Monday, October 25, 2010

Murders In The Zoo (1933) aka El Asesino Diabólico

4 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: A. Edward Sutherland
Written by: Philip Wylie, Seton I. Miller
Actors include: Charles Ruggles, Lionel Atwill, Gail Patrick
Genre: Horror
Length: 62 minutes
Banned: Nope




Review:
This was actually a surprising film in that it goes where one wouldn't think it would (heck in the opening scene we are watching a Zoologist sew someone's mouth shut). It's surprisingly graphic, and the nature of the killings in this is rather impressive (most are animal related deaths), especially when you consider this was made in 1933! A Zoologist who has a cheating wife and several enemies goes to town on those who've wronged him or ticked him off. He's a rather well written hilariously evil character that is easy to be amused by, certainly reminiscent of later Vincent Price roles. Where the film goes wrong is obnoxiously clumsy and befuddled reporter (Charles Ruggles) who chews up way too much air time and although I'm sure he was intended to be funny he's very far from it. Once you ignore that character the film is pretty wonderful though, and it's only just a tad over an hour long so it packs a lot of punch in a short time. Oh the other downside I feel I must mention, there is an impressive ending sequence revolving some fighting lions and other big cats. Back then they didn't have animal's rights activists for filming so they really did hurt some of the cats from my understanding, which is one hell of a shame. Still well worth a viewing, there aren't many like this, especially this ambitious, quite a film!

Availability:  On DVD

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