Murders In The Zoo 1933 Screenplay by Philip Wylie and Seton I Miller, directed by A Edward Sutherland. The first of four movies in the Shout Factory Blur-ray set Universal Horror Collection Volume 2. They've started skimping on the extras already, the first set has 6 commentaries and 4 featurettes with other shorts and radio productions, trailers and still galleries. This set has two audio commentaries, a Lionel Atwill documentary and a still gallery for each film.
I'd seen Murders In The Zoo a couple of times and it still holds up well. Lionel Atwill is a jealous zoologist with a violent streak. As we first meet him he's in the African jungle sewing a man's mouth closed for kissing his wife. He lets the man go with his hands tied behind his back and that poor sap gets eaten by a tiger. Lionel's not bothered, he even pretends surprise when he hears the news. On the ship back to the US his wife takes up with another man and plans to leave Lionel. He finds out about the situation and after delivering the animals to a zoo sets his plot to kill his wife's new lover in motion. It's a good reminder not to marry some people.
The zoo is having financial trouble, they hold a fund raiser but that's ruined by the death of the wife's lover. He was supposedly killed by a mamba snake but Lionel's wife finds a fake snake head with venom dripping fangs in his desk. Lionel learns she's got the snake head, he follows her to the zoo, they get into a big fight and he tosses her into the alligator pond. Randolph Scott plays a zoo doctor, he's Lionel's next victim. Lucky for him his assistant has an antidote handy. The zoo guards chase Lionel through the zoo, when he hides in the boa constrictor cage he's crushed to death.
I found the darn thing riveting for the most part. It's moody and good looking. There's a great villain, that Lionel is a real bastard, I sure was cheering on the snake. I hope he wouldn't get killed by the authorities, he was doing everyone a big favor.The cast was good, besides Randolph we've got Charlie Ruggles as the comic relief, Gail Patrick as the assistant, John Lodge as the lover, Kathleen Burke as the wife and Harry Beresford as Professor Evans.
Gregory William Mank does the commentary for the film. The film's only 63 mins long but he manages to pass along a good bit of info. The film was made by Paramount, it was part of a package of films sold for TV distribution to Universal in 1959.
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