The Jungle Captive (1945)

The Jungle Captive: Directed by Harold Young. With Otto Kruger, Vicky Lane, Amelita Ward, Phil Brown. Once again, Paula Dupree, the Ape Woman, is brought back to life, this time by a mad scientist and his disfigured assistant, who also kidnaps his female lab assistant in order to have a female blood donor. By this time, Paula has brain damage from her experiences in the last film, so there’s not much for her to do except wander around.

“Pretty good and under-appreciated finale to Universalu0026#39;s u0026quot;Ape Woman Trilogyu0026quot;. Otto Kruger plays an older and grandfatherly doctor who appears kind and respectable but has sinister plans up his sleeve to revive Paula the Ape Woman and transform her into Vicky Lane (since Acquanetta left the series). His perfect assistant is none other than Rondo Hatton, the actor who in real life suffered from the disease Acromegaly, which enlarged his face and hands. Rondo was never an actor, but heu0026#39;s better here than in any of his other films, with a generous helping of dialogue and emotions on display. We also get a little more time with the actual Ape Woman than usual and this is a short 60 minutes of typical mad doctor/assistant/monster nonsense thatu0026#39;s fun, if not anything exceptional. A favorite line is when the doc looks at the deformed Rondo Hatton whou0026#39;s admiring the human female patient on the table and says to him: u0026quot;No offense, but with that face youu0026#39;re not exactly a Casanova, you knowu0026quot;. And then, pointing at the beastly Ape Woman on the next table: u0026quot;This is more in your lineu0026quot;. I wonder how Otto Kruger felt delivering an insult like that to the unfortunate Rondo? **1/2 out of ****”