Director: Edward Dmytryk
Writers: Ted Fithian, Neil P. Varnick
Stars: John Carradine, Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone
Run Time: 1 hour, 1 Minute
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWpJ2nMCq9Q
Synopsis
We start off at the docks, where a tiger and other wild animals are being offloaded. Fred Mason has returned from his two-year jungle safari, and he meets Beth there waiting for him. He’s been over there to capture more wild animals for the circus; he’s also the head trainer. A tiger escapes, and everyone freaks out. Fred grabs a chair and a cane and cows the animal.
Afterwards, on the cab ride home, Beth tells that her sister Dorothy has been left in a sanitarium under the care of Dr. Walters. He’s done miraculous things with his glandular treatments. Dorothy keeps losing weight, and they need to find a cure. Their doctor thinks it may be a glandular disorder.
Dr. Walters tells Beth that he experiments on wild animals. He stops by to visit the circus, and they meet Cheela, a trained gorilla. Walters asks about the cost to buy Cheela, but is told she’s not for sale. Walters has run into a brick wall in his research, the little animals he experiments on aren’t big enough or smart enough. He wants that gorilla, so he hires a guy to steal her.
It’s not long before Dr. Walters is the happy owner of a stolen gorilla. Walters pushes the man into the ape cage and is killed. Walters wastes no time injecting the gorilla with his gland treatment. He does a transfusion using Dorothy’s blood into the gorilla. The gorilla morphs into a completely human-looking woman. His nurse quits on the spot, saying, “There are some things man was not meant to touch.” If he keeps this up, Dorothy will die so that the gorilla will live. Walters kills the nurse so that he can use her brain instead.
He names the gorilla “Paula Dupree” and learns that she doesn’t remember being an ape. He hypnotizes her to obey him. Walters takes her to the zoo for some reason, and she starts spooking the animals. There’s an accident, and Fred is knocked out in the lion cage. Paula goes in to rescue him, and she stares down a lion, which is terrified of her. Fred decides to hire her for the act. It works; the animals all behave when she’s there.
It’s not long, however, before Paula starts changing back; the upgrade is not a permanent thing. Dorothy calls Beth; she desperately wants out of the asylum. Beth rushes over to visit her. Walters reveals his plan to Beth, and she is horrified. There’s a strong storm outside. Walters mentions that, “She’d love to get her hands on me,” so Beth opens the cage door and lets Cheela/Paula out. She immediately attacks Walters.
Meanwhile, the power goes out at the circus while Fred is in the middle of what must be the longest wild animal show ever. Things get out of hand. The lion jumps on Fred just as Cheela the ape comes into the circus. Cheela goes in the cage and rescues Fred. A trigger-happy cop shoots Cheela, killing her.
Commentary
This was John Carradine’s first starring role, and he’s excellent here. He’s suave, young, and coldly scientific. Evelyn Ankers is as good as always. Milburn Stone was cast in the starring role because he physically resembled Clyde Beatty, the actual lion tamer who did the stunts.
Lots of scenes are of circus animal “training” that would never fly today. There was even a real scene of a lion fighting a tiger that wasn’t intentional, but they started fighting as the camera was rolling, and they left it in. Some animals were harmed in the making of this film. The animal scenes go on for far too long, and they add very little to the main plot.
The “werewolf-style” effect when Paula becomes a monkey is excellent.