Villain(s)  Female gorilla

Actor(s):  John Carradine, Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone, Lloyd Corrigan

Brief Description  Captive Wild Woman (1943) is a classic 61-minute Universal Pictures B-horror science-fiction film directed by Edward Dmytryk. The movie introduces a new monster to Universal's legendary roster: the Ape Woman, played by exotic actress Acquanetta. The plot revolves around a brilliant but unhinged scientist, Dr. Sigmund Walters (John Carradine), who utilizes controversial endocrine research, sex hormones, and brain transplants to cross genetic boundaries and transform a female gorilla into a human woman.

Plot:
The Setup: Animal trainer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) returns from an African safari with a fresh menagerie of animals for Whipple’s Circus, including an extraordinarily intelligent female gorilla named Cheela.

The Mad Science: Fred's fiancée, Beth Colman (Evelyn Ankers), takes her sickly sister Dorothy (Martha Vickers) to Crestview Sanatorium under the care of endocrinologist Dr. Sigmund Walters. Obsessed with creating a superior hybrid race, Walters steals Cheela the gorilla. He injects her with Dorothy's glandular extracts and transplants the brain of his rebellious nurse, Miss Strand (Fay Helm), into the ape.

The Transformation: The experiment succeeds, morphing Cheela into a beautiful, mute human woman whom Walters names Paula Dupree (Acquanetta).

The Climax: Paula runs away to join the circus and uses her lingering primal instincts to save Fred from a tiger attack, causing Fred to hire her as his assistant. However, Paula develops a deep romantic fixation on Fred. When she spots Fred and Beth embracing, overwhelming jealousy triggers her regression back into an aggressive, half-human "were-ape" monster determined to kill her romantic rival.

To save on production costs, Universal heavily relies on recycled circus action and big-cat taming footage lifted from their 1932 film The Big Cage, featuring legendary real-life animal trainer Clyde Beatty doubling for Milburn Stone. The striking transition makeup for the Ape Woman was created by Universal's master monster designer, Jack Pierce, the same man behind Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man.