Main Cast: Charlie Ruggles, Lionel Atwill, Gail Patrick, Randolph Scott, John Lodge, Kathleen Burke
Release Year: 1933
Country: US
Run Time: 66 minutes
Plot
Insanely jealous of his wife, wealthy zoologist Lionel Atwill uses his knowledge of animals to dispose of any would-be rivals. Atwill brings his latest collection of wild animals to a major metropolitan zoo. Here he continues his homicidal ways, dispatching his wife's lover (John Lodge) with the severed head of a poisonous snake. When his wife (Kathleen Burke) gathers up enough evidence to go to the police, Atwill unceremoniously dumps her in the zoo's alligator pit. A young animal specialist (Randolph Scott) and the zoo owner's daughter (Gail Patrick) suspect foul play and get the goods on the villain. Attempting to escape, Atwill accidentally locks himself in the python cage, and.....Despite the drunken comedy relief of Charlie Ruggles, 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. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the better low-budget horror films of the 1930s, Murders in the Zoo holds up better than many of its contemporaries, and it offers a great chance to catch Lionel Atwill at the peak of his villainy, playing a nasty animal trapper who is definitely the jealous type. He sews a guy's lips shut in the jungle, then comes back to an American zoo and starts injecting mamba poison into his wife's suitors with a snake's severed head. Charlie Ruggles is the comic-relief press agent, but even his antics don't detract from what is -- for its time -- a pretty nasty piece of work. People are thrown into alligator pits, crushed to death by pythons, and there's a really icky snake bite on display as well. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
