Dec 28, 2023
Murders in the Zoo (1933)
"Mr. Yates, never be afraid of a wild animal. Let it alone and it will leave you alone. That's more than you can say of most humans."
"You don't mean to say you really like these beasts?"
"I love them. Their honesty, their simplicity, their primitive emotions: they love, they hate, they kill."
#murders in the zoo#snake#american cinema#pre code film#1933#horror film#a. edward sutherland#philip wylie#seton i. miller#milton herbert gropper#lionel atwill#charles ruggles#gail patrick#randolph scott#john lodge#kathleen burke#harry beresford#edward mcwade#inspired pre code nastiness‚ right out the gate: opens on Atwill sewing shut the mouth of a romantic reveal and leaving him bound in the#jungle for the lions and consistently hits those levels of onscreen horror which wouldn't be seen again for several decades#i mean i wasn't expecting to actually SEE the results of Atwill's grisly surgery‚ nor an unfortunate being devoured by crocodiles but there#they are! Atwill of course is his usual magnetic self‚ managing to give a surprisingly controlled performance despite the largeness of the#part as written. the astonishingly beautiful Kathleen Burke does what she can with an underwritten part (and billed in publicity as the#Panther Women‚ following her star making turn in similarly shocking pre code Island of Lost Souls) but Charlie Ruggles' comic relief takes#quite a bit of goodwill to warm up to (i got there in the end‚ but his character really belongs in a different film entirely)#Randolph Scott's young romantic lead hasn't very much to do but it's nice to see him outside of a cowboy hat for once#my only real reservation is that you know all those animals were probably having a really bad time :(#such is the risk of 90 year old cinema i guess#still this was fun; and contrary to popular belief not a Universal film‚ but a Paramount one (only owned by Universal after they bought a#ton of Paramount's back catalogue)
