Black Zoo

A zoo owner Michael Conrad uses some of his animals to protect the zoo from different human predators. Conrad is played in intense mode by Michael Gough and he dominates the film as usual but there are good supporting actors to fill out the story such as Edward Platt, Jeanne Cooper, Jerome Cowan, Elisha Cook Jr. And Virginia Grey. It looks picturesque filmed in Panavision and Eastmancolor by the adept Floyd Crosby. The story is easy to follow and isn't really a horror film, more a drama than anything else. The Conrad's marriage is a key element. The only weak part were the animal worshippers which I thought was a bit silly. Plaudits must go to Ralph Helfer, who supervised the animals, particularly the felines. The scenes where the big cats sit in Conrad's lounge listening to his organ music and the wonderfully atmospheric funeral (beautifully shot) in the cemetery with the big cats sitting around on monuments really lift the movie.

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."