THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME Is the Most Popular Game in Town!
Written: Oct 31 '00 (Updated Aug 06 '03)
Product Rating:
Pros: Ingenious action. Good performances by Joel McCrae, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and, Leslie Banks.
Cons: The film was made in 1932 and, to my knowledge, remains unrestored.
The Bottom Line: This 1932 thriller by Cooper and Schoedsack (KING KONG, 1933) is the first and best of the many films based on Richard Connell's short story, "The Most Dangerous Game.".
And in . . . This . . . Corner -- The Greatest, Serviceable, Countlessly Used Adventure Plot Ever Given to The Movies: Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game"!
When Connell's piece won The O. Henry Award for the Best Short Story of 1927, Connell packed his bags and moved to Hollywood, where he sold the rights to young David O. Selznick and Marion C. Cooper, settling in to grind out nondescript movie scripts and play the horses for the rest of his life. (To be fair, he did write the script for BROTHER ORCHID (Bacon, 1940) and had Academy Award Nominations for MEET JOHN DOE (Capra, 1941) and TWO GIRLS AND A SAILOR (Thorpe, 1944.)
Cooper and his partner, Ernst Schoedsack (GRASS, 1925), soon were building a huge jungle set for their KING KONG (1933). Why not, they reasoned, shoot another film, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (also known as THE HOUNDS OF ZAROFF), taking place in a jungle at the same time, using some of the same cast?
So it was that, with the aid of Director Irving Pichel, they filmed this archetypal adventure story, from a screen play by James Ashmore Creeland, practically between the toes of King Kong, with Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Noble Johnson, from the more famous production, joining Joel McCrae and Leslie Banks.
The movie follows the classic short story, except for an opening scene, and the addition of Wray and Armstrong as a brother and sister in the hands of the villain. The musical score is very early Max Steiner.
Robert Rainsford (McCrae) is a famous big game hunter, a much admired vocation in the 1920's, sailing with a party in the South Seas on a motor yacht. They are in the midst of a discussion of why killing to survive is condemned as savage while killing for sport is considered civilized (a favorite subject of Cooper and Schoedsack), when the boat hits a reef and goes down. Only Rainsford survives, reaching the beach of a jungle island after an exhausting swim.
When he has recovered, he reconnoiters along the beach until he finds a towering castle. He knocks on the massive door and is admitted by a huge, mute, bearded Cossack (Johnson). An elegant gentleman soon greets him, introducing himself as General Zaroff (Banks), formerly of the White Russian Army. He is elated to learn who Rainsford is and promises, as soon as Rainsford has rested and cleaned up, a wonderful dinner with two charming guests he is entertaining.
That evening, Rainsford meets Eve Trowbridge (Wray) and her brother Martin (Armstrong), who is a champion Flag Pole Sitter (another favorite occupation of the 1920's). They are survivors of a previous wreck. Over dinner, the bearded, saturnine Russian Zaroff describes to his guests how, like Rainsford, he has hunted the most vicious, clever beasts in the World. However, after his escape from the Russian Revolution, he came to the conclusion that no animal was the match for his own cunning and a high powered rifle. Then, in a gestalt, he recognized the perfect game animal, and since coming to this island he has stocked that animal for his personal sport. He extends an invitation to such a distinguished hunter as Rainsford for a hunt with him.
When The White Russian Officer entertains them by playing the piano, Eve takes the opportunity to confide to Rainsford that two of her other companions have disappeared without explanation since their arrival. When they retire, the tipsy Martin stays behind to take a tour of "The Trophy Room." And then ------
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You've seen this movie, right? Hunting with crossbows? Huge slathering hunting hounds? Malay Man-Catchers? Etc-etc.
If you haven't, you are not much a fan of movies. Here is a partial list of other films that have used, borrowed, been inspired by, or stolen the plot from Connell's story:
THE GAME OF DEATH (1945). Using footage from the original, Director Robert Wise did this direct remake, after Orson Welles, his old mentor, had made his Suspense radio series debut, as General Zaroff, a year earlier. John Loder and Aubrey Long were the leads, with Welles' Mercury Theater Veteran Edgar Barrier as Zaroff.
JOHNNY ALLEGRO (1949). The second half of this crime hunt film has George Raft and Nina Foch stalked by Mob Mastermind George Macready.
KILL OR BE KILLED (1950). George Colouris (another Mercury Theater regular -- CITIZEN KANE, 1941) pursues B-Film tough hero Lawrence Tierney (much later in RESERVOIR DOGS, 1992).
THE BLACK CASTLE (1952). It is stalwart Englishman Richard Greene (unsuccessfully) trying to restore his Pre-World War II career, protecting Paula Corday from the advances of Austrian Count Stephen McNally, aided by Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr, for Director Nathan Juran.
THE BLACK FOREST (released in this country, 1954). A German doppelmeister attempts to track down the hero and heroine.
RUN FOR THE SUN (1956). This British version, directed by Roy Boulting, recruits World Famous Photographer Richard Widmark to help Jane Greer elude escaped Nazis Trevor Howard and Peter Van Eck (shades of THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL), an A-Production.
THE NAKED PREY (1961) Cornel Wilde directed and starred in this admired story (which uses details from "The Most Dangerous Game") about a man in superb condition trying to outrun Head Hunters.
BLOODLUST! (1961). A Mad Scientist (Robert Reed) catches Teenagers and displays them in glass cases, a spoof of "The Most Dangerous Game."
WOMAN HUNT (1972). Evil men kidnap and hunt young women, with the help of "Lesbian Bimbo" Lisa Todd.
SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY (1987). Not a bad little entry in a series starring former Playmates Liz Clayton and Cindy Beal. In this one, the girls' space ship crash lands on a planet where evil Brinke Stevens likes to . . . .
CANNIBAL WOMEN IN THE AVOCADO JUNGLE OF DEATH (1989). One of my favorite flics, about a wronged woman who leads a group of amazons with crossbows to revenge themselves against men. With Shannon Tweed, Adrienne Barbeau, Karen Mintal. That's Bill Maher type-cast as a male chauvinist pig. This film may or may not be identical to LETHAL WOMAN, which appears to have a very similar cast, made the same year.
DEADLY GAME (1991, made for TV). Terribly burned Millionaire Roddy McDowell invites seven people he believes responsible for his pain to an island and kills them one by one, in what seems like THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME combined with AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (Clair, 1945).
FINAL ROUND (1993). Kickboxer Lorenzo Lamas and Kathleen Kinmont are kidnapped by Anthony de Longis, who stages human hunts for the pleasure of a syndicate of gamblers.
DEATH RING (1993). Mike Norris and his Martial Arts Pals fight the Bad Guys who are after them.
HARD TARGET (1993). An early Claude Van Damme vehicle, directed by John Woo, has him (a Cajun) protecting Yancy Butler from Lance Henriksen in the swamps of Louisiana.
SURVIVING THE GAME (1994). When a group of racists hire Ice-T to take part in a hunt, he finds out that he is IT! With Rutger Hauer, F. Murray Abraham, and Gary Busey.
THE PEST (1997). John Leguizamo plays Pestario (Pest) Vargas, a minor Miami crook, who owes the Syndicate $50, 000. A weird German businessman, Gustav Shank (Jeffrey Jones), will lend him the money if he will allow himself to be hunted, perhaps to death or worse, on a private island.
Now, let me see . . . . Well, anyway, those are a few of many. That last one is about as bad as they get.
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None of these sequels, rip-offs, etc., are as good as the Cooper/Schoedsack original. Leslie Banks makes a splendid bravura villain and Joel McCrae was good in anything he tried his hand at. And Robert Armstrong, a highly successful actor of his time, now forgotten, is wry and amusing. Fay Wray, of course, is gorgeous. (Was she in every famous movie from 1927 to 1935? Sometimes, it seems that way.)
Try to find the 78 minute version, which has much better continuity, but even the 63 minute cut satisfies most viewers who see it.
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