Watch Murders in the Zoo For Free

Simply Perfect

Really Surprised!

I wanted to but couldn't!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This rarely-seen film is astonishingly gruesome for the time in which it was made, especially when compared to the other popular horror films of the time, like Dracula, which merely hinted at depravity and had all the violence occur off screen. Not so with MURDERS IN THE ZOO, a film which opens with a man having his lips sewn together for a minor misdemeanour, a stark moment designed to shock an audience hungry for blood. I'll bet that the opening moments got a few people fainting in the aisles, after all, they probably never expected anything like it.Today the film is worth seeing not just for the shocks, but for the characterisation too. Gorman, the central character, is a husband whose insane jealousy of any man his wife flirts with leads him to coldly murder all involved. Lionel Atwill plays Gorman with just the right glossy sheen of respectability, hiding all the oozing evilness underneath with ease. Atwill gives a wonderful performance, really adding strength to the character, when he might just as well have been an over-the-top maniac. Just watch Gorman entertaining dinner guests above the table while underneath it he stabs venom into a rival's leg, killing him. I would say that this film shows Atwill at his best, a man whose coldly calculating mind is finally outwitted by a triumph of science, an anti-toxin which returns one of his victims from the dead.The use of a zoo as a setting is an interesting one, and allows for plenty of footage of lions and snakes to pad out the running time. Although there is a low body count, the deaths are inventive, with Atwill planning them intrinsically to make them look like accidents. The supporting cast is a good one, with Kathleen Burke (the panther woman from ISLAND OF LOST SOULS) making a striking heroine, and Charles Ruggles manages to be amusing, although I could have done without his non-stop comic relief. I know that most of these early films had wisecracking reporters prowling around, but this comedy goes on and on throughout the film, balancing uneasily with the grisly murders occurring - in fact, it almost seems like it should belong in a different film.Another plus is the extremely short (sixty minute) running time, which keeps things flowing along smoothly and never lets up with the action. The film is at it's best when shocking the audience, either with the aforementioned mouth-stitching or the bit where Gorman drops his wife into a pit full of crocodiles which proceed to gobble her up (other films would have cut away at this point, but not this one). Atwill's terrific performance is just the icing on the cake in this neat story of a madman's short reign of terror.

Opening up in Africa with the murder of a zoologist's wife's lover, this frightening thriller doesn't use monsters, mad scientists or ancient mummy's to provide the chills, but nature itself. Lionel Atwill is his delightfully villianess self as the zoologist who uses the deadly green mamba, a giant anaconda like snake, to do his dirty work, and back in the states, as evidence begins to point to him, more bizarre murders occur. Charlie Ruggles brings the tone down from frights to laughs as a man whose skin crawls anytime he's around anything other than a human being. Even milk-craving baby bears and a friendly chimp have him on edge. There's some truly horrifying moments here, including one clever disposal of a body, and a finale that is up there with the final shot of "Freaks" in the art of the macabre. Kathleen Burke (as Atwill's wife), Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick offer fine support, but this is Atwill's film all the way.

There are very few films that I have waited as long to see as I have Murders in the Zoo. I've been aware of the movie for something like 40 years, but for whatever reason, just watched it for the first time a couple of nights ago. So, was it worth the wait? Overall, I'd say yes. The film features Lionel Atwill at his absolute best. He's an overly possessive husband willing to take the most extreme measures imaginable to deal with any man paying too much attention to his wife (played by the incredible Kathleen Burke). During his career, Atwill played a variety of mad characters, but few could top the decidedly evil Eric Gorman. The almost gleeful manner in which he toys with his intended victims – not unlike a cat "playing" with a mouse – is a joy to watch. You can all but see the psychosis in Atwill's eyes. And what Gorman does to his first victim is the stuff of classic horror movie legend. If you're an Atwill fan, this is one you don't want to miss. Unfortunately, Murders in the Zoo is almost done-in by the ridiculously unfunny performance of Charles Ruggles. Ruggles, playing the worst sort of comic relief imaginable, actually managed to be higher billed and have more screen-time than Atwill. Whose idea what that? If the rest of Murders in the Zoo weren't so good, I could easily see dismissing the film based on Ruggles. He really is as bad and annoying as you've read.

This is a good pre-code example of a horror film that must have shocked audiences in the early '30s and still carries enough punch to find favor with today's horror addicts.LIONEL ATWILL is at his wickedest as a cold-blooded owner of a zoo full of wild animals, everything from snakes to panthers. The story starts overseas with him doing an unusual sewing job on one of his victims after catching him kissing his wife, then switches to their return on a ship where his wife is fearful that a young man who has taken a shine to her (JOHN LODGE) will be his next victim.Atwill catches them having an intimate chat and we know he's found a man he must eliminate in a cruel way. It goes on in this fashion with the criminal getting away with murder until a clever lab technician (RANDOLPH SCOTT) and his assistant (GAIL PATRICK) are able to turn the tables on him.TCM features a good print of this little thriller, way ahead of its time in some of its subject matter, a film that any fan of Lionel Atwill's kind of villainy will want to catch. And incidentally, Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick are excellent in good supporting roles.Only drawback is the "comic relief" given to CHARLES RUGGLES who gives his weak material a good try but becomes more of an annoyance than anything else in the role of the zoo's new publicity agent.