WATCH NOW
While going through the credits of this movie, I came across a 2022 version which starred actors like Casper van Diem and Judd Nelson.
This film was bound to have a remake. The Most Dangerous Game is a film that gets referenced a lot. It has been used as an inspiration for many plots or in some cases just copied over.
The television series ‘Most Dangerous Game’, Hollywood’s ‘Surviving the Game’ starring Ice-T, the C-grade movie ‘Hounds of Zaroff’, and the 70’s rendition ‘The Suckers’ are all sequels that came after this movie. They are based on a short story written by Richard Connell.
When I first started watching the 1974 ‘Savages’ TV movie, I remember his Andy Griffith character as quite terrifying. I remember thinking about the movie ‘Most Dangerous Game’, where Robb White, the author, uses a talented big game hunter to tell a different side of the story.
All of these movies like Stephen King’s ‘The Running Man’, ‘The Hunger Games’, Mel Gibson’s ‘Apocalypto’, “The Naked Prey” by Cornel Wilde, and many more, owe a percentage of the inspiration and plot to Connell, specially the movie ‘Meet John Doe’.
Most years, I seem to cite this thriller Urtext a couple of times, at most. The idea of a wealthy, self indulged, and overly eager hunter, who is fatuously confident in his ‘skills’, seeking out ‘the most dangerous game’, a cunning and desperately intelligent human fighter, is one that screenwriters simply cannot resist.
The initial movie made on the screenplay capitalized on the jungle strongholds and island sets based on the classic film ‘King Kong’ to produce a remarkable and fast-moving thriller whose plot twists were bigger than the film itself. Co-star Fay Wray, like the other actors in the movie, had to experience the shooting of chunks of the movie ‘King Kong’ on the same sets and switch to her ‘Most Dangerous Game” costume instantly, as the sets were being used simultaneously.
This was done right after sound technology was introduced and prior to the censorship Hays Production code. The work environment shown in the film ‘Babylon‘ is indicative of this time period.
This RKO superstar vehicle, which lasts 63 minutes, was crafted for Joel McCrea during his early years, a decade before the peak years of his career which included ‘Foreign Correspondence’, “Sullivan’s Travels’, and The ‘Palm Beach Story.’
As they cruise through the Pacific, some rich, big game hunting folks are the first to be introduced in the plot when the navigation lights deceive them and their ship hits an island. The only person to make it out alive is the huntwriter Bob Rainsford (McCrea).
Rainsford stumbles onto Baranka Island, only to hear the barking of hounds and drive him towards Count Zaroff’s Gothic stone house. This is where he makes his first appearance on screen and is played by Leslie Banks, the first “Man Who Knew Too Much.”
The count is a Russian emigre who along with his czar was deposed and now spends his days in comfort and alone in an old Portuguese fortress with a couple of trusted “Tatar” servants and a pack of Great Danes.
Though from an older shipwreck, there are siblings who are also survivors (Wray and Robert Armstrong). It’s amusing to look at all the shipwrecks surrounding this “cursed” island.
The count is well aware of Rainsford’s work. He admires the one author who “does not excuse what needs no excuse.” Assumingly, the same humor Rainsford used while bragging aboard the yacht with fellow swells “The world’s divided into two kinds of people, the hunters and the hunted. Luckily, I’m a hunter,” is what the count is talking about.
A Russian man boastfully states, “God created some of us beggars and made others kings. As for me, I’m a hunter and my finger was designed for the trigger.”
He remains mysterious about his prey on the island he describes as ‘the most dangerous game.’ You will soon note, however, his comparison towards the room decorated with his victims’ shrunken heads as trophy heads on his wall. One has to pity the fact that the first cut of the movie of over 78 minutes was released in its worsened version.
‘Outdoor chess’ is what the Count refers to the game and Bob refers to the setting where the Count’s brain battles against him and wins owing to superior tactics, And of course, the first and foremost rule in every game, ‘the girl’ is a must for Rob.
The killing thrill that the count describes is by far a true love ecstasy which is pre code. This is blamed on the sliding pieces of clothing layered on the in hostage pre prey Eve. Like any other character with the syndrome, he drags the scarred and depraved villain dressed in jodhpurs for all he’s worth.
This is exactly why the plot is always relevant. The belief that the high class would widefully assume that the common people are just fit for being their consequences free entertainment never gets old. We can see on television every single day, these poorly disguised versions of this heartless count or their Arabic equivalents.
The movie in itself is very lighthearted but I have to admit it is a bit crude in nature. The villainous, bottom litted candle shots insert of the evil count serves as a great archetype but is terribly obvious.
The manipulative tricks the hunter uses in order to either outsmart or get rid of the count have become highly standardized in almost every other version of killing hunts by males or females, known as foe male tracking, “Malay dead fall”.
Despite being a pretty short film, The Most Dangerous Game starts with a rather slow pace. It begins with the setting of the hunters from the leading steam powered yacht being served for the sharks. They sink, losing all identities. While my “hero” seems to be the most entitled creep there is.
Dressed with upper cloths and a tie, the count greets Rainsford. This is synonymous of how the super class count met the other species, during the Great Depression set era.
As captured by authors and directors H. B. Schoedsack and I. Pichel, as well as “Achie” Marschek, who edited parts of “King Kong,” transitions in the last act are quite breath-taking. They turn what is usually a passive act into a bloody and swift struggle towards the end. This shift raises the question regarding the details regarding the anthems of chase, action, and man hunting that had to be omitted to meet the short durations of cartoons and newsreels paired with series during 1932.
McCrea became very efficient at acting in films with this fast pace. It prepared him for comedies and “Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent” and for amateurs. Wray’s character has little to add but dominates the scene when in the grips of the giant ape she stars with, depicting the dangerous position she’s in perfectly.
Unlike it’s now more established peers, The Most Dangerous Game is irrelevant in comparison, as few would pair it with the classic “King Kong.” In it’s time, and now, it is a classic in every sense a unique masterpiece, essential for those who don’t mind seeing.
To watch more movies likeThe Most Dangerous Game (1932) visit 123movies
Also Watch for more movies like:The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
