nurse Strand. The scenes involving savage lions and tigers performing various daring feats in a cage are genuinely gripping and exciting. George Robinson's crisp black and white cinematography makes neat use of fades and dissolves. The spirited film library score likewise does the rousing trick. The terse 61 minute running time ensures that this picture never gets dull or overstays its welcome. A huge enjoyable fright feature potboiler.