JUNGLE CAPTIVE (1945)
Article #206 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 10-8-2001
Posting date: 2-21-2002

A mad doctor decides he needs the body of Paula Dupree, the ape woman for his experiments.

When I saw this lame little movie many years back, my first reaction was to observe that Rondo Hatton was not much of an actor; like Tor Johnson, he was a human special effect. Seeing it again recently, I haven’t really changed my opinion as much as amended it a little; at least I get the feeling that he was actually putting forth some effort and expending a little energy, which is more than I can say for some of the others involved in this one. The story is dull and never picks up any steam. I’ve also never had more of a feeling that someone is just walking through his role as I do from Otto Kruger here; I don’t get the impression he cared for the role at all. And though Acquanetta wasn’t a great actress, she did a far better job than the somnambulent Vicki Lane in this one. All in all, I consider it far and away the weakest of the Universal horrors I’ve seen to date.