Just perfect...

hyped garbage

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

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.

Universal wasn't the only studio making horror films - Paramount made a few bizarre ones as well. "Murder by the Clock" (1931), "The Island of Lost Souls" (1932) and "Murders in the Zoo", which was considered quite tasteless at the time. When it was released, censor boards around America went at it with a pair of shears and when it was shown on television even more cuts were made.Lionel Atwill plays Eric Gorman, a wealthy zoologist, who uses his knowledge of animals to kill off his wife's lovers. The first scene is quite shocking as Eric is seen in the jungle, sewing up his human victim's lips, like a head hunter and leaving him at the mercy of the wild animals. Later when his wife, Evelyn (Kathleen Burke) innocently asks him if the man left any message for her, Eric carelessly replies - "he didn't say anything"!!! Oh well, Evelyn has already started a shipboard romance with John Hewitt (John Lodge) but Eric is insanely jealous and Hewitt is worried about his and Evelyn's safety. When they are all back at the Zoo, irritating press agent, Peter Yates (Charlie Ruggles) suggests a slap up dinner among the animals as a publicity stunt to bring the Zoo some much needed funds. Evelyn is planning to follow Hewitt to Paris but unfortunately neither of them make it. During the dinner Hewitt is bitten by a deadly mamba snake that has mysteriously been released among the diners. Evelyn meets her fate in a thrilling chase that culminates in a struggle over an ornamental bridge. Eric uses chloroform and then throws Evelyn's lifeless body into the crocodile infested stream. Of course, in front of others he assumes horrified anger and charges the young chemist, Jack Woodford (Randolph Scott) with negligence - he also closes the Zoo. When the missing mamba is found, Jack makes a shocking discovery - the width of it's bite proves it is not the same snake that killed Hewitt. It paves the way for a gripping climax as Eric tries to kill Jack with mamba venom!!! Unfortunately - for Eric, Jerri (Gail Patrick) has found an anti venom for the mamba poison and she is able to administer it while Eric madly runs from all the wild animals he has let loose - only to find himself in the cage of one wild beast he can't master!!!This is a fantastic horror movie, only slowed down by Charlie Ruggles' unfunny clowning. He was even topped billed but that was because he was a Paramount star, while Lionel Atwill, who was fabulous, in my opinion, was only borrowed. Kathleen Burke, who won the "Panther Girl" contest (apparently from 60,000 other girls) but she wasn't given much to do after that. She was perfect as the unfaithful Evelyn. Gail Patrick and Randolph Scott played the love interest - both went on to greater stardom. According to a FIR article, Lionel Atwill became fascinated with the 25 foot python and insisted that it really be allowed to wrap itself around his body. Eddie Sutherland tried to talk him out of it, then Paramount had to hire snake handlers to stand by to unwrap Atwill as he revelled in the grisly scene.Highly Recommended.

(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!

Three murders are committed during this film, two of them are indeed Murders In The Zoo. The problem for the authorities is that they're not murders because animals leave no forensics to tell any tales. Well almost.Lionel Atwill is a brilliant zoologist, tops in his field and an insanely jealous man. To be sure he's got reason to be, Kathleen Burke is not the most faithful of wives. In this before the Code classic it's really hard to tell whether Atwill was insane by nature or she's driven him that way because of her infidelities.Because of his knowledge of animal habits and methods of killing, Atwill can hide his homicides and blame them on the zoo animals he's captured for Harry Beresford's zoo.Two great character actors dominate Murder In The Zoo. Of course Lionel Atwill who graced so many of the best Gothic horror tales is perfectly cast as the jealous husband who's doing in all potential rivals. Charlie Ruggles is also great as the alcoholic former newspaperman who is on his last job as the zoo press agent. His nervous little everyman is great for comic relief. All that was really needed was Mary Boland in the film as the domineering wife to Ruggles which she played in so many Paramount classics.A couple of younger players with big things destined for them both in front and behind the camera, Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick are the romantic interest. John Davis Lodge future Governor of Connecticut and Ambassador to Spain plays one of Burke's suitors who is dispatched quite cleverly.No monsters in this film, the most terrifying thing on this planet is the mind of mortal man run amuck out of jealousy or ambition. That's what Murders In The Zoo has in abundance.