Product Details

• Actors: Charles Ruggles, Lionel Atwill, Gail Patrick, Randolph Scott, John Lodge
• Directors: A. Edward Sutherland
• Writers: Milton Herbert Gropper, Philip Wylie, Seton I. Miller
• Producers: E. Lloyd Sheldon
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: August 8, 1995
• Run Time: 62 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303506259
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,660 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The good old days, December 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Murders in the Zoo [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I am 16 years old and am growing up in a world where current films are so stupid and full of cliches, that it is refreshing to see a film that instills a feeling a of fun and exitement(a feeling that is rarely repeated in current cinema). In this unuslually macabre film, we as viwers are greeted with the rare treat of a movie that is fun to watch. It is creepy and exiting at once, and is a real treat to enjoy in this seemingly endless world of stupid, standard movies.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A classic horror film without unnecessary gore., March 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Murders in the Zoo [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Murders In The Zoo" (1933) was what classic horror was all about in the early days of movies. Plot line and sudden shocks were the natural focus in such films. The horror genre since the early 1980's have only grossed audiences out by increasing the body count, spilling as much blood on screen as possible, and making sequel after boring sequel of some unkillable evil. "Murders In The Zoo" is exactly what the title says, and gives it's very best by staying on track. Lionel Atwill plays an insecure husband who enacts his jealous revenge on men he feels is trying to lure his wife away from him. And revenge he carries indeed with the help of a couple of fatally poisonous snakes, a dozen alligators and intimidations of the other wild beasts. I thought the film did an excellent job of keeping the pace of the story, while offering a good plenty shocks to keep an audience on the edge of their seats. One of the many suspenseful scenes in this movie features Peter Yates the press agent, (played by Charlie Ruggles), casually sweeping an empty lion's cage. However, in the cage with him is one of the big deadly snakes poised to strike him any second! Upon discovering the lethal serpent he screams - and the cage's door closes - trapping him inside with the venemous monster! It was enough to make me sweat it a little! For a horror film that lasted less than an hour and twenty minutes, I feel it packed the punch. It had genuine scares that most of the so called terror films of today have lost. If you like horror/suspense, you need to see this movie!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lions and tigers and bears and mambas!, June 11, 2003

By 

Robert S. Clay Jr. (St. Louis, MO., USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murders in the Zoo [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Rich zoologist Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill) captures exotic animals for display in an American zoo. Gorman has a wandering wife portrayed by the delectable Kathleen Burke. Gorman takes extreme measures to dispose of the men who take an interest in Burke, and she is always on the prowl. The opening segment of this bizarre little thriller is chilling and gruesome, as one lover has his lying mouth sewn shut. Then the guy is left on his own in the jungles of French Indo-China long enough to become tiger chow. This 1930 movie is an example of pre-code Hollywood when sex and violence were more openly portrayed than in later classic B&W flicks. Gorman is delightfully insane and he is sexually stimulated by violent death. After dispatching of another lover at a zoo fund-raising dinner, Gorman caresses his wife's breast as she laments that death and desire are connected in his twisted psyche. Randolph Scott and Gail Patrick are around as a research scientist and his lab assistant. After Gorman's wife goes to pieces at the alligator pit, Scott discovers an interesting detail that is herpetological in signficance. More violence ensues, and the zoo animals go on the rampage. The climax is crushing if a bit rushed. Charlie Ruggles provides occasional comic relief. The old film has been nicely restored with clear audio. Fun for collectors. ;-)