CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943) introduced Aquanetta as Paula DuPrez, the Ape Woman, the only female monster to get a series until Mircalla Karnstein at Hammer films in the 1970s. John Carradine is the extremely mad endocrinologist who shows that hormone transfers from a human into a gorilla can transform the latter into a woman — but a woman filled with the passion and savagery of a she ape!!!! Paula’s ability to intimidate wild cats with a glance makes her invaluable to a rookie lion-tamer but when she realizes his heart belongs to girlfriend Evelyn Ankers, things get complicated ….
This was surprisingly fun, even if a part of me cringes at the circus rounding up wild cats and training them for the act. However it has too much plot to wrap up as quickly as it does. I would not have anticipated two sequels (which I’ll get to eventually). “It’s been proven beyond doubt that glands can transform physical matter to any size, shape or appearance.”
I had a weird Mandela Effect experience due to TYG taking me to SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (2026) as I was under the impression it was a 30th anniversary rerelease of the 1995 version — where was Emma Thompson? How could young Hugh Grant look so completely different than I remembered? Once I got past that, this was a good adaptation of the story of the Dashwood sisterL impoverished due to their father’s will, living on relatives’ charity, looking for the men who can turn their fortunes around. It doesn’t measure up to the earlier version but I still enjoyed it, and it has some great supporting bits like Fiona Shaw’s jubilant Mrs. Jennings. “Between ‘villain’ and ‘friend’ lies a wide range of actions.”
As usual my trip to Fort Walton Beach meant me and my bestie Cindy watching rom-coms when we had some down time. Some of them I thought we’d watched together back before I moved up to Durham but memory really was faulty this time — we’ve watched so many films, sometimes I just imagined her there when it had been someone else.
Case in point STRANGER THAN FICTION (2006) wherein emotionally numb IRS auditor Will Ferrell discover a)radical baker Maggie Gyllenhaal makes him Feel Things and b)the narration he hears in his head is due to him being a character in Emma Thompson’s latest novel, which is unfortunate as all her leads wind up dead.
I have a soft spot for stories about emotionally withdrawn people learning to reconnect and this is a charming one — charming enough I scoured Amazon for a DVD with a good commentary track but couldn’t find one. With Queen Latifah as Thompson’s minder and Dustin Hoffman as a literature professor trying to understand how this All Makes Sense (“Do you ever attend parties in big country houses to which you weren’t invited?”). “The frightening part is, I really do imagine a deep and endless ocean.”
I LOVE YOU AGAIN (1940) stars William Powell as the avatar of pompous, small-town Babbitry until a blow on the noggin makes him realize he’s a gifted scam artist who’s spent the past decade suffering from amnesia. Now he and his sidekick are perfectly positioned togo back to his small town and pull off a big grift —except Powell’s wife Myrna Loy is about to divorce him for being a pompous penny-pincher and the scandal will kill their big score. Which is the only reason Powell is pitching so much woo at her—absolutely not because he really, really wants to hit that, is that clear? As always, Loy and Powell (best known from starring in the Thin Man movies) were a great comedy team. “You’re taking my wife — the least you can do is give me the chamber of commerce.”
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