Michael O'Keefe Paula Dupree, (Vicky Lane), known as the Ape-Woman , has already been killed twice with overdose of tranquilizers. In the middle of the night, a huge, strikingly ugly man named Moloch the Brute (Rondo Hatton) is sent to collect the Ape-Woman's body for the local university; after a failed kidnapping, Paula's body is taken to a secluded mansion, where a mad scientist Dr. Stendahl (Otto Kruger), is working on a major research project of restoring life to dead bodies by blood transfusions and direct electric stimulation of the heart.This film is directed by Harold Young and you immediately know you are watching low budget horror. Not the greatest, but very comfortable to watch due to so many familiar faces.Rounding out the cast: Amelita Ward, Phil Brown, Jerome Cowan, Jack Overman and Ernie Adams.

Michael_Elliott The Jungle Captive (1946)** (out of 4)A mad doctor (Otto Kruger) has his assistant (Rondo Hatton) steal the body of Paula the Ape Woman (Vicky Lane) so that he can do experiments on her. This includes stealing another woman (Amelita Ward) for a blood transfusion to see if the ape woman can be cured.THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE is the third and final film of Universal's trilogy dealing with Paula the Ape Woman. You have to think that the studio had rather low expectations going into the series and I'm going to guess that CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN didn't do a well at the box office, which caused the studio to really cut back on the second film, JUNGLE WOMAN, which was perhaps the studio's laziest movie. THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE is certainly a step up from that picture but it's still not all that good.The best thing going for this film is the fact that they've actually got the ape woman running around quite a bit of the running time. It was great getting to see her since the make-up on her is actually excellent and having her appear in the film is reason enough alone to enjoy this more than the second film. Another plus is the fact that Hatton is so watchable here. I can't help but feel sorry for him and the fact that Universal was pretty much exploiting his disease but at the same time he has become a cult favorite over the years.As far as the film's issues go, well, there are quite a few but the biggest is the simple fact that the story itself really isn't all that original and it's certainly something we've seen countless times before. Still, if you're a fan of the studio then there's enough good things here to make this worth watching.

FieCrier As in the first movie in this series, Captive Wild Woman, we're introduced to an apparently kind man who is apparently pursuing beneficial medical research. As in that movie, we just as quickly find out he is a mad genius, with little regard for human life.The movie quickly picks up where the second on the series left off, where Paula, the Ape Woman was in a morgue. Mr. Stendahl (the end credits in the copy I viewed named him Dr. Stendahl, but he is usually called Mister) has developed a process for bringing back life to the dead through blood transfusions and electricity. Supposedly, he wants to bring back life to Paula because she's a step up from the rabbits he had been using, but avoids the ethical problems of using a human subject. Since he doesn't care, however, if people die (his servant Moloch kills a man while stealing Paula), it's unclear why he doesn't simply revive a dead human body, or kill a human, and then revive them.After he brings Paula back to life, she is still in her ape-woman form. Unlike in the second film Jungle Woman, where she could change back and forth between ape-woman and woman, in this film (as in the 1st) she requires human blood and hormones to appear as a woman. To become more human, she would require a transplanted cerebrum from a human, again as in the first. In order to learn how to turn Paula into a human, Stendahl had to have Moloch steal the files of Dr. Walters (from the 1st film) from the office of Dr. Fletcher (from the 2nd film). Apart from these references to the earlier films, no one from those films returns to this one; the only recurring character is Paula herself, and she is played by a different actress. There does not seem to be any footage used from the previous films, except perhaps a short close-up of Paula's hand transforming while she is strapped to a table. There was a shot like that in the first film, but they may have just re-created it.Stendahl's reasoning for wanting to turn Paula into a human after reviving her is just as questionable as his reasoning for wanting to revive her. He thinks turning her into a woman would prove he could bring a human back to life. It would seem to me that it would only prove he could turn an ape-woman into a human, or at any rate, something like a human.People seem divided as to whether the second or third film is the worst of the three, and I'm not sure myself. They're all decent, at least, but there is no question the first was the best of them.

jim riecken (youroldpaljim) ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** JUNGLE CAPTIVE is the third installment of Universals "Paula the Ape Women" series. In terms of over all entertainment quality, JUNGLE CAPTIVE falls somewhere in between the three, with CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN at a high and JUNGLE WOMEN at a low. Although this film is slightly better the previous JUNGLE WOMAN, the gulf in quality is not that wide between the two.Otto Kruger plays Mr. Stendahl, a brilliant doctor (although no one in the film ever calls him doctor) and medical researcher. Stendahl has been researching ways to bring the dead back to life, and has succeeded with animals. However, Stendahl feels the only way to really convince the medical community is to prove his technique can be used on humans. So Stendahl sends his ugly henchman Moloch to steal the body of Paula Dupree the ape women, from the morgue. In the process, his henchman kills a morgue attendant and steals a hearse. Stendahl then lures his nurse out to his secret country house and laboratory out in the boondocks somewhere, in order to use her blood in his experiments to bring life to the dead ape women. The ape is revived and turns back from a hideous creature into a beautiful women again. However, Paula"s brain is damaged and decides she needs a new one. So Stendal sends Moloch to the home of Doctor Fletcher (from the series previous film JUNGLE WOMEN) to steal his records and those of DR. Walters (whose records Fletcher had in his files) the scientist who created Paula.In order to learn how to transplant a brain. Fletcher is killed by Moloch off screen. Stendahl decides to use the brain of his captive nurse. Now shall we begin? I have gone this much into the plot because this film has such a bizarre far fetched plot. Stendahl is obviously a scientific genius, but when comes to real world smarts, he is really a few cards short of a full deck. In order to prove his life restoring technique to the scientific community, why does Stendahl use the body of a hideous mutation? Why not say, the body of some recently deceased father of five whose widow and children would happy to have their father back. Presenting the revived ape women to the public would implement him in the murder of the morgue attendant and Dr. Fletcher. Then their is actual theft of the body and the hearse. Not to mention removing the brain of his nurse and placing it in the body of the ape women he could be charged with a whole host of charges on that alone.In most of the film, the ape women spends most of her time on the lab table. The ape women this time around is played by Vicki Lane, but there is little here for her to do but lie on a lab table. When she is transformed into a beautiful women, she does little more than roam around zombie like. Vicki Lane is pretty, but she does not have the raw animal sensuality of Acqanetta from the previous films. Also, Paula's hypnotic control over animals is ignored here. When Paula escapes from Stendahl"s house, she trapped by Stendahl's dogs. Otto Kruger isn't bad as the evil Stendahl, he gives a very good low key performance. However, he has to recite so many clunker lines that his efforts are hampered. Rondo Hatton is Moloch. This was his second time in a Universal horror film. He was quite effectively used in his horror star debut, the Sherlock Holmes thriller, PEARL OF DEATH. However, in PEARL he was mute, here Hatton has lines. This time around he is more funny than scary. Hatton from here on was not an actor, but a human prop. Universal should have left Paula Dupree the ape dead for good in the first film. The ape women was only good for one film, and JUNGLE CAPTIVE confirms this.