Captive Wild Woman

Yes, mad scientists and apes were having a run of popularity in the 40s. Only a few months after Monogram Pictures released their "Ape Man" (March of '43), Universal Pictures had their "Ape Woman" in theaters. Captive Wild Woman (CWW) was the story of a mad scientist who turns a gorilla into a sultry young woman. John Carradine stars as the mad scientist. Once again, bodily fluids was the key. It seems unlikely that Universal was copying Monogram, so mad scientists with apes just must have be "the thing to do" at the time. The poster is misleading, by the way. The woman shown in the arms of the ape is wearing "Paula's" circus costume, but Paula was the ape. The only person carried by the ape (Paula/Cheela) was Fred, but that wouldn't have made as good of a poster.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Fred Mason, circus animal trainer, returns from Africa with many lions and tigers, and one big female gorilla named Cheela. He taught her some tricks on the long voyage. Fred's girlfriend Beth, as a sick sister, Dorothy. She takes her to a renowned scientist, Dr. Walters (Carradine). Through Beth, and Fred, Walters gets a tour of the circus. He covets Cheela for his experiments. He arranges with a fired animal trainer to steal Cheela. Walters also discovers that Dorothy has exceptional levels of "sex hormones" (??) He sets about transfusing Dorothy's abundant hormones into Cheela. Eventually, Cheela loses ape-likeness and starts looking more like a human woman. Walters' nurse objects to it all, so Walters decides she will be the brain donor so Cheela will have a human brain. Meanwhile, Fred and circus owner, Mr. Whipple, discuss the big cat act. The hoped for star trainer won't do it, so Fred decides to do it himself. Walters has renamed Cheela as Paula Dupree and made sure she obeys his commands. (she never speaks). He takes her to the circus (for some reason). Fred has his mixed cats in training. A lion and tiger fight and must be broken up with a fire hose. During training, Fred is knocked over by a toppled pedestal. The lions and tigers circle around fallen Fred. Paula, rushes into the cage and stares down the cats who back away in fear. Fred is amazed at her power over the cats and insists that she be part of the act. This goes well. She watches, the cats behave. She smiles at Fred. After the big dress rehearsal, Fred kisses Beth. Paula stomps off in a rage. Her rage starts her turning back into an ape. Ape-Paula climbs into Beth's bedroom to kill her, but a landlady interrupts, screams and gets killed. Fred worries that Paula is nowhere, but show opens that night. He opens without her. Things go well enough, until a storm brews up. Meanwhile, back in the lab, Beth demands to see her sister. Walters thinks he's found a new brain donor for Cheela. Beth releases Cheela from her cage. She kills Walters and runs off. Beth fetches Dorothy off the table. Cheela runs through the dark and stormy night to the circus. The thunder has the cats upset and a lion has Fred down. Cheela roars away the lion and carries hurt Fred out. A policeman mistakes the act as an attack and shoots Cheela dead. A narrator says how Walters was tampering where mortal men shouldn't. The End.

Why is this movie fun
Even MORE mad scientists and apes. Who would have thought? John Carradine does a terrific job as the evil scientist. He's both suave and ruthless. Acquanetta (who plays Paula, the ape woman) is excellent eye candy. The pace is quick, most of the time. The animal act footage makes for a visually active low-budget film.

Cultural Connection
Who knew that mad scientists and gorillas were such a hot item? From the viewing vantage point of late 20th century, sci-fi seems so automatically the realm of flying saucers, big-headed little aliens, rocket ships and mutant monsters. Such a different world it was before The Bomb. After The Bomb, there with an inescapable mood of doom that infused nuclear-angst sci-fi. Those "mad doctors" of the 40s were bad, sure, but they were manageable. In fact, they usually died in the end. Compared to the gloom of post-apocalyptic films, the mad scientist problem was almost cozy.

Notes
Dang Nazis -- Produced during the height of World War Two, audiences had no doubt what "evil" looked like. Mad scientists only had to sound vaguely nazi-like to be assured of an evil aura. At one point, Dr. Walters monologues to his poor doomed nurse about his "dream of creating a race of super men." There ya go. Walters is a nazi. There is no doubt about his evil.

Mixed Monsters -- Universal's ape-woman is a hybrid of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (though sort of in reverse) and like a reverse version of The Incredible Hulk. There is a dash of Frankenstein, in that Walters is the mad scientist tampering with poor lives. There is a bit of Dr. Moreau and his Panther Woman.

Repeated Animal Act -- Modern viewers might not spot it as quickly, but audiences in 1943 were more likely to. Most of the animal/circus footage in CWW was reused from Universal's 1933 film The Big Cage, starring Clyde Beatty (who really was a lion tamer in circuses). CWW's Milburn Stone resembled Beatty well enough, that with some costume matching and careful editing one can easily imagine it is Stone in all the animal shots. But no. The Big Cage was a popular film that got a few re-releases after its initial run. Odds are, the audience of 1943 would recognize that lion-tiger fight that had to be hosed down, etc. as coming from The Big Cage.

Acquanetta -- The film was also Universal's attempt to launch the career of sultry starlet, "Acquanetta". (stars with just one name are not new). Said to have been born Burnu Acquanetta, an Arapaho indian orphan in Ozone, Wyoming, or Mildred Davenport. Her origins were kept mysterious, but mystery can help a career only so much. There's no denying her physical attractiveness, but that can only take an actress so far too. Her film roles never rose above B-films, such as CWW and Tarzan the the Leopard Woman ('46) She dropped out of the film industry in 1951. Perhaps this is partly Universal's own fault. Her role in CWW amounts to little more than standing there, looking pretty. With no lines whatever, and only some close up eyes shots, Acquanetta got no opportunity to project a personality to like. (such as needed for a leading lady role).

Sequel Worthy -- Unlike Monogram, who let their Wolfman alternative  -- Ape Man -- just fade away, Universal pushed Ape Woman into two sequels. The first, Jungle Woman also featured Acquanetta and filled out more back story. The second was Jungle Captive. This also featured the Ape Woman, but played by someone else. Just for the sake of completeness, those two should be up next.

Bottom line? CWW is a low-budget marginally sci-fi film. It's not the bottom of the barrel for the "mad doctor" genre. Director Ed Dmytyk does keep the pace brisk and the many animal shots keep a sense of action, even if they're recycled footage. CWW isn't a high point in Universal's B movie roster, but it's not bad.

The Ape Man

There was just something about apes -- killer apes. Killer apes who are men too. Monogram Pictures put out yet another very low-budget "mad doctor" story with a killer ape and the spinal fluid trope, reminiscent of the 1940 Monogram film, The Ape. As sci-fi goes, The Ape Man (TAM) is as thin on anything approaching serious science as were most of the 40s' mad doctor films. Bela Lugosi stars as the unfortunate mad doctor who has turned himself half-way into an ape and needs human spinal fluid to cure him. Wallace Ford and Louise Currie co-star as the bickering reporters and eventual romantic subplot.

Quick Plot Synopsis
An ocean liner docks amid mystery. Dr. James Brewster has mysteriously disappeared. His associate, Dr. George Randall has little to offer the press. Brewster's sister, Agatha, has come from Europe to help (somehow). Reporter Jeff Carter smells a story in all the mystery. He gets assigned a beautiful lady photographer, Billie. They bicker like siblings throughout most of the film. Carter's instincts were correct, but he doesn't know it yet. Brewster is alive and living in the basement lab of his mansion. One of his experiments had gone horribly wrong. He injected himself with spinal fluid of an ape, but instead just improving physical strength, it turned him into a half-man / half-ape. Nothing else he has tried will reverse the process. Brewster is convinced that injections of human spinal fluid will reverse the process, but Dr. Randall refuses. To take the fluid is to fatal the donor. Brewster, "mad" at the prospect of being doomed to be an ape-man, takes the real gorilla to Randall's home/office and has it kill the butler. Brewster extracts the spinal fluid from the dead butler. Brewster and Agatha force Randall to give Brewster the serum injection. It works, somewhat. Brewster is able to stand erect, but will need more spinal fluid to lose the facial hair, etc. Again, Randall refuses. Brewster and his gorilla go on a killing spree. Brewster eventually has enough spinal fluid for many injections. Randall not only refuses to help, but smashes the jar. In a rage, Brewster breaks Randall's neck. What with all the recent murders, the police are on his tail. He returns to his mansion, where the two reporters are snooping around. Brewster carries off Billie to his lab, apparently to extract some spinal fluid. Carter can't get the secret passage open. Brewster chases Billie around the lab. The caged gorilla is upset by all the chasing. Billie accidentally opens the cage. The gorilla and Brewster fight to the death -- Brewster's. Agatha arrives with the police. She opens the secret passage just in time. Billie escapes. The police shoot the gorilla dead. Billie and Carter decide they should date instead of bicker. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Mostly, it's Bela Lugosi. He brings more class to the film than it would otherwise deserve. Director William Beaudine, famous for "one take" productions, puts out a fairly fast paced (if shallow) story. It's also fun to see someone else's zeitgeist. Apes and spinal fluid. Such a curious combination to be fascinated with.

Cultural Connection
Cheap films had their place. No one feels gypped if they pay a buck for a burger and don't get filet mignon. The same "value" reality worked for movies. TAM was a product of Monogram Pictures, one of the better known of the "Poverty Row" studios. They filled a market need for simple, inexpensive B film entertainment. They weren't making Citizen Kane or Gone With The Wind and everyone knew that. Knowing that you're selling hamburgers, not fancy steaks, means not having to take yourself (or your products) too seriously. Like a Burlesque / Vaudeville show, a Poverty Row film was, often enough, a medley of romance, comedy, horror, action and a bit of exploitation, if they could sneak it in. Audiences didn't mind. They were looking for budget entertainment, not story-telling purity.

Notes
Sequel Worthy -- As shallow and odd as TAM might seem to modern viewers (accustomed to finer fare), it must have been enough of a success at the box office that Monogram decided to ride its coat tails. Their follow up "sequel" the next year ('44) was Return of the Ape Man, also starring Bela Lugosi. In truth, "Return" is not a sequel in any way. The "ape man" is a thawed cave man. Lugosi is all human -- but still ends up getting killed by the "ape" of the story.

Poor Man's Wolfman -- Middle-tier studio Universal Pictures made a splash with their Wolfman film in 1941. Lower-tier studio Monogram seems to have tried to create their own man-beast hybrid with TAM. While it could have had some potential, Monogram didn't steer the writers to leave the sequel door open. A half-man/half-ape resurfacing now and then, killing to obtain spinal fluid to perhaps cure him, might have been a formula for multiple sequels. Sadly, Monogram let it fade.

Unintentional Metaphor? -- In the mid and late 40s, Bela Lugosi's career was in decline. His drug addiction (pain killers for a war wound) and alcoholism required income, so he could not be fussy about acting jobs. The drugs were also taking a toll on his 60-year-old body. Lugosi was unable to rise above his addiction, just as Dr. Brewster continued to hope, but was never able to stand erect for long. In the end, the "monkey on his back" (the Ape) finally beat him.

Why Zippo? -- One of the more curious things about TAM is the Zippo character. He's dressed as a bumpkin, but doesn't function as the usual bumpkin-esque comic relief. Instead, he's omnipresent and apparently all-knowing. He tells the gathered reporters who's on the ocean liner and why they should press for a story. He's peeking the lab window as Brewster experiments. He jumps out of a doorway to tell a hapless woman not to go further -- because Brewster and his ape lie in wait for another victim. at the end of the film, Carter asks Zippo who he is and why he's everywhere. "I'm the author," says Zippo with a wink and a smile. It makes sense, in hindsight, but it is a strange thing to write into a screenplay.

Bottom line? TAM is low-rent entertainment, aimed at a low-rent audience, so expectations of high art are best avoided. Lugosi, as usual, saves the film from being utter dreck. The science fiction is very thin. It's primary interest will likely be fans of the old-school "mad doctor" genre, or Lugosi fans. Viewers seeking a thoughtful script or impressive effects, should probably skip TAM.

Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman

In 1943, Universal cranked out yet another so-so sequel, but created the first monster vs. monster films. Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (FMW) is a double sequel. It is the fifth chapter in the Frankenstein saga, and a first sequel for the Wolfman ('41). As the Frankenstein fifth film, the story is weak, yet it is a highly significant chapter because Bela Lugosi plays the monster. (more in Notes section) Curt Siodmak, who penned many 50s sci-fi screenplays, wrote this sequel to his popular 1941 Wolfman film. Siodmak would also write the chapter, House of Frankenstein in 1944.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Grave robbers break into the Talbot family crypt looking for jewelry. They open the casket of Laurence Talbot, letting in a beam of moonlight. This revives the immortal werewolf. Laurence is found unconscious on a Cardiff street. He is taken to the hospital. Dr. Mannering and Inspector Owen don't believe he can turn into a wolfman and kill people, but change their mind when they see the casket is empty. Larry runs away and finds Maleva, the gypsy woman whose werewolf son bit him and made him a werewolf. She says a Dr. Frankenstein can help Larry die and stay dead. They travel from Wales to the village of Visaria. The doctor is dead, but the villagers are hostile towards anyone looking for a Frankenstein. Larry, turned to a werewolf, killed a young woman and got chased by the usual mob of angry villagers. He falls into the basement catacombs of the old castle. Next morning, now as Larry, he finds the monster encased in ice. He digs him out and asks him to locate the diaries. No success. Larry poses as a Mr. Taylor, pretending to want to buy the estate so he can meet baroness (Elsa) Frankenstein. He asks her for the diaries, but she pretends not to know. A quaint village festival of the new wine waxes musical. Larry loses his cool at the song lyrics which speak of living forever. Dr. Mannering followed Larry's trail of murders across Europe to find him in Visaria. He and Elsa find Larry hiding in the castle ruins. She opens the secret compartment revealing the diaries. Dr. Mannering thinks he know how to de-activate both the monster and Larry. The townsfolk fret and worry over what Dr. Mannering and "that Frankenstein woman" are doing up in the castle. Barkeper Vasec proposes they blow up the dam and flood the castle, killing them. No one signs onto his plan. They all go out to see the castle glowing from the electric arcs. Mannering has the the two hooked up to the machines. At the last moment, he can't deactivate the monster, but wants to see it at full power. He charges the monster. Filled with new power, the monster rips off his restraints. He chases and grabs Elsa. Talbot turned into the Wolfman. He stops the monster. The two fight, trashing the lab. Mannering and Elsa escape the castle. Vasec rigged explosives at the dam and blows it up. A model flood sweeps down on a model castle. It crumbles into rubble. The End.

Sci-fi Connections
The "science" is thinner in this chapter of the saga. Dr. Mannering recites some generalisms about entropy. The monster was energized with the life-giving cosmic rays. The "key" to deactivating him, is draining off his energy by reversing the poles of Frankenstein's sparky machines. Having Curt Siodmak as the screenwriter, gives FMW a family link to Golden Era sci-fi. Siodmak wrote some early sci-fi, such as F.P. 1 Doesn't Answer ('33), but also many 50s titles, such as: Donovan's Brain ('53), Magnetic Monster ('53), Riders to the Stars ('54) Creature With the Atomic Brain ('55) and Earth vs. Flying Saucers ('57).

Saga Connection
The only carryovers from the fourth movie was the monster and baroness Elsa (daughter of Ludwig from "Ghost"). Elsa is played by a different actress. The monster is played by Bela Lugosi. While he doesn't have the build or stature for a good monster portrayal, the logic was that he would speak with Ygor's voice, as he did at the end of the fourth movie. This, since he got Ygor's brain. The blindness from the end of the fourth movie also explains the raised stiff arms Lugosi uses. There's more on this in the Notes section below.

Notes
Fateful Fiend -- FMW may be a lesser-grade sequel, but it is historically significant because Bela Lugosi plays the monster (the only time he does). Back in 1931, when Universal was planning the original Frankenstein film to follow up their success with Dracula, they wanted Lugosi to play the monster. He made such a good Dracula, his name would have marquee power. Lugosi is said to have turned down the role because it had no speaking parts. Universal then tapped Boris Karloff, who had played mostly uncredited bit parts. Karloff then went on to greater fame as the monster. Lugosi may still not have been keen on playing the monster, but since it got Ygor's brain in the previous film, and the monster was to speak (like Ygor). He agreed.

Mute Point -- Ironically, even though Lugosi's monster had some speaking lines, they all got edited out. The traditional story is that test audiences laughed at the monster speaking with Ygor's voice, so Universal cut them all out. Something doesn't line up in this traditional. The monster spoke with Lugosi's Ygor voice at the end of the previous film and it caused no laughter. Perhaps Universal was disingenuous about letting Lugosi have speaking lines. Perhaps they felt it better keep their cash-cow monster a mute beast. Maybe Lugosi's talking monster wasn't as frightening as speechless monster.  Supposedly, his lines were to have explained his partial blindness (and hence his iconic stiff armed walk), as well as some back story tying in the previous film. Apparently this was not not crucial. Fans of the saga knew those details anyway.

Name Conflation -- Universal themselves contributed to the ongoing confusion over the name of the monster. The title of the film (and posters) show the monster fighting the Wolfman. To the average Joe, that meant the name of the monster was "Frankenstein." It seems unlikely that the title refers to Elsa Frankenstein meeting the Wolfman. Although she does chat with Talbot. in the mayor's office and at the festival, this hardly seems like a film's title moment.

Non-Ending -- Fans of the saga would have known that the ending of the film was really no ending at all. The Wolfman could not die. We learned that in the first half of the film. A mere flood wouldn't kill him. The monster, too, was deemed immortal earlier. Neither fire, nor cave-in, nor being frozen, nor molten sulphur had killed him before. Why would a mere flood kill him? Fans knew it would not. Universal was leaving their sequel options open

Fixated on Women -- There must be something about those Frankenstein women. In the original story, the abandoned monster is jealous of the doctor's wife because SHE gets his attention. In the 1910 Edison version, the monster is also jealous of the doctor's young bride. This plays out too in the 1931 version. The monster seems almost lusty for Elizabeth. In Bride, the monster actually kidnaps Elizabeth. Now in FMW, the monster carries off the lovely Elsa.

Bottom line? FMW is a sequel which is showing more signs of sequelness. Yet, it is still a fairly watchable film with a few worthwhile moments. The final fight between the monster and the wolfman would seem to have been the primary reason the screenplay existed. Fans of the saga won't mind the thinness of the story. Fans of sci-fi might be underwhelmed.