Murders in the Zoo

Murders in the Zoo is 1933 PreCode horror film directed by A. Edward Sutherland, written by Philip Wylie and Seton I. Miller. Considered particularly dark for its time, film critic Leonard Maltin called the film astonishingly grisly.

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 zoos animals and considered to be an alcoholic, decides to host a fundraising dinner. Gorman takes this as a perfect opportunity to dispense his vengeance by poisoning Hewitt with mamba venom. He had obtained the poison after asking the zoos laboratory doctor, Jack Woodford Randolph Scott, to work on finding an antitoxin for the snakes 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 is 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 her and prevents her from revealing his crime by throwing her to the alligators, where she is torn to shreds.The following day a group of children who sneak into the zoo discover tattered remains of Evelyns dress. Dr. Woodford then become 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 is given the antitoxins he had created for the mamba poison in time to save his life, however, Gorman is able to get away. Dr. Woodford is then the frontrunner for a police chase as they pursue Gorman through the zoo, releasing big cats from the carnivore house in hopes that they find the murderous maniac. The plan works and a lion chases Gorman into the cage of a boa constrictor, who then slowly kills and devours him. ........

Source: Wikipedia