Murders in the Zoo

Murders in the Zoo

1933
Crime, Horror
1h 2m
Eric Gorman returns with his wife Evelyn from a trip to the Orient collecting zoo animals, having killed a member of his expedition who happened one day to kiss Mrs. Gorman. On board ship Evelyn meets Roger Hewitt, who falls in love with her. After delivering his animals to the zoo, Gorman plots a way to dispose of Hewitt using one of his latest specimens, then continues using the zoo's non-human residents to do his beastly work. (imdb)
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Murders in the Zoo

1933
Crime, Horror
1h 2m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 45.83% from 70 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(70)
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Rated 03 Feb 2013
50
77th
This was like watching two different movies. On one hand you had the raw evil of Lionel Atwill and on the other you had the comic input of Charles Ruggles. Murders in the Zoo does however feature some gruesome moments with Atwill showing no signs of human feelings killing people in a very chilling manner. This might even have some of the more grotesque horror moments in a Hollywood movie of 1933. And then Ruggles would turn up nothing to do with anything as if this was a light comedy! *Facepalm*
Rated 04 May 2009
80
68th
Refreshingly nasty pre-Code horror film. Not for kids, even today
Rated 26 Dec 2009
88
85th
This pre-Code film infuriated several state censor boards, reportedly resulting in a multitude of reedited versions playing in different theaters. The best line, meanwhile, belongs to Atwill, when he protests, "You don't think I just sat there with an eight-foot mamba in my pocket!" A thought that surely would have tickled Mae West's fancy (to speak only of her fancy).
Rated 12 Jan 2010
80
66th
Lionel, Tigers and Bears, oh my! Features sex, sadism, real animal attacks and grisly murders. Kathleen Burke also brings a certain intensity to her role as well. A concise plot with a cold blooded execution. Recommend.
Rated 07 Nov 2011
77
63rd
Surprisingly dark, with a few deaths that I really did not see coming. Atwill's having the time of his life.
Rated 21 Sep 2013
70
68th
The pre-Code horror and comedy mixture once again results in a product that doesn't congeal as well as it could have. When it focuses on that glint in Atwill's eyes, it's fantastic. When it's back to Ruggles' drunk act, it feels like a slog.
Rated 27 Apr 2014
70
47th
Murders in the Zoo is a comedy horror film which pretty much gives away its plot in the title. A short film (about an hour) its deaths are dark for the time and it has standout performaces by Lionel Atwill as a sinister millionaire and Charles Ruggles as a comic press agent.
Rated 06 Oct 2019
60
51st
Charles Ruggles was annoying but not as bad as a lot of people have said. Lionel Atwill was good as the "villain" although I had some sympathy for him. The ending was a bit of a let down since things wrapped up a little too easily and happily for my taste. The animal were a fun addition even if I'm not a fan of zoos. Fun, gory deaths.
Rated 31 Oct 2022
70
42nd
This movie packs a hell of a lot into a running time of mere minutes over an hour. We get a posh dinner party staged amongst wild animals in cages (Jane Darwell and Samuel S. Hinds are uncredited guests). We get poisoning with deadly snake venom via a little pocket fake snake head. We get an ungrateful wife thrown into a pit of crocodiles. We get ALL the zoo animals let out of their cages.
Rated 21 Oct 2023
60
35th
It's a little uneven (going from a pretty sadistic jealous husband to some cheap laughs with the press agent), but it deserves a lot of credit for trying something different, especially with all the zoo animals. It did make me wonder what we would have been watching had the filmmakers not feared the censors of the time.

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