Just perfect...

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The opening scene from "Murders in the Zoo" is quite extreme for 1933 audiences . I shalln't say what happens but you can't miss it!Lionel Atwill steals the show once again as the sadistic, cunning and evil proprietor of various dangerous animals that he plans to sell to a zoo. Little does anyone realise that he shall use his animals for other means........You only have to observe the expression of Lionel Atwill to know he is a somewhat dodgy customer.This gem was unfairly ignored for years but is very good on its own merits.

When rogue sunspot activity grants the chimps at the zoo hyper-intelligence, they quickly rebel against their human captors, forcing the humans to ride tricycles while wearing ill-fitting bell boy outfits and smoking cheap cigars while mocking the humans' pale, unswollen buttocks. In an attempt to befriend the chimps, the humans refer to them as mere "monkeys" which sends the chimps into a face eating frenzy that transforms the zoo a cotton candy coated abattoir!Okay, maybe not. This is actually a lean and mean tale of obsession and revenge. I don't want to spoil it for you by giving away any details except to say that this type of story, the pathologically jealous husband who views his wife as property, and the brave wife trying to escape him, has been told many times over.This version however, is stripped down and raw, and the zoo setting gives it a slightly bizarre twist, just enough to jar you yet not so much it detracts from the emotional impact of the story. The acting is good on all sides with Atwill especially frightening as a man both driven and intelligent enough to exact a horrible fate on anyone he even suspects of crossing him. The opening scene is actually pretty disturbing and but does it's job well in that it lets the viewer know exactly how far Atwill will go to impose his retribution.

(There are Spoilers) Mad zoologist and big game hunter Eric Gorman has this thing about anyone who as much as looks at his wife Evelyn, Kathleen Burke, that has him simply go wacko! We get to see a glimpse of Eric's murderous jealousy at the start of the movie when he has fellow big game hunter and trapper Bob Taylor's mouth sewed up and, with his hands tied, left in the jungle to be eaten by the wild animals that live there! What was Taylor's crime? He was caught, by Eric, giving Evelyn a friendly kiss!Back in the states with a shipload of wild animals from India and South East Asia, including at least a dozen African lions, Eric is now obsessed in doing in fellow boat passenger Roger Hewitt, John Lodge, whom he knows is having an affair with Evelyn. It's Evelyn who's seriously considering divorcing her dangerous and unstable nut-job of a husband, whom she's just about had it with, and marrying Roger. Not wanting to be implicated in any murder that he's planing Eric decides to use the wild animals that he brought to the local zoo to do the dirty work for him!The wild eyed and bushy hair, as well as a little bit nuts, Eric gets to the unsuspecting Roger at a dinner for the opening of his zoo exhibition with a deadly green mamba whom he uses, under the table, to bite the poor guy as he's having his dinner. Dropping dead almost on the spot, mamba venom is among fastest acting and deadliest of all killer snakes, it becomes apparent that the mamba was accidentally released by Dr. Jack Woodford who was at the time milking the killer mamba of it's venom, in his laboratory, to develop a antidote for it! Knowing that he had the mamba security locked up in its cage Dr. Woodford suspects that Eric, in the way he behaved at the murder scene, may well have used a second deadly mamba to murder Roger!**SPOILER ALERT** As it soon turned out the mamba was in fact totally Innocent of killing Roger! Eric used its venom, in some weird contraption he invented, to stick it to Roger and get him both out of his hair and is wife's Evelyn's life! It's when Evelyn found out what Eric did in having her lover Roger killed, and threatening to go to the police, that later that evening Eric had her dumped into the crocodile pool at the zoo where she ended up as the hungry crock's moonlight snack! It's when Eric tried to murder, with the mamba venom, Dr. Woodford that his crazy plan finally backfired on him. Not knowing that Dr. Woodford had already developed an antidote to the venom and his girlfriend and lab. assistant Jerry Evens, Gail Patrick, on the scene to administrate it to the unconscious Dr. Woodford Eric was caught flat footed and exposed for his crimes. Knowing that the jig is finally up for him Eric tried to make his getaway by releasing all the caged animals to be used as cover for his escape. Ending up in the safety of a cage himself with the lions leopards tigers as well as hyenas tearing the entire zoo apart Eric found to his surprise and shock that he wasn't the only one locked in! He had a cage-mate who hasn't eaten for weeks if not months and Eric couldn't have come at a better time for him, or it, to finally have its long delayed meal!

I first came across this film in a review in one of William Everson's compendiums of horror film classics. He spoke quite highly of it, but until tonight I never had seen it.MURDERS AT THE ZOO has the plus of Lionel Atwill as a big game hunter named Eric Gorman. He is quite an expert on deadly animals and brings them to the zoo in the city he lives in. But his wife Evelyn (Katherine Burke) has a way of attracting younger, and handsomer men to her attention. Atwill is fiendishly possessive and jealous, and proceeds to kill any man who is having an affair with his wife. But he uses his knowledge of the wild and animals (he later explains he loves animals because of their honesty regarding their feelings, including kill or be killed) to destroy these men. We first see him tying up and leaving a man in the jungle to be destroyed by man-eating tigers. But first he sews the man's lips together so he can't lie or kiss another man's wife (or call for help). A close-up of the man with bloodied, threaded face is briefly shown on camera.On the voyage back home from India Burke meets an American traveler played by John Lodge. Lodge and Burke begin an affair (which Atwill soon is aware of). Atwill pretends he is unaware of it, and invites Lodge to a dinner party (to raise funds for the zoo - this is the depression). At the party Lodge dies, the victim (apparently) of the bite of a green mamba snake that Atwill brought back from India which may have escaped from it's cage. The person that was responsible for the care of the new acquisition is Randolph Scott, here not in his normal western milieu but playing a reptile expert. Scott, with assistant and girl friend Gail Patrick, is struggling to create an anti-toxin for snake venom, particularly those of the deadly Mamba snakes. Atwill jumps to the conclusion that Scott has been criminally negligent regarding watching this deadly snake, and wishes to press charges against him. However, Burke is less willing to believe Scott is responsible, and soon is aware of who is responsible...which is not healthy for her.The use of a deadly snake for killing purposes goes back to Conan Doyle and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" in the first collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories. But the character I found interesting here is Scott, the reptile man at the zoo. It is hard for us to realize but in the 1930s Americans were still fascinated by the world of zoos and aquariums and the people who searched for or dealt with rare animals. Frank Buck's book BRING 'EM BACK ALIVE described his adventures hunting and trapping dangerous animals (it was a big best seller). The career of Clyde Beatty, as an animal trapper specialist, was followed and led to his career as a circus entrepreneur. But another figure of interest in New York City (which apparently is the city in this film) was Raymond Ditmars, who was in charge of the reptiles in the city zoos and was a recognizable authority on snakes. It is probable that he is the basis for Scott's character (especially in searching for anti-toxins). Atwill gives one of his finest performances here, Gorman's fascination with animals being as important as his sexual insanity (hinted at by his weird, occasional smiling stares and Burke's obvious disgust at him). The acting is competent, particularly Scott and Patrick. There is this problem I find with the fans and opponents of poor Charley Ruggles. Playing an alcoholic reporter trying this last chance job as a publicist, Ruggles is drunk in a couple of scenes (not through the entire film), and has a very funny moment when he finds himself next to the missing green mamba snake - leading to a request for information that could only appear in such a film prior to the real enforcement of the code on movies. He plays a major role in finally bringing Atwill to book at the end. And his last appearance (although drunk) is a curious counterpoint to his Major Applegate in BRINGING UP BABY only four years later.I only have one real problem with this neat little movie - how did Atwill contrive to use his "weapon" without being observed by the people at the dinner? It never is really explained.