The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

Directors:

Irving Pichel
Ernest B. Schoedsack

Writers:

James Ashmore Creelman (screenplay)
Richard Connell (story)

Release Date:

16 September 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Thriller | Horror | Mystery

Plot:

An insane hunter arranges for a ship to be wrecked on an island where he can indulge in some sort of hunting and killing of the passengers.

Plot Keywords:

Island | Hunter | Hunting | Escape | Reef

Cast

Joel McCrea	...	Bob
Fay Wray	...	Eve
Robert Armstrong	...	Martin
Leslie Banks	...	Zaroff
Noble Johnson	...	Ivan
Steve Clemente	...	Tartar (as Steve Clemento)
William B. Davidson	...	Captain (as William Davidson)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Buster Crabbe	...	Sailor who falls off boat (uncredited)
James Flavin	...	First Mate on Yacht (uncredited)
Arnold Gray	...	Passenger on Yacht (uncredited)
Hale Hamilton	...	Bill - Owner of Yacht (uncredited)
Oscar 'Dutch' Hendrian	...	Tarter Servant (uncredited)
Landers Stevens	...	'Doc' - Passenger on Yacht (uncredited)
Phil Tead	...	Passenger on Yacht (uncredited)

Directed by
Irving Pichel
Ernest B. Schoedsack

Writing credits
James Ashmore Creelman		(screenplay)
Richard Connell		(story)

Produced by
Merian C. Cooper	....	associate producer
David O. Selznick	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Max Steiner

Cinematography by
Henry W. Gerrard		(photographed by) (as Henry Gerrard)

Film Editing by
Archie Marshek		(as Archie E. Marshek)

Art Direction by
Carroll Clark

Set Decoration by
Thomas Little		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Walter Plunkett		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Wally Westmore	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Art Department
John Cerisoli	....	special props (uncredited)
Byron L. Crabbe	....	art department technician (uncredited)
Marcel Delgado	....	special props (uncredited)
Mario Larrinaga	....	art department technician (uncredited)

Sound Department
Clem Portman	....	sound recordist
Murray Spivack	....	sound effects (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Lloyd Knechtel	....	photographic effects (uncredited)
Harry Redmond Jr.	....	special effects (uncredited)
Vernon L. Walker	....	photographic effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Linwood G. Dunn	....	optical effects (uncredited)
Orville Goldner	....	miniatures (uncredited)
Donald Jahraus	....	miniatures (uncredited)
Bud Thackery	....	process photography (uncredited)

Stunts
Buster Crabbe	....	stunt double: Joel McCrea (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Robert De Grasse	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Gaston Longet	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Norma Drury Boleslavsky	....	musician: piano (uncredited)
Emil Gerstenberger	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Bernhard Kaun	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Production Companies

• RKO Radio Pictures (a Cooper and Schoedsack production)

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1932) (USA) (theatrical)
• Radio Pictures (1932) (UK) (theatrical)
• Franfilmdis (1934) (France) (theatrical)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Bach Films (2003) (France) (DVD)
• Bach Films (2009) (France) (DVD)
• Castle Communications (1995) (Finland) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (1999) (USA) (DVD) (first print)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• DTP Entertainment (2011) (Germany) (DVD)
• E-Realbiz.com (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• E-Realbiz.com (2003) (USA) (VHS)
• Genius Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD) (75th anniversary edition)
• Legend Films (2007) (worldwide) (DVD)
• Legend Films (2008) (USA) (DVD) (75th anniversary edition)
• Magnus Opus (2005) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Reel Media International (2004) (worldwide) (video)
• Reel Media International (2005) (worldwide) (TV)
• Reel Media International (2007) (worldwide) (all media)

Other Companies

• Legend Films  colorization
• Legend Films  restoration

Also Known As:

Runtime:

63 min | USA:78 min (preview version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 (1987) | South Korea:12 | USA:Approved (PCA #1348-R: 29 August 1935 for re-release) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:(Banned) (1934) | UK:12 (re-rating) | UK:A (cut) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG | USA:PG (re-rating)

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

The trophy room scenes were much longer in the preview version of 78 minutes: there were more heads in jars. But there was also an emaciated sailor, stuffed and mounted next to a tree where he was impaled by Zaroff's arrow, and another full-body figure stuffed, with the bodies of two of the hunting dogs mounted in a death grip. Preview audiences cringed and shuddered at the head in the bottle and the mounted heads, but when they saw the mounted figures and heard Zaroff's dialog describing in detail how each man had died, they began heading for the exit - so these shots disappeared.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The island is described by Rainsford as "small as a deer park", but it contains a dramatic waterfall. Such a fall would have to have been fed by a large lake on a much larger island to flow at such a high volume.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Captain:The channel's here on the chart, all right, and so are the marking lights.
First mate:Then what's wrong with them?
Captain:Those lights don't seem to be in just the right place. They're both a bit out of position according to this.
First mate:Two light buoys means a safe channel between the world over!
Captain:"Safe between the world over" doesn't go in these waters.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Horror: Scream Queens (1996) (V)

Soundtrack:

A Moment in the Dark

The Mad Count Zaroff

The Most Dangerous Game is a film totally dominated by Leslie Banks's florid portrayal of the mad Russian Count Zaroff who has built is own little world on a Pacific island where he hunts for sport and pleasure what he considers The Most Dangerous Game.

Though I'm sure he must have had a lot of offers from American studios after this film, Leslie Banks went back to the United Kingdom where he was a stalwart presence in a variety of roles for British cinema. Still Banks never got a part as good as Count Zaroff in which he could chew enough scenery for a three course meal and not be noticed.

Joel McCrea plays an American big game hunter who is the sole survivor of a shipwreck who is washed up on Banks's island. In the palatial home he's built out of an old Portugese fort, McCrea encounters brother and sister Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray. Armstrong, in an unusual part for him, plays a wastrel playboy who is consuming the liquor at the home at a prodigious rate. He's taken to the 'trophy' room and not seen again.

The next night McCrea and Wray discover that The Most Dangerous Game is man himself. Banks sends his guests out into the woods and stalks them like wild animals. Supposedly if they can elude him for 24 hours they earn their freedom, but no one ever has.

The Most Dangerous Game is one of those films where you have no doubt who the hero and villain are. No moral ambiguities in this one. For all of Banks's talk about man being the most challenging animal to hunt, the only other man besides McCrea we see him hunt is drunk and pathetic Robert Armstrong. In McCrea because he's a hunter Banks finally meets an opponent who's a challenge. If Armstrong is a sample of what he hunted before, Banks ranks as one of the most malevolent villains ever portrayed on screen.

If the sets look familiar to you remember the team of Meriam C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack is bringing you this film. A year later these same sets were utilized by RKO for the classic King Kong. Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong got to know that back lot jungle very well.

Banks meets a most fitting end for one as evil as he which I can't reveal, but viewers will find it poetic indeed. After 75 years, The Most Dangerous Game is still one exciting, heart pounding, entertaining film.