I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Jungle Woman is the follow up Captive Wild Woman.Acquanetta returns as Paula the Ape Girl. This time scientist De Carl Fletcher played by J Carroll Nash has revived her as Cheela the Gorilla at his sanatorium but she morphs back into Paula without any surgical assistance.The doctor has a lovely daughter Joan >Lois Collier< who is his secretary. She is engaged to a nice looking young fellow Bob Whitney >Richard David<. When Paula meets the young man she finds her voice. She also sees the doctors daughter as a romantic rival who must be eliminated.Paula finding her voice is when this film is really torpedoed. Acquanetta made it through the first film because all that was required of her was to flash a threatening glare and occasionally show anger. Delivering dialog was definitely not her strong suit.The fact the the script is laughably bad certainly doesn't help. SPOILER: The film is show in flashback as Dr Fletcher is on trial for murder. Much of the action is from Captive Wild Woman. At first Fletcher will not reveal why he injected Paula with a drug to kill he. However, his supporters which include Fred Mason >Milburn Stone< and Beth Mason >Evelyn Ankers along with his daughter Joan and Bob reveal to the court Paula's to animistic nature. The prosecutor >Douglass Dumbrille< is dubious but when the judge >Samuel S Hinds< orders a re examination Paula's body the court finds that Paula has reverted to her half ape/half girl state. Dr Fletcher is vindicated and goes free.One of the worst of Universals WWII horror flicks, Jungle Woman is only to be watched as part of the Paula the Ape Girl series.

A sequel can sometimes be either a virtual remake of the original film, it can devote some of the running-time to re-telling the first film's plot in compressed form (via scenes lifted directly from that one) and, other times, the second entry could cheat by borrowing action scenes from the preceding effort and pass them off as its own. However, this is the only case I know of where a film is all three at once (though, technically, the animal footage here is part of the flashback framework, they were still ripped off from an earlier non-related picture)! Universal's three-movie "Ape Woman" franchise is surely among the most maligned to emerge during the vintage horror era (even by hardened buffs) but, maybe because I was in a receptive frame-of-mind, I recall enjoying CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943; directed by, of all people, Edward Dmytryk!) back when I had watched it and certainly did not mind catching up with the two sequels now i.e. the film under review and THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE (1945), which followed on the very next day! To get to the matter at hand: this, then, follows the pattern of THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942), Universal's third movie in the Egyptology stakes but actually the second 'episode' in their "Kharis" saga. Anyway, the film has a complex structure in that we begin with the titular figure's demise, of whose murder the 'mad doctor' (who is not really) of this one, J. Carroll Naish, is accused, then we go into a flashback to learn how we got there but, corroborating his evidence, as it were, are the hero and heroine of the first film who relate their own experiences by recounting the events of CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN! Amusingly, Universal 'scream queen' Evelyn Ankers receives top billing here but she only appears during these basically expository scenes and, of course, the 'stock footage' though not in JUNGLE WOMAN's narrative proper (that is to say, Naish's recollections)! Incidentally, I wonder what John Carradine, star of CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943), made of the fact that, unofficially, he also had this on his resume'! When I said that this was more a remake than a sequel was due to its having the 'monster' (once again played by Acquanetta but, unwisely taking a leaf from BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN {1935}, she is made to speak – except that we are never told in this instance just who taught her – and, boy, is she wooden!) once more instantly fall for the doctor's daughter's fiancé and grows insanely jealous of the girl. By the way, in a reversal of "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde", here the monster turns human without the use of drugs, so that the girl is found prowling the grounds of Naish's sanatorium by a simple-minded patient (who, subsequently doting excessively on Acquanetta, unsurprisingly becomes one of her victims). At one point, the Ape Woman swims underwater and capsizes the lovers' canoe, an act which is actually blamed on the oafish orderly who is currently missing – even if the former makes no secret of her impulsive affections for the impossibly bland leading man (unfortunately, a constant thorn in the side of the Golden Age of Horror!).Curiously, the film naively (since the original film had already established the transformation as a fact!) attempts to follow the psychological Val Lewton route by never showing the monster (except once amidst the flashback footage and again in the very last shot – even her death is played out in the shadows, though the images of a female figure leaping on the doctor only to be injected with an overdose belies the animal noises on the soundtrack!) but, for all that, the film remains mildly enjoyable – certainly eminently watchable – along its trim 60-minute duration, largely owing to Naish's grey-haired presence (though he is not quite running on full cylinders here, as in the same year's THE MONSTER MAKER) and the unmistakable Universal Studios atmosphere.

Sequel to CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN is often said to be one of Universal's worst horror films, and with some good reason. For one thing the first 15 or 20 minutes agonizingly drone on and on with flashback sequences from the first movie, and has to be seen to be believed (it actually feels like you're watching 3 different films at times). Acquanetta returns as Paula the Ape Woman and it's hilarious to watch her terrible acting performance, especially the robotic way in which she delivers her lines! At least the original had her mute throughout; this one gives her a lot of dialogue she can't handle. Along with the unintended laughs to make things survivable, at least this one features the competent J. Carrol Naish as the latest scientist trying to experiment with Paula, and to its very slight credit director Reginald LeBorg directs a couple of scenes in a Val Lewtonesque manner (such as Paula's creepy attack on a row boat and her eerily stalking her victim through the woods). I've never understood why these films didn't take more advantage of using more of their Ape Woman woman in full makeup to keep things more lively. ** out of ****

This film begins with a bang, as a man is attacked by a ferocious female something, shown in silhouette. We then see the distinguished Doctor Fletcher refusing to speak on his behalf at an inquest on the dead person, who he says was not human. This leads into flashbacks of his investigations into the strange history of Paula Dupree, the Ape Woman.Acquanetta outdoes her previous appearance as Paula in the first movie, with the addition of some dialogue and more screen time. Her unexpected, sultry introduction of herself to the hero, after everyone assumed she was mute or catatonic, is quite a surprise, and not welcomed by the fellow's fiancée, who happens to be Dr. Fletcher's daughter.The influence of Val Lewton's Cat People is quite apparent, as the jealous Paula begins stalking the couple, in some very effective sequences. Acquanetta may have been limited as an actress, but she is just right for the part of the beautiful but savage Paula. The scene of Doctor Fletcher finding her sobbing in her room, as she sees the happy couple through her window, is startling and memorable. Some genuine menace is built up, as Paula obsessively pursues the hero Bob, while fending off advances from the Doctor's slow-witted assistant, Willie.This may well be the best of the three Ape Woman features, and is definitely worth the time of any Forties horror movie fans.