Monday, December 27, 2010

Zebra in the Kitchen (1965)


Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Directed by Ivan Tors
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Jay North is a kid living in the country with his pet mountain lion. His parents decide to move to the city and Jay has to give up his lion. Instead, he sneaks it into town, creating havoc with the neighbors. He's forced to give it to a run-down zoo owned by Martin Milner. Jay starts working at the zoo, but the sight of all those animals in small chain-link enclosures leads him to set the animals free. A steady parade of gags follow, monkeys in a toy store, elephants in back yards and yes a zebra in the kitchen, none of which are funny. In fact, I found the film rather disturbing, especially scenes of "daddy-o" teenagers feeding a hippo cigars and tormenting the big cats. The animals are gradually rounded up and there is a final confrontation between Jay and the zoo owner. It's poorly edited, with almost no continuity, and an awkward framing device.

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