Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again host a fundraiser for Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.
Today’s theme: Hail Satan
I fell back on the Church of Satan-approved films list for this pick. Anton Lavey picked some of these because he was in them, if they were about Satan or if they applied to Church teachings, such as androids and mannequins being used as sex slaves.
Yet this movie feels like it plays into so many of Lavey’s favorite things: big cats, noir and organ-playing men who can train others’ minds. Michael Gough plays Michael Conrad, a cult leader who controls a lion, a lioness, a pair of cheetahs, a tiger and a black panther, as well as a gorilla, all with the power of his organ. Not that organ, scumbag.
Conrad runs a private suburban Los Angeles zoo called Conrad’s Animal Kingdom, but calling him a zoo owner is like calling Dracula a blood donor. He is actually the leader of a bizarre secret cult called The True Believers, who worship animals as superior beings with migrating souls. When real estate developer Jerry Stengel (Jerome Cowan) pops over to gently suggest Conrad sell his land for tract housing, Conrad doesn’t call a lawyer. He just instructs his prized lion, King, to maul the guy mid-cocktail. This movie may be talky, but it has secretaries getting killed by tigers, Elisha Cook Jr. being fed to a big cat and Virginia Grey getting crushed by a gorilla.
Meanwhile, Conrad’s long-suffering circus-star wife, Edna (Jeanne Cooper), realizes her husband is a maniac. She tries to break out with Carl (Rod Lauren), the tortured, mute zoo assistant. In a torrential, rainy climax packed with dark family revelations. Turns out Carl was struck mute as a child when Conrad ordered a lioness to devour his biological mother, and oh yeah, Carl is his son! Carl finally snaps, strangling Conrad to death while the villain desperately calls out to his animals to save him. Spoiler alert: the cats just watch him die. Loyal to the end!
Black Zoo suffers from a typical 1960s B-movie script that gets hopelessly bogged down whenever the LAPD (led by Edward Platt and Douglas Henderson) shows up to scratch their heads over murder scenes covered in tiger hair. The police procedural beats are a snooze, but the moment we step back inside the Conrad estate, the movie gets great again. Michael Gough did well with all these cars, including a scene where they’re uncaged and he plays music for them.
There’s an undeniable, tactile craftsmanship here. The whole zoo was built as an internal set at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, and animal trainer Ralph Helfer provided the real-life stars—including the legendary Hollywood lion Zamba, “The Greatest Lion That Ever Lived.” You can see the genuine affection Gough had for the animals, which he later cited as his favorite part of working with Herman Cohen. To promote the film, Herman Cohen and Ralph Helfer brought the film’s big cats onto The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
