Jungle Captive 1945 Screenplay by Dwight V Babcock and M Coates Webster, direction by Harold Young. The third and last film in the Cheela, the ape woman trilogy. The year before this film Harold Young directed the live action scenes for Disney's The Three Caballeros, a couple of years before that he directed The Mummy's Tomb. In 1934 he directed the Leslie Howard film The Scarlet Pimpernel. I haven't seen much of his other work.
Dwight V Babcock wrote about 20 other films and even more TV. I've seen several of the films he's penned: The Mummy's Curse, House Of Dracula, She-Wolf Of London, The Unknown and last Rondo Hatton film The Brute Man. I can't say I've seen much of his TV work. M Coates Webster also co-wrote The Brute Man with Babcock. I can't say I recognize any of his other titles.
This time it's Otto Kruger playing the mad scientist. This one's not an actual doctor but that doesn't stop him from all sorts of shenanigans. That's Amelita Ward in the car with Otto. Amelita plays Ann, the Otto's assistant. Otto's already restoring life to dead rabbits but he wants a bigger more advanced carcass to revive. He sends his man Morloch to the morgue to collect the body of the recently dead ape woman.
Rondo Hatton plays Morloch. He's a rather simple guy who doesn't mind a bit of murder to get what he wants. He strangles the morgue attendant to get the ape woman. Back at Otto's secret lab the mad scientist revives the ape woman and shortly after she turns into Paula Dupree. Otto kidnaps his assistant Ann, played by Amelita, to get some blood from her. Poor Moloch has feelings for her despite her liking Don.
That's Vicky Lane playing Paula. Phil Brown plays Ann's boyfriend Don and the doctor's other assistant. He comes to Ann's rescue but is caught by Moloch. Paula escapes and Don frees himself while the mads are off looking for her. Don rescues Ann but they get caught on the way out of the secret lab. Moloch tries to stop Otto from killing Ann with his experiment and gets a bullet in the gut. Otto experiences a crushing defeat when Paula turns back into a beast. Don and Ann are saved when the police arrive.
I thought it was the weakest of the trio but still enjoyed it. Mostly for Rondo and his mad scientist pal. I'm glad they put these out in nice editions, so I can see all the films in the series. I did like the commentary by Scott Gallinghouse, he had lots of stories to tell.
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