Murders in the Zoo (A. Edward Sutherland, 1933)

A pre-Code obscure gem, Murders in the Zoo is a dark, funny, unusual horror film with a witty script, a great villain, a brisk pace, and the cinematography talents of Ernest Haller, who also shot Blonde Crazy, Jezebel, Gone with the Wind, Mildred Pierce, Rebel without a Cause, Man of the West, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, among many others, in a career that stretched from 1920's Mothers of Men to an episode of Star Trek in 1966.

Murders in the Zoo opens, without any messing around or general tomfoolery, in the Chinese countryside, as our villain, millionaire sportsman/psycho killer Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill), sews shut the mouth of a fellow American who tried to kiss Gorman's wife Evelyn (Kathleen Burke, most famous as the Panther Woman in Island of Lost Souls). Gorman is a nasty piece of work in his best moments, but his insane jealousy of any man who has anything to do with Evelyn pushes him into homicidal territory almost immediately. The Gormans are in China to capture wild animals for an American zoo. On the ship back to the States, Gorman spies another American from the expedition, Roger Hewitt (John Lodge), taking an interest in Evelyn, which doesn't bode well for our man Roger.

Back at the zoo, times are tough. In the fallout from the Great Depression, the zoo has suffered four separate budget cuts, and the owner, Professor G.A. Evans (Harry Beresford), hires an alcoholic publicity man, Peter Yates (Charlie Ruggles), in a desperate attempt to drum up some business. Two more important characters include Evans' daughter Jerry (Gail Patrick), who helps her father manage the zoo, and her fiance Dr. Jack Woodford (Randolph Scott), a scientist who studies animals and keeps a laboratory at the zoo. Wow, I typed the word "zoo" a lot in this paragraph.

When the Gormans return with their animals after the long trip abroad, Evans laments the cost of the new arrivals' upkeep. Gorman suggests pressing his millionaire buddies for funding, and Yates has the idea to hold an elaborate dinner for the big shots at the zoo, in front of the new animal arrivals, with the press invited to cover the whole shebang. Everyone loves the idea, but Gorman has some murderous ideas of his own, with the zoo and its animals taking the blame.

My wife and I were both expecting some goofy man-in-gorilla-suit shenanigans, which were extraordinarily popular in horror and adventure films of the '20s and '30s, but Murders in the Zoo avoids that corny business altogether, using real snakes, big cats, and alligators and the homicidal hijinks of Gorman, with Atwill doing a tremendous job as the creepy psycho millionaire. Director Sutherland creates and maintains an unsettling atmosphere, and the comedic moments nicely offset the extremely dark turns the film takes, creating a constant tension and release. A section of the film involving a cat-and-mouse chase in the Gormans' home that moves to the zoo at night is particularly effective and beautifully lit by Haller. I also want to mention the opening credits sequence that shows a zoo animal, followed by a member of the cast posing in a similar manner.

I was pleasantly surprised by Murders in the Zoo and think it deserves a bigger cult audience. It's weird, dark, creepy, and funny, with a running time of 62 minutes. I wish Hollywood would once again embrace the 60-90 minute running time. As a big fan of horror and film noir, I love the leanness and economy of these genres at their best. It's no surprise that Hollywood's two worst periods, the mid-1960s and the last twenty years, are full of bloated two-and-a-half-hour running times. I love long films, too, when their lengths are justified, but I'm sick of all the padding and bloat in modern mainstream filmmaking. Give me a tight 60-90, baby!