"The Most Dangerous Game" is a surprisingly good little thriller that runs just over an hour. It was made the year before "King Kong" by many of the same people that were involved that classic. In fact many of the "run through the jungle" scenes are very similar to those in the later film.
The film opens with a realistic staged ship wreck (achieved mostly with convincing miniatures) from which only Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) survives. He crawls ashore on a mysterious island and finds his way to a creepy castle inhabited by a Russian Count named Zaroff (Leslie Banks). There he meets the lovely Eve (Fay Wray) and her drunken brother Martin (Robert Armstrong), who were also ship wrecked.
It turns out that the "Game" of the title is the mad Count hunting down and killing human prey. Naturally, McCrea and Wray ultimately wind up as the hunted.
A very young McCrea is excellent as the hero and Wray, fetching as the heroine. Banks, however, and Armstrong for that matter, are way over the top in their roles. Banks in that early talkie style, enunciates every syllable and bugs out his eyes at every opportunity.
Still and all, "The Most Dangerous Game" is exciting and well made and worth a look.
The film opens with a realistic staged ship wreck (achieved mostly with convincing miniatures) from which only Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) survives. He crawls ashore on a mysterious island and finds his way to a creepy castle inhabited by a Russian Count named Zaroff (Leslie Banks). There he meets the lovely Eve (Fay Wray) and her drunken brother Martin (Robert Armstrong), who were also ship wrecked.
It turns out that the "Game" of the title is the mad Count hunting down and killing human prey. Naturally, McCrea and Wray ultimately wind up as the hunted.
A very young McCrea is excellent as the hero and Wray, fetching as the heroine. Banks, however, and Armstrong for that matter, are way over the top in their roles. Banks in that early talkie style, enunciates every syllable and bugs out his eyes at every opportunity.
Still and all, "The Most Dangerous Game" is exciting and well made and worth a look.