ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Directed by Edward Dmytryk and inspired perhaps by the success of "The Wolf Man" in 1941, this one flip-flops the basic concept so that John Carradine can turn a gorilla into the beautiful Acquanetta. Sexual excitement has the same effect on her as the full moon has on Lon Chaney, Jr.; it turns her back into a killer monster.



. . . Still very fashionably attired, of course . . .



John Carradine as Dr. Sigmund Walters never look better.



The hero of the piece is Milburn Stone (Doc from "Gunsmoke"), who plays an animal trainer, appropriately enough. The monster makeup is pretty good, and Acquanetta has a strange sort of beauty that makes her believable in the role. Jack Pierce did the fine makeup, including several transitional stages of the ape's conversion to Acquanetta and vice versa.

The transitional stages retain the suggestion of the Acquanetta's eyes — a neat trick.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

_______________________________________________

I haven't seen this one yet, but I did find the trailer.
______________________________________________


_____Captive Wild Woman - 1943 - Official Trailer


___________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Custer]

One should probably mention that there was a sequel the following year, "Jungle Woman," also featuring Acquanetta, while 1946 brought "The Jungle Captive," with Vicky Lane as that character, though, it seems, not one of the main figures in the story. Acquanetta was probably too busy shooting "Tarzan and the Leopard Woman" then!

Wikipedia seems unsure whether the lady was born Burnu Acquanetta to Arapaho parents (Burning Fire/Deep Water), or Mildred Davenport, of African American ethnicity. But a lady is entitled to some mystery, right?

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

This is from IMDB:

Aquanetta was a B-rated movie actress (born as Mildred Davenport) in Ozone, Wyoming in 1921. She was nicknamed the "Venezualan Volcano" by Universal Studios.

She's seems like a nice old fashion girl, the kind you'd take home to meet your parents . . . and then pretend you forgot they were out of town.



_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

__________________________________

Tonight I managed to stream this amazing movie from Putlocker (and download it, too), and I was amazed by how good it was!

Good luck!

Plus here's the sequel, compliments of YouTube.

__________________ Jungle Woman (1944)

_________

And here's the trailer for the film to which Jungle Woman is the sequel. YouTube used to have the full movie, but it's gone now. The image was stretched horizontally — which is actually good, because scientists have proven that we'll all go blind and become impotent if we watch videos in 4:3 with black bars on sides.

_____________ Jungle Captive (1945) trailer


_________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[The Spike]

Dr. Walters (John Carradine) has made great strides in his field of glandular transplants. But as his work progresses, the more unhinged his approach to his science becomes. Stealing a tame gorilla from the local circus, Walters transforms the gorilla into a beautiful woman whom he names Paula Dupree (Acquanetta). Upon taking Paula to the circus it's found that she has hypnotic powers over the lions and tigers and is promptly made part of the taming of the beasts act. But can Paula contain her true animal instincts?.

Sounds bonkers doesn't it? Well it is, but it's not the plot that makes the film so distinctly average. This is after all a low level Universal Pictures movie, we want, in fact demand, bizarre plots and berserker horror episodes. The problems exist with the complete lack of tension in the script, for a film that has a running time of just over an hour, you would think the big "transplant" and creation of "wild woman" would come sooner rather than later. But it doesn't, what we get is 45 minutes of musing about science and continual takes of circus animal training. With the latter containing some truly awful editing. Paula puts in an appearance late in the piece, then bang! it's pretty much the end and one can't help be disappointed after having stayed with it thus far.

Carradine hams it up and enjoys himself one feels, while Evelyn Ankers gives the other performance of note as Beth Colman. The film also serves as an interesting point of reference in the career of director Edward Dmytryk, who in the following few years would deliver some classics in a number of genres. He deserved better material here, hell they all did. But as ever with most of Universal's horror pictures, you end up taking the rough with the smooth and still enjoy yourself. A watchable yet frustrating experience it be. 5/10
_________________
The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Good job, Spikeman! A few questions came to mind while reading your review.

If Carradine turned a baby gorilla into a human, would it grow up to look like a normal human?

If he did it to a male and female gorilla, and they had a baby, would it be human . . . or simian?

And finally, could he turn mom and dad back into gorillas . . . and then sell the couple to one of those ever-present "local zoos"?

I'd make a great mad scientist, don't you think?
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[The Spike]

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

No, just a Mad Site Administer with god-like powers over the board He created back in 2006.

I've maintained it diligently for 14 years — despite several setbacks which have destroyed it completely and forced me to recreate if from scratch!

But I've finally achieve the stability and reliability I wanted all those years by now having it hosted on a "dedicated server" with Dreamhost.com.

It's expensive . . . but worth it to me.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)