Murders In The Zoo (1933)

Big-game hunter and wealthy zoologist Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill)
is an insanely jealous husband who uses his animal knowledge to
dispose of his impulsive wife's lovers. The film opens in an
Indian jungle with Gorman using a needle and thread to sew a
colleague's mouth closed after having discovered that he had
kissed his wife, and then he seals the man's fate by abandoning
him in the jungle with the wild beasts. Gorman later pretends to
be surprised at hearing that the man had been eaten by tigers.
Both Gorman and his wife Evelyn (Kathleen Burke) then return to
America aboard a ship packed with captured animals he intends to
add to his collection at a major zoo. On the ship, Evelyn has a
relationship with Roger Hewitt (John Lodge), which she tries to
hide from her husband. Naturally, the murderously jealous Gorman
finds out. Once back in the States, he begins to plot a way to
get rid of Hewitt.


The zoo is beginning to run into financial trouble and the new
press agent, Peter Yates (Charles Ruggles), a man terrified of
most of the zoo's animals and considered to be an alcoholic,
suggests hosting a fundraising dinner for the rich to raise funds
and awareness. The last straw is when Gorman finds his wife at
Hewitt's apartment where they have been plotting their escape and
her divorce. Gorman invites Hewitt to the dinner and uses it as
the perfect opportunity to dispense his vengeance by poisoning
Hewitt with mamba venom. He had obtained the poison after asking
the zoo's laboratory doctor, Jack Woodford (Randolph Scott), to
work on finding an antitoxin for the snake's fatal bite.


When Hewitt unexpectedly dies at the fundraising dinner, Evelyn
accuses her husband of being the murderer. Outraged, Gorman
attacks her, but she is able to escape into his office where she
finds a mechanical mamba head seeping with real mamba poison in
his desk. She now knows for a fact that he killed Hewitt and
takes the snake head with the intention to find Dr. Woodford.
However, Gorman finds his wife, swears he did everything because
he loves her, and prevents her from revealing his crime by
throwing her to the alligators, where she is torn to shreds.


Dr. Woodford then becomes suspicious and accuses Gorman of
murdering both his wife and Rodger Hewitt. Gorman disposes of Dr.
Woodford by attacking him with the mechanical snake head just as
he had done to Hewitt. The doctor's assistant Jerry (Gail
Patrick) gives Woodford a shot of the antitoxin he had created
for the mamba poison in time to save his life. She also realizes
that Gorman is responsible for the apparent mamba attack when he
tries to stop her, and has the zoo's alarms set off. A police
chase ensues as Gorman is pursued through the zoo. Gorman
releases big cats from the carnivore house in the hopes of keep
back the police, but it backfires and a group of them chases
Gorman, and forces him into the cage of a boa constrictor, who
then slowly kills and devours him.