The atmosphere which one detects in "Zoo in Budapest," is not wholly a matter of mise-en-scene and photography. In the delightful zoo where a humorous elephant squirts a trunkful of water over a handsomely malignant tiger, and serene swans float by in the twilight, the influence of Rene Clair's romantic humor is paramount. If the Gallic touch cannot long survive translation to Hollywood at any rate it is charmingly present in this temperate fantasy.

Zani, a plausible and unambitious Tarzan, has been brought up since childhood in the zoo as a ward of its director. His personality is very soothing to the animals, and also to an orphan girl about to be bound out for five years. Both, through appropriately creditable motives, become embroiled with the Budapest gendarmarie, and hide away in an abandoned bear den. They are joined by a monkey, a little boy lost, and in the nick of time the villain. The role of the latter is promptly and gratifyingly usurped by a midnight sortie of lions and tigers from their cages. The picture also begins to escape at this moment. For the rescue of both one is admiringly grateful to Rajah, the bull elephant.

The dialogue of "Zoo in Budapest" is not always happy, but at its worst, the action carries it off. The players also are adequate to the mood and tempo of the whole. But the real heroes, if you must have them, are the animals, and after the animals, the photographer.