Review: Murders in the Zoo (1933)
Within the first moments of the film, Murders in the Zoo lets us know what we're in for. We enter on a jungle scene as a group of adventurers hold down a struggling man while their leader--played with wonderful menace by Lionel Atwill--sews the captive's mouth shut. Atwill stars as Eric Gorman, a zoologist who captures animals in their native habitat and supplies them to zoos. His wife Evelyn (Kathleen Burke) is something of a flirt (though it's implied she does more than flirt), and we soon learn that Atwill is so jealous that he's willing to resort to extreme measures like sewing up the mouth of a man that he sees as a threat. But when he catches his wife with yet another man (John Lodge), will he kill to keep them apart? Answer: you betcha. Much of the story unfolds in and around a zoo, which serves as a nice backdrop for the animalistic actions of violence. Future western-genre stalwart Randolph Scott has a notable role here as the dashing Dr. Jack Woodford, and ...
