Movies : Thriller : DVD Rip : English
April 3, 1933
An Imaginative Killer.
A.D.S.
Published: April 3, 1933
Just as it seemed that the cinema's experiments in sadism were ended for the season, the Paramount disclosed a particularly gruesome specimen. In the opening scenes of "Murders in the Zoo" an irate husband is shown in the act of destroying his wife's lover in an Indian jungle. Having sewed the wretch's lips together with thread, following what he declares to be a symbolic Oriental custom, Eric Gorman, zoologist, leaves the fellow to perish miserably among the pythons and tigers. This murderous sportsman then returns to America with his latest batch of wild fauna, keeping a weather eye on the activities of his erratic wife. Soon she is engaged in an informal romance with another unsuspecting youth. The film thereafter describes the somewhat ghastly manner in which Gorman arranges for his wife to expiate her infidelities in the crocodile pool and for her new lover to be bitten by a mamba's fangs.
It happens that the director has been almost too effective in dramatizing these cheerless events, and one is thankful for the generous footage given to Charles Ruggles as a timid and bibulous press agent for the zoo. Those who demand their leaven of romance even in horror pictures are likely to find "Murders in the Zoo" inadequate in this direction. Randolph Scott, as the zoo's toxicologist, and Gail Patrick, as the curator's lovely daughter, enjoy their Romantic moments between murders, but their affair is sketchily written.
Lionell Atwill as the insanely jealous husband is almost too convincing for comfort, and Kathleen Burke as the wife suggests the domestic terrors of her life capably. Judged by its ability to chill and terrify, this film is a successful melodrama.
Murders in the Zoo is a genuine spine-tingler, from its first scene--in which Atwill sews a man's lips shut and leaves him to be devoured by jungle wildlife--to the last.
MURDERS IN THE ZOO, based on a story by Philip Wylie and Seton I. Miller; directed by Edward Sutherland; a Paramount production. At the Paramount.
Peter Yates . . . . . Charles Ruggles
Eric Gorman . . . . . Lionel Atwill
Jerry Evans . . . . . Gail Patrick
Dr. Woodford . . . . . Randolph Scott
Roger Hewitt . . . . . John Lodge
Evelyn Gorman . . . . . Kathleen Burke
Professor Evans . . . . . Harry Beresford
Dan . . . . . Edward McWade
