Fieras asesinas

Welcome to the Michael Gough School of Dramatic Acting where subtlety is as foreign as class is for Roseanne Barr. Gough teams up with producer Herman Cohen for one more time(previously making Horrors of the Black Museum and Konga together). The result is a fun if not flawed film. Gough plays Michael Conrad the owner of Conrad's Animal Kingdom and one man accustomed to getting his way in life. Seems to also have quite a good relationship with his zoo pals, especially the big cats: a lion, a lioness, a pair of cheetahs, a tiger, a black panther, and also a fake looking gorilla(George Barrows AGAIN!). Gough plays organ music to his animal friends in his living room, belongs to a cult group of animal worshipers, and uses his friends to kill any personages that get in his way. To say Gough overacts is an incredible understatement. He bellows his lines with ferocity in scenes that do not need such vigour, but he is always fun to watch. The film is really very interesting as the cats are real and they have been trained very nicely. The acting, aside from Gough, is uniformly good with a nice performance turned in by Rod Lauren(The Crawling Hand) as a mute assistant forced to aid Gough. Jeane Cooper is lovely and does well as Gough's wife, and the character acting of Elisha Cook, Ed Platt, Virginia Grey, and Jerome Cowan all enhance the film. Make no mistake though, even though he wildly overacts, Gough is the film's main attraction. You have to look a ways to find a more over-the-top performance and a bigger slice of ham! The film also boats a wonderful scene where a tiger gets buried. Amidst the swirling fogs and moody backdrops, Gough, with mute assistant and wife, gives a eulogy before all the big cats. Effectively eerie.

This was actually the first time George Barrow himself worked for Herman Cohen. The first time out, KONGA, Barrows sent his ape suit over to London. When it returned the worse for wear, he decided he'd never do it again.

BLACK ZOO was shot in Hollywood. For producer Cohen to have arranged for a foreign actor to come to Hollywood and take a job that could have been done by any number if US actors must've been quite an argument to both SAG and the Imigration Department. "Sirs, you must understand, my script calls for the zoo keeper to be the maddest, most outlandish, least subtle character ever to grace the movie screen. We just don't have an actor anywhere in the country who can do this. There is no one n the world who can out-mug Mr. Gough. I know, I've used him twice, and every time he gets bigger and badder."

All through the opening credit sequences of "Black Zoo", I anticipated to see the typical disclaimer-message "no animals were harmed during the shooting of this film" appear, but it didn't come. Five minutes later, though, I exactly knew why it didn't come. Beautiful big cats, like Siberian tigers and African lions, walk little circles in ridiculously small cages, chimpanzees are dressed up in hideous clothing and forced to inhale cigarette smoke for the sake of "entertainment", and that sort of things. Perhaps these animals weren't physically abused, but they certainly were traumatized for life. But hey, it was the early sixties and organizations like ALF or PETA didn't exist yet, so let's assume we believe Michael Gough's character when he claims his animals love and respect him.

"Black Zoo" is fantastic 60s horror entertainment, with a grotesquely absurd plot and preposterous lead characters! Simply the idea that someone penned down a horror plot in which a tyrannical private zoo owner assumes he can get away with letting animals commit gruesome murders is delightful, or at least in my crazy world it is. Michael Conrad unleashes his mighty lion in arrogant realtors' mansions or sends his grinning gorilla to the garage of female talent agents, and he honestly thinks he's untouchable! It must be said, though, the sequences with the animal attacking are genuinely impressive; - kudos to the trainers.

Gough goes genially over the top once again, just like he did in "Horrors of the Black Museum" and "Konga"; - his previous collaborations with producer Herman Cohen. True horror-fanatics adore Michael Gough. He may not be in the same league as the Vincent Prices, Christopher Lees or Boris Karloffs of this world, but his movies never disappoint!

Michael Conrad (Michael Gough) is the tyrannical owner of a successful private zoo that would give today's PETA activists a coronary, with wild cats in cramped cages, and a chimpanzee theatre-the act of Michael's downtrodden wife Edna (Jeanne Cooper)-that sees the chimps dressed in clothes and forced to perform circus tricks, the show culminating with one of the poor primates being rewarded with a cigarette.

Amazingly, Conrad is convinced that he is treating the zoo's attractions with love and respect, and even belongs to a cult of animal worshippers who believe in soul transferrence. Clearly off his rocker, the zoo owner uses his obedient beasts to kill anyone that might threaten their way of life, sending a tiger to pounce on a snoopy reporter, a lion to maul a pushy property developer, and getting his gorilla (played unconvincingly by a man in an ape suit) to bash in the skull of Jenny Brooks, an entertainment agent who offers a circus job to her friend Edna.

When Edna learns of Jenny's death and finally realises the true extent of Conrad's cruelty, she decides to skedaddle, convincing Conrad's mute son Carl (Rod Lauren) to join her. Of course, Conrad isn't about to let that happen if he can help it...

To put it simply, Michael Gough makes this film. The actor goes so over the top in his performance as the bitch-slapping, lion-hugging maniac that he takes the film into camp territory, making it a whole lot of fun despite the somewhat trite set-up. Gough chews up the scenery and spits it out with relish, his hammy histrionics hugely entertaining, with his meal-time altercation with Edna being particularly memorable, the argument resulting in a hilarious spot of casserole hurling!

Other highlights include Conrad inviting his big cats into his study where he entertains them with his organ (oo-err!), the zoo owner dealing with a sadistic employee by feeding him to a lion, and the eerie night-time funeral of Conrad's beloved tiger Baron.

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for the completely pointless but welcome inclusion of three pretty young art students who come to the zoo to draw the animals.

Michael Conrad (Michael Gough) owns Conrad's Animal Kingdom, home to cheetahs, lions, tigers, and a gorilla. A busload of tourists pay for a tour of the small zoo and art school students stop by to sketch the big cats. Conrad explains he doesn't use fear and intimidation to train his animals, but love and affection. If only he would show the same regard for the humans in his life. His wife Edna (Jeanne Cooper) performs with a trained chimp act for zoo customers, but hits the bottle after hours in the wake of Conrad's domineering abuse ("You're the last person I want to hurt," Conrad tells her after he's slapped her around). Carl (Rod Lauren), Conrad's mute aide and handyman, is likewise subjected to his master's imperious rants.

BLACK ZOO's script, by Aben Kandel and producer Howard Cohen, cleverly makes Conrad's character into a variation of his wild animals. In the film's opening scene, a young woman is attacked by Baron, one of Conrad's tigers, on a city street at night. We learn that she was a "meddling secretary" who had to be silenced, and that Conrad's love for his animals goes beyond benign conservationism. He's insane, and has trained his beasts to kill those who get in his way or crosses him. His victims invade his territory -- a land developer who tries to bully him into selling the zoo to make way for tract homes; and Edna's agent, who tries to lure her away from Conrad with promises of a better venue for her chimp act.

When a sadistic zoo worker (Elisha Cook Jr.) shoots Baron dead, an enraged Conrad first beats the man with a metal prod and then throws him to one of his hungry lions. Edna turns the other cheek and Carl actually helps him. Should we say (to paraphrase Forry Ackerman) the family that slays together stays together?

Not exactly. When Edna realizes Conrad is behind the murder of her agent, she convinces Carl to pack it in and escape with her. But Conrad disrupts their defection and threatens to throw her to the lions, too.

The movie is a step up from Cohen's KONGA (1961), but doesn't hit the gross-silly highs of HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (1959). The animal attacks, which are fairly violent and effective, alternate with labored melodrama. Near the end, the whole movie is hobbled by a long scene of detectives debating whether or not trained animals committed the murders (despite their exposition, they never connect the deaths to Conrad).

BLACK ZOO's cast plays the material straight, despite some risible elements. Conrad frequently refers to the animals as "the family," holding group meetings with them in his home, where he plays lugubrious organ music and talks to them as though they were human. Also, he attends secret meetings of the "true believers," a cult of animal-worshipers who chant to monotonous tom-toms and oversee the "transfer" of Baron's soul to a live cub.

The real reason to see BLACK ZOO is to watch Michael Gough's delightful overplaying as Conrad. Each line is delivered with a side of ham, spit out through pursed lips and oozing nastiness even when he smiles unconvincingly and interacts with benign children and teenage art students.