Black Zoo | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Gordon |
Written by | Aben Kandel Herman Cohen |
Produced by | Herman Cohen |
Starring | Michael Gough Jeanne Cooper Rod Lauren Virginia Grey |
Cinematography | Floyd Crosby |
Edited by | Michael Luciano |
Music by | Paul Dunlap |
Distributed by | Allied Artists Pictures Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Black Zoo (also known as Horrors of theBlack Zoo) is a 1963 American horror film directed by Robert Gordon and starring Michael Gough, Jeanne Cooper, Rod Lauren, Virginia Grey, Jerome Cowan, and Elisha Cook, Jr. [1] It was produced by Herman Cohen and written by Cohen and Aben Kandel.
Michael Conrad is a private zookeeper who owns Conrad's Animal Kingdom. He leads a cult group who literally worship the animals he tends — especially the big cats: 3 lions, a lioness, a pair of cheetahs, a tiger, a cougar, and a black leopard; as well as a gorilla. [2] Conrad plays organ music to the animals in his living room, and uses them to kill anyone who gets in his way. Conrad is married to Edna and forces his mute son Carl to assist him.
Herman Cohen had the idea for the film, and hired Aben Kandel to work with him on the script.
Cohen had worked with Gough previously in Horrors of the Black Museum and Konga .
The animals were provided by Ralph Helfer, most notably Zamba, who played one of the two male lions (Zamba Jr. and Tammy also appeared playing another lion and a lioness, respectively). The zoo was built at Raleigh Studio (formerly Producers Studio) on North Bronson in Hollywood, California. The entire zoo seen in the picture was an interior set. [3]
Publicity was done with the cats – including an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson . [3] Cohen did not like the title, preferring Horrors of the Black Zoo. [3]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "As a macabre essay, this has some unusual moments, notably the scenes showing the wild menagerie draped around the living-room furniture; but as a whole it suffers from an extravagant and rather silly script, and from Michael Gough's (perhaps inevitable) overplaying in the central role. Jeanne Cooper is rather fetching as his wife." [4]
Black Zoo was released on a VHS by The Fang (Floral Park, NY) in 2001 ( OCLC 48234539)
The lion is a large cat of the genus Panthera, native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the tip of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane. It is a social species, forming groups called prides. A lion's pride consists of a few adult males, related females, and cubs. Groups of female lions usually hunt together, preying mostly on medium-sized and large ungulates. The lion is an apex and keystone predator.
The liger is a hybrid offspring of a male lion and a tigress, or female tiger. The liger has parents in the same genus but of different species. The liger is distinct from the opposite hybrid called the tigon, and is the largest of all known extant felines. They enjoy swimming, which is a characteristic of tigers, and are very sociable like lions. Notably, ligers typically grow larger than either parent species, unlike tigons.
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Aben Kandel was an American screenwriter, novelist, and boxer. He was screenwriter on such classic B movies as I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Joan Crawford's final movie Trog, and one of Leonard Nimoy's first starring vehicles, Kid Monk Baroni. He is the father of poet Lenore Kandel and screenwriter Stephen Kandel.
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The Reluctant Dragon & Mr. Toad Show is a 1970 American animated television series that aired on ABC's Saturday morning schedule. The show features two characters created by British children's writer Kenneth Grahame: the Reluctant Dragon from the 1898 short story of the same name, and Mr. Toad from the 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows. The show was created by Rankin/Bass Productions in New York City, who produced 17 episodes. The show was a flop and canceled midway through its first season, airing from September 12 until December 26, 1970. ABC aired reruns of the show on Sunday mornings during the 1971–72 season. Copies of all 17 episodes were deposited at the Library of Congress, but only 10 episodes from other sources have been made publicly available as of 2024.