"Captive Wild Woman" is a fun programmer from Universal. It's mostly notable for its exciting animal sequences, supervised by a man named Clyde Beatty (whose name is dropped in the script). John Carradine stars as a surgeon making a name for himself with his supposedly miraculous operations. Circus secretary Beth Colman (Evelyn Ankers) brings her younger sister (Martha Vickers) to Carradines' sanatorium for treatment, not knowing he's actually your typical mad scientist, obsessively transferring glands from one animal to another. He acquires the circus' new ape, Cheela (played by Ray Corrigan), and succeeds at transforming the gorilla into a stunningly sexy young woman (Acquanetta).A wonderful cast all around also helps make this watchable: Milburn Stone is amiable as trainer Fred Mason, Lloyd Corrigan frets well as circus owner John Whipple, Fay Helm makes the most of her brief screen time as a worried nurse, and Paul Fix is a good drunken slime ball as ousted circus employee Gruen. Carradine refrains from hamming it up too much, delivering an enjoyable villainous performance. As you can see, he has no problem resorting to murder when he has to. Beatty doubles Stone for the long shots. And Turhan Bey recites the ending narration!Handled in capable fashion by director Edward Dmytryk, this B monster picture is good, straightforward entertainment that leads to a thrilling climax.Six out of 10.

Quite an entertaining little film from Universal... it is better than the rating it's given.John Carradine plays Dr. Sigmund Walters a "mad" scientist that turns Paula Dupree (Acquanetta) into an ape woman. It's true that Dr. Walters actual motivations we not made exactly clear but it is obvious that is it for scientific research.At any rate, the movie does serve to entertain certain audiences - I was anyway. It is not Universal's best of the time period but it is a good one - worth watching.If you like films like The Ape (1940), The Ape Man (1943) or Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) then you might like Captive Wild Woman.7.5/10

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.

John Carradine's first lead in a horror picture. He's a doctor and authority on glandular diseases who becomes interested in an extra-intelligent gorilla named Cheela. His plan is to use the blood of one of his human female patients to transfuse into the ape and turn her into a beautiful young woman (played by Acquanetta). The typical problem is that the ape tendencies keep on creeping back. This performer Acquanetta made several other films after this one, but she was always a terrible actress whenever she opened her mouth to speak a line. However, she pulls off the role as a human with primitive origins fairly well enough here by keeping mute and using her eyes and limited facial expressions. Sometimes things get a bit bogged down by an over-reliance on animal stock footage from THE BIG CAGE, but the presence of Carradine's mad doctor and a different breed of "girl monster" keep this a serviceable entry in Universal's horror series. **1/2 out of ****