One of the best films i have seen

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

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

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!

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.

John Carradine plays insane Dr. Walters, who is obsessed with his human gland experiments, where he turns a female ape named Cheela into a beautiful woman he names Paula Dupree(played by Acquanetta)! She was in the circus run by Fred Mason(played by Milburn Stone) whom she is in love with, but is driven to murderous rage when she discovers that he is already involved with Beth Colman(played by Evelyn Ankers). How will this unlikely soap opera turn out? Utterly preposterous film with absurd science and hokey plot. Sad to see perennial Universal Studios "scream queen" Evelyn Ankers wasted here. Amazingly, the first of a trilogy!(though the last two are not on DVD).

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.