Murders in the Zoo (1933)

Murders in the zoo (1933)

Plot Summary

 Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill) returns with his wife Evelyn (Kathleen Burke) from a trip to the Orient collecting zoo animals, having killed a member of his expedition who happened one day to kiss Mrs. Gorman. On board a ship Evelyn meets Roger Hewitt, (John Lodge) who falls in love with her. After delivering his animals to the zoo, Gorman plots a way to dispose of Hewitt using one of his latest specimens, then continues using the zoo's non-human residents to do his beastly work.

This movie was a tour de force for Lionel Atwill as he plays the sadistic SOB husband of  Kathleen Burke. You really get an idea of the kind of man he is right off the bat as the first thing we find is him finishing up stitching a guy's mouth together and leaving him for dead in the middle of the jungle. We see the grisly results as the guy gets out of his bonds and runs out facing the screen with the sutures still fresh and blood dripping over his now permanently closed mouth. This is the kind of stuff that will be prevalent in this early Paramount horror flick. It's not overly scary but there are some things that are disturbing such as live, real lion on lion fighting, a closeup of a snake bite and someone getting crushed to death by a boa constrictor.

Anywho, Atwill is insanely jealous of his wife and will stop at nothing to get rid of any suitors. His wife Evelyn falls in love with Hewitt and so he uses the backdrop of a publicity idea drummed up by the new zoo PR man Peter Yates, (played to comic effect by Charlie Ruggles) Yates is an alcoholic on his last chance at a steady job and is deathly afraid of the animals. There's a great little scene where he's cleaning one of the cages and spots a mamba much to his horror and falls down. That's when someone comes up to him and asks if he's alright to which he asks if there's a good laundromat in town LOL!

The PR stunt involves a fundraising dinner in an area with all the animals in cages. This is when Atwill kills Hewitt. Of course the entire place turns into chaos and the zoo is closed due to the mamba that killed Hewitt. We get further proof of how much of a sick individual Atwill is as he takes his wife home and tries to have sex with her after she's visibly upset and she tells him how she was going to leave him for Hewitt and how she hates Atwill. Atwill STILL tries to have his way with her!

Randolph Scott plays the zoo doctor who handles the investigation of what went on and he does a good job with a small but key part. Near the end of the film he figures out what Atwill has done and calls him to his office for a confrontation. The lighting and mood of the scene is great as it accentuates the evil of Atwill and his wanting to cover his tracks. Yes, Atwill will do anything including killing his wife to keep his good name.

The cast is very good in this though the script is full of holes with some of the behavior of the characters but despite that there is an internal logic and the fate that befalls Atwill is fitting. This movie can easily be found on Youtube if you ever want to take a gander.

I give this ** stars.