Murders in the Zoo

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 starts to develop promiscuous relations with Roger Hewitt (John Davis Lodge), which she makes little effort to hide from her husband. Naturally, the murderously jealous Gorman takes notice. So once back in the States, he begins to plot a way to get rid of Hewitt.