Imagine this: a remote jungle island set in a lonely sea. A solitary chateau outfitted with every luxury & inhabited by a charming lunatic. A lovely young woman & her drunken, boorish brother. And a celebrated big game hunter who suddenly finds himself to be the prey.
This is an excellent adventure movie, imitated many times but never equaled. Once the hunt begins, the suspense doesn't let up. It keeps on pounding until the last bark of the savage hounds used to track down the helpless quarry.
The film was shot, largely at night, on the same jungle sets being used by day for KING KONG; four cast members appeared in both films. Joel McCrea & Fay Wray make a fine romantic couple, with Robert Armstrong suitably annoying in the small role of the intoxicated brother.
But it is Leslie Banks as the mad Russian, Count Zaroff, who remains in the mind the longest. Like a sophisticated & urbane serpent, he coils himself around his florid role of the master huntsman who has discovered a new sensation - that of stocking his island & hunting through its jungles the most dangerous big game of them all...
This is an excellent adventure movie, imitated many times but never equaled. Once the hunt begins, the suspense doesn't let up. It keeps on pounding until the last bark of the savage hounds used to track down the helpless quarry.
The film was shot, largely at night, on the same jungle sets being used by day for KING KONG; four cast members appeared in both films. Joel McCrea & Fay Wray make a fine romantic couple, with Robert Armstrong suitably annoying in the small role of the intoxicated brother.
But it is Leslie Banks as the mad Russian, Count Zaroff, who remains in the mind the longest. Like a sophisticated & urbane serpent, he coils himself around his florid role of the master huntsman who has discovered a new sensation - that of stocking his island & hunting through its jungles the most dangerous big game of them all...