Black Zoo

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.

As there was Tod Browning - Lon Chaney or Vincent Price - Roger Corman for the Edgar Allan Poe's adapted novels films cycle, you also had at a lesser scale the duo Herman Cohen and Michael Gough for movies such as KONGA, HORROR AT THE BLACK MUSEUM and BLACK ZOO; same trademark in evey film, and Michael Gough as some kind of poor man's Vincent Price or Peter Cushing. It is fun, tense, never boring despite those so simple and basic plots. Here, in this film, Gough is the villain but for whom you can feel some empathy because of his desperate fights to save his zoo and animals against greedy and nasty estate brokers, business men or other ambitious land owners seeking to get rid of him. Plus, you have good characterization. I like those early sixties films. The opening scene is, I guess, a tribute to Val Lewton - Jacques Tourneur's CAT PEOPLE and LEOPARD MEN.

BLACK ZOO (1963) marks another pairing for B-movie producer Herman Cohen and star Michael Gough, following on from their HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM and KONGA. This time around the story is set in America, where Gough plays a zookeeper who specialises in all manner of big cats. His philosophy is to show his creatures the utmost kindness and care, but he doesn't treat people in quite the same way...

Although the film begins with an arresting murder, this turns out to be quite the plodder. The nature of the production means that the kills are typically kept off screen and are few and far between as it is. Gough delivers a delightful barnstorming performance as usual - truly an underrated presence in the genre - but the rest is pretty talky with only the occasional element of depth or interest.

Herman Cohen transferred his activities to the good U. S. of A. Accompanied by Michael Gough to further satisfy his penchant for murder - this time under the cover of the curator of a zoo - between sessions on the organ.

Elisha Cook Jr. Naturally doesn't stand a chance; but (SLIGHT SPOILERS COMING:) but Gough learns the hard that cats aren't exactly known for their gratitude.

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.