Zoo in Budapest

Gene Raymond (he was the lead in Flying Down to Rio, opposite another unearthly beauty, Dolores Del)is only just bearable, but the female lead is Loretta Young, as a fragile, dreamy orphan held captive by the wicked witches of an orphanage. Her delicacy and sensitivity find a parallel in the imprisoned animals of the zoo, and their rage at the injustice of their captivity is embodied in the rage of the tiger. The climax of the movie (filmed, I should think, before animal-protection laws were passed to regulate filming) had me terrified almost to the point of screaming when I saw it many years ago in a cinema, and, not long ago, I found it, even on television, almost as powerful.

An exotic pleasure of the film that can be experienced first hand is the actual Budapest Zoo, which is somewhat altered since the filming, but which still has the fabulous Art Nouveau elephant house!