Murders in the Zoo (1933)

Lionel Atwill stars as insanely jealous big game hunter Eric Gorman, who mercilessly kills any man who shows the least interest in his beautiful(but unfaithful) wife Evelyn(played by Kathleen Burke). After brutally leaving one such suitor for dead in the jungle where he was collecting zoo animals, he once again finds a man showing interest in her on the ship back home, so plots to kill him at the zoo where he works, then he'll target his wife too... Charlie Ruggles, in an entirely unrelated subplot, plays the "recovering" alcoholic who is also scared of the animals! Alternatingly grim and grisly, yet dull and comedic, film never finds a consistent tone, and is otherwise unappealing.

Opening up in Africa with the murder of a zoologist's wife's lover, this frightening thriller doesn't use monsters, mad scientists or ancient mummy's to provide the chills, but nature itself. Lionel Atwill is his delightfully villianess self as the zoologist who uses the deadly green mamba, a giant anaconda like snake, to do his dirty work, and back in the states, as evidence begins to point to him, more bizarre murders occur. Charlie Ruggles brings the tone down from frights to laughs as a man whose skin crawls anytime he's around anything other than a human being. Even milk-craving baby bears and a friendly chimp have him on edge. There's some truly horrifying moments here, including one clever disposal of a body, and a finale that is up there with the final shot of "Freaks" in the art of the macabre. Kathleen Burke (as Atwill's wife), Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick offer fine support, but this is Atwill's film all the way.

It starts improbably with lions in a South East Asian jungle and Lionel Atwill sewing up the mouth of his wife's latest lover, leaving him to die helplessly. Not nice! And it gets even better, in what is a delicious hour and a minute from Paramount in their wonder period of 1930/4.A tale of insane jealousy leading to murders and in what passes for that now endangered species, a zoo, although obviously backlots and back projections abound in a rather darkly atmospheric mix. The main characters run true to typecast: Randolph Scott as the clever handsome good guy with ever-grinning Gail Patrick as his clever and loyal sidekick, Charles Ruggles as the well-meaning bumbling buffoon and Atwill as the manic sex fiend (hmm…). This was probably his best ever performance – witness his wide-eyed and frantic lust for his wife after he'd killed another of her boyfriends. Although just how it was done is still a mystery to me. Atwill was eaten up by jealousy but was eventually eaten up by alligators – how poignant!Years ago my then little daughter and I loved this one and it still holds up well as a wicked little suspense film, lovely and creaky, full of horrid humour and a cast who looked as though they enjoyed themselves making it.

Who said the old horror movie weren't graphic, this baby begins with Lionel Atwill sewing a man's mouth closed before feeding him to the animals and going on from there. Great classic horror film thats been picked apart over the years for other films but its never really been done as good as this. The plot is simple, Atwill runs the zoo and uses the animals to dispose of people who annoy him or try to get too close to the women he loves. Its dark and creepy stuff that sends shivers up and down your spine, not so much for what it shows, which isn't much, but for what it doesn't. If you want the perfect mixture of terror of the eyes and terror of the mind this is it. Perfectly paced and played it does what it does and gets off. I can't recommend this film enough. Its great (even if its a tad creaky)