MURDERS IN THE ZOO (1933)

This thriller, top heavy with comic relief, is often categorized alongside the classic horror films of the 30's, but there's nothing supernatural here and, once you get past the first two minutes, there's not much that's truly creepy. In the famous first scene, we see big game hunter Lionel Atwill in a jungle, sewing shut the lips of a young man whom Atwill suspects of flirting with his wife (Kathleen Burke) and leaving him to the tender mercies of the wild animals. The shot of the victim running directly at the camera, wide-eyed and trying to scream, is truly shocking and surprisingly graphic--the scene would almost certainly never have been allowed under the Production Code of two years later. But soon the movie settles down into a fairly run-of-the-mill suspense story, set at an American zoo where Atwill is a major benefactor. His wife strikes up a casual relationship with handsome John Lodge (later the studly Count Alexei in THE SCARLET EMPRESS). When Atwill finds out, it's clear Lodge will be the next to die--and he is, apparently bitten by a black mambo snake at a fancy catered dinner at the zoo. But why can no one find that pesky snake? Charlie Ruggles, as the zoo's alcoholic PR director, finds his job hanging in the balance unless the killer is caught. I normally like Ruggles, but here, his comic relief completely drains the picture of the tension that Atwill and the director A. Edward Sutherland work so hard to achieve. Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick are the romantic leads, and ultimately instrumental in capturing Atwill, but not before he strikes one more time. This is not a bad movie at all, but if you go into it expecting it to be the equal of any of the Universal classics of the era, you'll be disappointed.