The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
"Death is for others, not ourselves."
Don't let the stale first scenes (a good and necessary half hour in the one hour film) bother you. They set up the movie with a stiff, talkie, unconvincing banter...and then the adventure begins, and it's pretty good. This is the year of Frankenstein, and the effects date from those years, but go with the drama, including a shark attack (no spoiler there), and then some more parlor chitchat. And then...it takes off. The concept is clear, and the short story this is based on is a primitive masterpiece in its own way (http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/danger.html) and the movie doesn't match, but it's great stuff to consider.
Remember, this is 1932, before the code, and so there's a freedom here to the filming even though there aren't any truly racy scenes. Music by Max Steiner (which helps a lot) and camera-work by the forgotten Henry W. Gerrard, who after this finished Little Women (1933) and Of Human Bondage (1934) before dying prematurely. This is a Selznick picture while working for RKO, and Irving Pichel gives us his first attempt as director (he did the interesting Quicksand at the end of his career).
Joel McCray, meant to be the everyman hero (who also is a big game hunter) makes for a stiff leading man, for sure. Maybe he was handsome for his time, but he doesn't have depth, or emotional qualities, and you have to look the other way on that. The other characters we don't expect too much from. The leading woman, an actress better known for another early 1930s movie, King Kong, is none other than Fay Ray. (In fact, many of the night scenes are shot on the RKO sets used for King Kong.) You'll see the main evil man, Count Zaroff, comes down the stairs (and sounds) like another famous count of 1932, played by Lugosi. But the evils here are purely human. And the action builds once the set up is clear, and McCray and Ray are set loose.
"Death is for others, not ourselves."
Don't let the stale first scenes (a good and necessary half hour in the one hour film) bother you. They set up the movie with a stiff, talkie, unconvincing banter...and then the adventure begins, and it's pretty good. This is the year of Frankenstein, and the effects date from those years, but go with the drama, including a shark attack (no spoiler there), and then some more parlor chitchat. And then...it takes off. The concept is clear, and the short story this is based on is a primitive masterpiece in its own way (http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/danger.html) and the movie doesn't match, but it's great stuff to consider.
Remember, this is 1932, before the code, and so there's a freedom here to the filming even though there aren't any truly racy scenes. Music by Max Steiner (which helps a lot) and camera-work by the forgotten Henry W. Gerrard, who after this finished Little Women (1933) and Of Human Bondage (1934) before dying prematurely. This is a Selznick picture while working for RKO, and Irving Pichel gives us his first attempt as director (he did the interesting Quicksand at the end of his career).
Joel McCray, meant to be the everyman hero (who also is a big game hunter) makes for a stiff leading man, for sure. Maybe he was handsome for his time, but he doesn't have depth, or emotional qualities, and you have to look the other way on that. The other characters we don't expect too much from. The leading woman, an actress better known for another early 1930s movie, King Kong, is none other than Fay Ray. (In fact, many of the night scenes are shot on the RKO sets used for King Kong.) You'll see the main evil man, Count Zaroff, comes down the stairs (and sounds) like another famous count of 1932, played by Lugosi. But the evils here are purely human. And the action builds once the set up is clear, and McCray and Ray are set loose.