mark.waltz You know from the moment that this Lowell Thomas docudrama begins that it is going to be exploitation at its most frustrating. Thomas sits in a room with other men and tells them about the journey he took from the United States to Australia in search of the missing link, the mysterious neanderthal. Pictures from a book show an approximation of what these early humans may have looked at, comparing them to apes and to what Thomas refers to as the lower element of human beings. It is obvious from the start that this film will be used as an excuse for the white man to visit various "exotic" locations as a family would visit a zoo, and it truly exploits the natives of Hawaii, the Samoa's, Fiji, New Zealand and some of the remotest parts of Australia to make them look truly ridiculous. "Who is the blonde captive?", you might ask, and I'm still asking the same question now that I've seen the film, but one more important question, "Why?"As much as I hated this film, there were some interesting visuals of wild life, including giant sea turtles, cute koalas (which are not really as friendly with humans as they look with the shot of one man pretty much covered by them) and of course kangaroo's. I couldn't bear to look at the shot of a turtle's heart beating after being removed, so be forewarned if you choose to put yourself through watching this. As for the footage of the natives, they are somewhat respectful in Hawaii, but as the natives get darker, so does the racism and the cracks at their expense, often tacky and always insulting. There's no attempt to understanding that traditions of these people have sustained them for years, and the natives (particularly the practically naked women) don't seem to realize how exploited they were simply to make Thomas and his crew feel more superior to them. It is that element which makes this film a disgusting example of white superiority that I hope has dwindled in the 87 years since this film was made.

StingrayFilms This bizarre, exploitive documentary is typical of its time with narrator Lowell Thomas making racist wisecracks and other inane jokes throughout. A quasi-educational travelogue peppered with frequent views of semi-clad native girls from Bali to Australia. And what about the so-called blonde captive? In the last few minutes we meet a semi-clad blonde lady and her son living with an Aboriginal tribe. She is not a captive so the title makes no sense. She was supposedly marooned there many years ago and has no desire to return to civilization. However, this segment feels fabricated. Either way, this is an interesting and peculiar curio from the past that reveals more about archaic Western attitudes than native culture.

MartinHafer This horrible film begins with the writer and world traveler, Lowell Thomas, giving a boring and inaccurate lecture to scientific types about Neanderthal Man. Then, inexplicably, a LONG series of stock footage of Pacific natives is shown--while Thomas makes incredibly inane comments. Much of it is meant to be funny (it NEVER is) and some is rather racist and paternalistic. He also makes a comments about how unattractive Fijian women are in comparison with Polynesian women and how grotesque a young Aboriginal boy is! His comments about the Aboriginals are by far the meanest comments, as he seemed to think they were barely human. During so much of this portion of the film, the native women are naked or half-naked. It seems like the film really isn't the least bit educational but just a sleazy excuse to show naked people (some of which looked underage)--and avoid local censor boards since it's couched as an 'educational film'! At least it has some cute footage of Koalas and kangaroos! Later, the folks in the footage begin tormenting turtles!! This section of crappy footage continues on and on and on forever...or so it felt.But, what about the blonde woman of the title? When does this come into this long and dull documentary? She makes her appearance at 68 minutes into the film--and the film is only 73 minutes long!!! This supposed blonde lady is naked and quite chunky--and once again, she seems to be an excuse to show bare flesh for audiences who otherwise might have had little opportunity to see such explicit footage. And, following this footage, the film ends....and the audience is left wondering why the film was called "The Blonde Captive". A better title might have been "A very dull documentary with nasty, lame narration...and boobies"! Overall, a wretched film in every possible way. Not worth your time and bearing no resemblance to the very salacious movie posters that accompanied this pile of dreck."...here is human life at its lowest form" (referring to residents of the Timor Sea).

utgard14 For the first 5 minutes of this one we have Lowell Thomas (the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous) running on about Neanderthals to a group of nameless men in a sort of round table discussion. At this point I was seriously considering turning the movie off since it didn't match the description I had read at all. But I stuck with it and what followed after was a bland travelogue, narrated by Lowell, about various tribal cultures around the world. For those interested there was a lot of National Geographic-type female nudity. The story of a white woman and her son living with an Aboriginal tribe in Australia doesn't get underway until the last ten minutes. It's completely fabricated and not worth the wait. If you're expecting something campy or titillating, look elsewhere. Overall I think this film would only be enjoyed by people with an interest in history and anthropology. There were quite a few unintentional laughs for me, particularly Lowell's use of the word "gigolos" in a couple of instances. It's pretty racist as well, as might be expected given the time period. Ultimately I found it pretty boring and had I not been killing time at 2AM I wouldn't have subjected myself to it.