Captive Wild Woman Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Edward Dmytryk
USA 1943

An insane scientist doing experimentation in glandular research becomes obsessed with transforming a female gorilla into a human...even though it costs human life.

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With its "Frankenstein" and "Wolf Man" among numerous other horrendous creations, Universal discovered that a good many moviegoers are willing to pay a price to be scared out of their wits. "Captive Wild Woman," now at the Rialto, should not let the thrill-seekers down. In some respects Universal has outdone itself with its latest monstrous wonder-child, an orangutan which takes on the appearance of Burnu Acquanetta, and vice versa. This time John Carradine is the scientist who oversteps the bounds and, as tradition demands in this type of horror drama, he is ultimately destroyed by his own handiwork. Perhaps one of these days the wolf man or some other of the stripe will hop right out of the typewriter at its creators, or so we hope. Anyway, Cheela, the missing circus ape, conducts herself very ladylike in the form of Miss Acquanetta until the animal trainer whom, she is helping to put a pack of lions and tigers through their paces embraces his fiancée.

Excerpt from the NY Times review located HERE

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A 61-minute Universal programmer from 1943, directed by Edward Dmytryk, in which John Carradine turns an orangutan into a beautiful woman (Acquanetta) who goes nuts because of unrequited love and kills a lot of men. This was popular enough to spawn two sequels, Jungle Woman and Jungle Captive.

Excerpt from Jonathan Rosenbaum's review located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: June 4th, 1943

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Comparison:

Universal - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover
		Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Universal Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC	Shout! Factory - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:00:30	1:00:41.638
Video	Original Aspect Ratios 1.33:1 Average Bitrate: 6.35 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.37:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 18,731,454,672 bytes Feature: 18,119,841,792 bytes Video Bitrate: 36.00 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital mono)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1576 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1576 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles	English (Hoh), French, None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Universal Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratios 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Theatrical Trailers for 3 of the 5 features DVD Release Date: October 2007 2 - tired Digipack (see image above) Chapters: various	Release Information: Studio: Shout! Factory 1.37:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 18,731,454,672 bytes Feature: 18,119,841,792 bytes Video Bitrate: 36.00 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • NEW Audio Commentary With Film Historian/Author Tom Weaver • Theatrical Trailer (1:06) • Still Gallery (1:55) Blu-ray Release Date: June 16th, 2020 Standard Blu-ray Case inside cardboard sleeve Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Shout! Factory Blu-ray (June 2020): Shout! Factory have transferred Edward Dmytryk's Captive Wild Woman to Blu-ray as part of their "Universal Horror Collection: Vol. 5" which also has The Monster and The Girl, Jungle Woman (the sequel to Captive Wild Woman) and The Jungle Captive. We have previously viewed "Universal Horror Collection: Vol. 1" HERE, Vol. 2 HERE, Vol. 3 HERE and Volume 4 HERE. I'm interested in the upcoming "Universal Horror Collection: Volume 6" with The Black Castle, Cult Of The Cobra, The Thing That Couldn't Die and The Shadow Of The Cat.

As far as the image goes for Captive Wild Woman, it shows significantly more in the frame on all four edges. There are plenty of speckles and scratches (mostly noticeable in the stock footage of lion and tiger 'taming') - this damage is more visible in the higher resolution. Contrast is far superior in HD and the image is generally greatly improved in 1080P on a dual-layered disc approaching 6X the bitrate.

NOTE: We have added 50 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Shout! Factory use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. It is another advancement in the film's effects (mostly animal growls and circus crowd screams) and 'Musical Director' credited score by Hans J. Salter (Man Without a Star, The Killer that Stalked New York, The Strange Door, Cover Up, Scarlet Street, The Land Unknown, The War Lord, The Mole People, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx) sounding a bit deeper with more consistent dialogue. Shout! Factory offer optional gaudy yellow English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Shout! Factory Blu-ray has a new commentary from Tom Weaver, author of Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931-1946. He is fun and includes audio clips of others - he knows his stuff talking about Universal horror monster sequels, the cast and much more. There is also a trailer and stills gallery.

Edward Dmytryk's Captive Wild Woman is not premium fare for this genre (described below as 'silly'), but still has appeal - its biggest detraction is the excessive lion/tiger taming in the film - much of it using marked and scratched stock footage. The audience really wanted more of Acquanetta's transformation and sneaking around at night with perceived skullduggery. The other complaint I have with Shout! Factory is that this is an hour-long film - it doesn't require its own Blu-ray disc. You could almost fit three of these films on one dual-layered BD - while still exporting efficiently high bitrates. I'm so lazy that I'd love to watch three of these gems in a row without getting off my butt to change discs. I'm slogging my way through the other 3 discs - and still enjoy this era's horror output and the Weaver commentary is a nice bonus. As I say I am more interested in the upcoming "Universal Horror Collection: Volume 6" with The Black Castle, Cult Of The Cobra, The Thing That Couldn't Die and The Shadow Of The Cat.

Gary Tooze

ON THE Universal Horror: Classic Movie Archive (2007): Like the immensely popular and out-of-print The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection Volume 1 (Reviewed HERE) followed by last month's The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection Volume 2 (Reviewed HERE) this Universal Horror Classic Movie Archive is being sold 'exclusively' at Best Buy although all three are also available at Amazon now via third parties.

The 5 films are spread over 2 dual-layered - single-sided discs. They are encoded in the NTSC standard for region 1. All are progressively transferred and three of the five have trailers. Each have original English audio and optional English, or French subtitles.

They look fairly consistent with the quasi-comedy of the package - typical 'dark house' variety - The Black Cat is probably the weakest in terms of image (of the five) with some heavy digital noise that pleasantly resembles grain (but watch for Alan Ladd!). The rest are a notch superior with surprisingly moments of clarity and excellent contrast. Considering the age of the films (and sharing discs) this would be considered quite acceptable. Audio as well was consistent and I noted no heavy instances of pops or dropouts that would impinge upon viewing.

No extras save the theatrical trailers for three of the five which remain enjoyable in their own right.

I always thrill these type of boxsets - simple, short horrors filled with nostalgia and at a reasonable price. I wouldn't say any of the five are stupendous, but it was interesting to see Night Monster and Horror Island as well as Dmytryk's effort with Captive Wild Woman (albeit a silly film). I'm probably the worst person to ask about these films as I can't see how everyone wouldn't want them - they are fun and I love the period they were made. Price is right and if you have any interest I can vouch that you will enjoy - hopefully as much as I.