Written by Philip Wylie and Seton I. Miller
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
Starring Charlie Ruggles, Lionel Atwill, Kathleen Burke and Gail Patrick
USA, 1933
One of the joys of working on Horrorfest over the years has been coming around to loving actor Lionel Atwill. In the olden days, I pretty much shrugged him off as a second-strong horror star who Universal only called in when the heavy hitters like Karloff, Lugosi and Chaney weren't available. Sure, he was great as the inspector in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, going toe-to-toe with none other than Basil Rathbone, but that seemed to me to be an anomaly in an otherwise forgettable career playing mad scientists who I wished were played by someone else.
But not anymore. Now, I see his name in the credits and get excited. Now that I've paid attention to his various starring roles as villains, I've come to realize he's just as good as the greats, and in some ways, more worthy of having his praises sung, since he's a somewhat forgotten underdog in the realm of horror to anyone except real film buffs.
All this is to say, I was excited to see that MURDERS IN THE ZOO, a weird 1933 pre-code horror movie, stars Lionel Atwill, and went in with great anticipation. At first the movie threw me for a loop -- the credits featured shots of the film's stars cross-faded with shots of zoo animals, in an attempt at a playful opening credits sequence. No sooner had this ended than we fade up on Lionel Atwill getting right down to the horrific business of... sewing a guy's mouth shut! Seems Atwill's a jealous game hunter who can't stand it any time anyone so much as looks at his wife, and this guy had the misfortune of actually speaking to her. Shockingly, we're treated to a full closeup shot of the poor guy's mouth, post-sewing, and it's pretty unsettling, even by today's standards.
So right away, the movie's got a weird tone yo-yo-ing back and forth between these quirky animal-filled opening credits, and a horrific opening scene. The roller coast ride continues as we're introduced to famous comic actor Charlie Ruggles as an alcoholic, but otherwise harmless, publicity guy for the titular zoo. Much of the movie's very brief running time is taken up with his supposedly comedic antics, which result in a couple honest chuckles but otherwise leave you wondering what the punch line is supposed to be, if any. It almost plays as if they hoped Ruggles' mere presence would do the trick. Unfortunately, while he's charming and cute, it mostly falls flat.
The plot concerns the jealous big game hunter (Atwill) and a string of murders he stages using various zoo animals to dispatch first a man who's stealing his wife from him, then his wife, and ultimately anyone who starts to figure out what's going on. So, the weird comedy with Ruggles is oddly balanced with the grisly animal-based murders with Atwill, and, since this is 1933, some of the animal footage is a little more rough than what we'd settle for today, meaning, I sorta wonder if some of the animals got hurt, which is not a great thing to worry about when you're trying to enjoy a horror movie.
I said the comedy and horror is balanced, above, but balance is the wrong word, because the movie's tone is all over the place and they never quite figure it out. It's worth a watch for how insane Atwill is as the villain. I'd say you could fast forward all the Ruggles scenes, except the movie's gloriously short, so why bother.
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