2014 Horror Countdown: Jungle Woman (1944)

Jungle Woman (1944), dir. Reginald Le Borg, Universal Pictures 

Thus ends our look back at the monsters of Universal Pictures, and we’re ending this one on an odd note. A sequel to Captive Wild Woman (1943), this continues the strange story of the most unusual Universal Monster of all.

Astute readers may recall that I didn’t review Captive Wild Woman last year, but that is not an issue as the first fifteen minutes of Jungle Woman is mostly footage from that film. To wit, we see the ending and some overall recapping. Paula Dupree (Acquanetta), AKA Cheela the gorilla, was transformed from ape to human thanks to the mad science of Dr. Sigmund Walters (John Carradine). Hoping to be the showcase of a circus, she ends up falling in love with animal trainer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) and falling in murderous rage with his fiancée Beth Colman (Evelyn Ankers). During a thunderstorm, Paula rushes to save Mason from his spooked cats as she transforms back into an ape. The police gun her down before a horrified crowd.

Jungle Woman picks up during the aftermath. It turns out that Paula is only mostly dead. Dr. Fletcher (J. Carrol Naish) was in the audience that night and quickly buys the comatose ape. Fletcher is so impressed that he buys the late Walters’s estate and notes and sets about bringing Paula back to her full strength. He manages to wake the ape up, but he is a bit perplexed when a now fully human and mute Paula is found wandering the grounds. Paula is silent and unresponsive, expect to Fletcher’s handyman Willie (Eddie Hyans); him she hates with a passion. 

She only seems to come around when Fletcher’s daughter Jean (Lois Collier) and her boyfriend Bob Whitney (Richard David), specifically Bob, whom she takes an instant liking. She likes him so much that she seems to fly into a rage whenever she sees Bob and Jean together. Much like the previous film, Paula goes into a murderous rage and tries to wipe out the competition. The only real difference is the mad doctor manages to save the day for once. 

Paula was an interesting monster, although note I didn’t say good or compelling. Her basic premise is just a take on the old werewolf legend, but Acquanetta doesn’t have the gravitas of Lon Chaney Jr. The Paula Dupree trilogy is one of the odder Universal films, and the overuse of stock footage doesn’t help matters.

The film is not currently available on DVD, but it was released on VHS.

The house of Universal still has many more monsters to show, but they will have to wait until next year. Next, we go across the pond again to see the Hammer of Horror.