There are sincere, if mediocre performances, by Charlotte Austin and Lance Fuller in this Allied Artists science fiction film that is better than expected. As an engaged couple on the verge of heading to Africa on an animal hunting expedition, Austin and Fuller are about to face something far more mysterious than the ways of the world outside their realm. Fuller, the owner of a gorilla he had captured on a previous exposition, has no idea that his bride shares something in common with the caged beast. In a prior life, Austin rules as queen of the gorillas, a revelation she learns through a series of dreams, shown to the audience through film negatives rather than the positive shown for the current day sequences.
This certainly could have been a piece of schlock, but it is far closer to the Bomba and Jungle Jim films then to the earlier Bride of the Gorilla. In that sense, it is more adventure than science fiction, although with the credit of Edward D Wood Jr. as script writer, the element of science fiction is certainly prevalent. Of course, there are the obligatory jungle sequences filmed at stock footage, and they are pleasantly mixed with the newly shot film. there are of course stereotypical African characters, including a wise Old Woman Who seems to be a combination of Maria Ouspenskaya in "The Wolf Man" and the variety of parts played by Madame Sul-Te-Wan (including the original "Mighty Joe Young"). The lack of camp might be disappointing, but I had to admit that this was a decent, if standard, jungle tale.
This certainly could have been a piece of schlock, but it is far closer to the Bomba and Jungle Jim films then to the earlier Bride of the Gorilla. In that sense, it is more adventure than science fiction, although with the credit of Edward D Wood Jr. as script writer, the element of science fiction is certainly prevalent. Of course, there are the obligatory jungle sequences filmed at stock footage, and they are pleasantly mixed with the newly shot film. there are of course stereotypical African characters, including a wise Old Woman Who seems to be a combination of Maria Ouspenskaya in "The Wolf Man" and the variety of parts played by Madame Sul-Te-Wan (including the original "Mighty Joe Young"). The lack of camp might be disappointing, but I had to admit that this was a decent, if standard, jungle tale.