Most Dangerous Game (B&W)

Starring:Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks, Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson, Steve Clemente, Oscar 'Dutch' Hendrian, William B. Davidson, Hale Hamilton, Lon Chaney Jr., Phil Tead, Landers Stevens, James Flavin
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack, Irving Pichel
Studio: Alpha Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The Most Dangerous Game is a classic, one of the first talkies to get pictures moving after five very static years following the birth of sound. The plot finds resourceful hero Joel McCrea and heroine Fay Wray being hunted on the island of the insane Zaroff (Leslie Banks). One of the grandfathers of the summer blockbuster, the film's setup has been reworked many times since, notably in John Woo's Hard Target (1993). By modern standards it's technically primitive, though still gripping stuff, complete with the jungle set built as a test run for King Kong (1933) and graced by Max Steiner's prototype of all Hollywood action scores. --Gary S. Dalkin

Customer Reviews:

The Most Dangerous Game (1932).......2007-06-21

Made by RKO during Willis O'Brien's simultaneous production of "King Kong," and utilizing much of the same cast, crew, and sets, this thrilling adaptation of Richard S. Connell's short story about a man who waylays seafarers and then hunts them for sport wowed audiences in 1932. McCrea, playing a professional hunter journeying to Brazil when his ship strikes a reef, is suitably rugged, especially in a breathtaking, cliff-edge fight with one of the Count's vicious hounds. But Wray's woman-in-distress (honing her scream for "Kong," no doubt!) and Banks's slightly campy yet menacing count really drive the picture. Fabulous sets, cogent direction, and a diabolical concept all make this "Game" a visceral pleasure. Imitated many times, but never with as much vigor.

Great Early Adventure/Action Film.......2007-03-20

As a fan of the great 1933 classic King Kong, I bought this DVD mainly out of curiosity, as the jungle sets built for it were used several months later in King Kong. The film is fairly predictable, but the hunt/chase sequence is truly nerve-rattling and well worth the price of admission. The scenes of Fay Wray (this time a brunette) running terrified through foggy jungle foliage anticipates her later work in Kong; indeed, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference!

However, Robert Armstrong (as Wray's brother) is completely wasted in this film (literally and cinematically, as you'll see). He's a rather foppish drunk throughout, and his character hardly resembles that in the later Kong. Wray's patented scream is well in evidence though, and I can see why the producers brought her in for Kong. Leslie Banks, as the sinister Zaroff, is a tad formulaic, especially when he's seen stroking his old head wound constantly, and his ultimate demise could have been better thought out.

There are no dinosaurs on this Skull Island, but a dozen or so large, vicious hunting dogs fill the bill adequately, particularly during the foggy chase scenes. The film's rear-projection work is cleverly done and very effective.

Joel McCrea's character is good, but the violent loss of the boat's entire crew in the beginning seems to have had little effect on him. As a big-game hunter, toward the end he reflects on what it's like to be frightened and hunted himself.

Overall, a very entertaining movie.

Buy The Alpha.......2007-03-14

I have both the criterion DVD and the Alpha, and I prefer the Alpha. The image and the sound are excellent. It's probably the best Alpha DVD ever made. Don't waste your money for the criterion if you are not an hardcore fan of this film. The differences between the Alpha and the criterion are :
1. no audio commentary in the Alpha. If, like me, you don't listen audio commentaries, it's not a problem.
2. NO LOGOS at the beginning of the film. At the beginning of the criterion version there's THREE LOGOS folks !! First the logo of criterion, second the logo of Janus films, third the classic RKO logo. Unfortunately the RKO logo is not in the Alpha. But the other two logos are too moderns for a film of this age.
3. No english subtitles in the Alpha. I'm french and like to watch movies at least with english subtitles, if there's not french subtitles. I don't lose very much because the sound is very clear and there's not too much dialogues.

So that's all ! Buy the Alpha !

Not bad........2007-02-28

The Most Dangerous Game (Irving Pichel, 1932)

I have an admission to make that's pretty embarrassing for a self-professed film snob-- I'm a big, big fan of Ernest Dickerson's star-studded 1994 flop Surviving the Game, the most recent (that I know of) adaptation of Richard Connell's infamous short story "The Most Dangerous Game." And I tend to compare all the other adaptations to it, and find they all fail. This one's no exception, though it's certainly better than most.

The 1932 film version The Most Dangerous Game will probably end up an historical footnote; much of the crew behind this movie-- co-director Ernest B. Schoedsack, screenwriter James Creelman, producers Merian C. Cooper and David O. Selznick, composer Max Steiner, and roughly half the cast-- would get together again the next year to film the classic King Kong. Kong, of course, is one of the much-beloved classics of the cinema, while The Most Dangerous Game languished in obscurity for decades. The reason? Well, there's not much to it.

In this adaptation, a yacht encounters a nasty storm, and ends up sunk near an island owned by eccentric Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks). Zaroff is a big-game hunter, as is one of the wreck's survivors, Bob Rainsford (These Three's Joel McCrea), and Zaroff promises Rainsford excellent hunting in the morning. Rainsford knows something suspicious is up, as does Eve Trowbridge (Fay Wray), a survivor from a wreck a few days before who's still at the mansion. They just can't figure out what until they're caught in it...

Much of the problem with The Most Dangerous Game is that Creelman took what is at its heart an action story and tried to make a suspense movie out of it. The first half of this surprisingly short (sixty-three minutes) film is spent in drawing rooms talking, rather than focusing on the action, as the story does. Now, this sort of thing has been done very well many times, of course, but not here. First, because there's just not a great deal of suspense built up, but second (and more important) because the source material is so well-known that the audience already knows what's coming. It probably doesn't help that Pichel was a first-time director; even with Schoedsack's input (Schoedsack was responsible for four films previous to this, with the most famous being 1929's The Four Feathers), there are still pacing and camerawork issues that mark this as a first film. And for a first film, it's a very good one, especially once the hunt begins. As an enduring classic of the silver screen, however, it seems a bit lacking. ***

a product of an era much like our own.......2007-01-18

Previously considered a dress rehearsal for Cooper and Schoedsack's history-making King Kong (released the following year) or, truth be told, not at all (it was a lost film until prints were discovered in the 1970s), The Most Dangerous Game has undergone a critical makeover of sorts in recent years. It's not hard to see why. Adapted from Richard Connell's acclaimed short story of the same name, Game is deeply a product of an era echoed by our own - a people still coming to grips with the assembly-line slaughter of the first world war while standing on the precipice of a second.

Celebrity big game hunter Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) is on his way to yet another safari - we meet on him on the deck of a yacht, regaling those around him with his intrinsically Darwinian philosophy of life: "The world is divided into two kinds of people in life, the hunter and the hunted." Ah, but how easily one becomes the other when the yacht is shipwrecked off the shore of a nearby island and the passengers are eaten by sharks. Rainsford luckily is able to swim to shore, but it is here where the story really begins as he becomes the target of a maniacal "Cossack" Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks, his own face scarred by war, here exaggerated with makeup), bored with traditional hunting but consumed by a different kind of "game."

The double meaning of the title (Game refers both to the pastime and the prey, this being man) becomes quite clear in the film's artfully directed climactic chase sequence when tables are turned once more. The villain Zaroff is an artifact of an older, dying world of brick castles, dungeons, and crossbows. Gentlemen hunt each other (read: war) out of boredom and call it sport, initiated after brandy and cigars in the study.

Alas, even for an aristocrat like Zaroff, there's no chivalry to be had in death - is it no accident that the Cossack, with his affinity for rustic weaponry, ultimately sees his henchman done in with a pistol. As he himself lay dying, Zaroff can only watch helplessly from his little island as Rainsford and love interest (Fay Wray) jet off in a gas-powered motorboat. It's a direct affront to the villain's spoken axiom that lust for flesh is best fulfilled after lust for blood, and indeed, one of the earliest cinematic expressions of "Make Love, Not War." While only preceding King Kong (and its overt anti-hunting themes) by a few months, it predates (in its own charmingly unsuspecting way) the 1960s hippie movement by a good thirty years.

Interesting footnote: If you think Zaroff's isolated stretch of land looks an awful like Skull Island, you wouldn't be wrong. Both Game and Cooper and Schoedsack's follow-up, King Kong, were shot using the same sets at the very same time - Game was photographed at night while Kong was filmed during the day. The Most Dangerous Game was later remade by Robert Wise as 1945's A Game of Death. Emphasizing the war parallels, "Count Zaroff" the Cossack was converted into "Erich Kreiger" the Nazi.

The Most Dangerous Game - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
Great Early Adventure/Action Film
Buy The Alpha
Not bad.
a product of an era much like our own

The Most Dangerous Game - Criterion Collection
Starring: Joel McCrea , Fay Wray , Leslie Banks , Robert Armstrong , and Noble Johnson
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack , and Irving Pichel
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0780022114
Release Date: 2001-04-03

Amazon.com

Description

"One of the best and most literate movies from the great days of horror," The Most Dangerous Game stars Leslie Banks as a big game hunter with a taste for the world's most exotic prey-his houseguests, played by Fay Wray and Joel McCrea. Before making history with 1933's King Kong, filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack wowed audiences with their chilling adaptation of this Richard Connell short story. Criterion is proud to present the DVD premiere of The Most Dangerous Game in a new digital transfer.

Customer Reviews:

The Most Dangerous Game (1932).......2007-06-21

Great Early Adventure/Action Film.......2007-03-20

Buy The Alpha.......2007-03-14

Not bad........2007-02-28

a product of an era much like our own.......2007-01-18

The Most Dangerous Game/And Then There Were None

Average customer rating:

Oh come ON, my man GODFREY!!!
Oh, come ON, Mike !
MARENGO SHINES ON TWO GORGEOUS TRANSFERS
Finally, a decent transfer of these films...

The Most Dangerous Game/And Then There Were None
Starring: Most Dangerous Game , and Then There Were None
Manufacturer: Marengo Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express
And Then There Were None (Mystery Masters)
The Odyssey
The Pearl
Surviving the Game

ASIN: B000IJ7AGK
Release Date: 2006-11-21

Description

Most Dangerous Game: The sole survivor of a yachting accident Robert Rainsford swims to a mysterious island to save himself. There he finds his way to the mansion of Russian Count Zoroff. He is made welcome and introduced to two other shipwreck survivors brother and sister Eve and Martin Towbridge. The Count is a big game hunter and the three guests soon find that he has grown bored with hunting animals and is after a new prey...man. AND THEN THERE WERE NONE: This Agatha Christie masterpiece is a must see for all mystery fans. The scene of the crime is a wonderfully foreboding deserted island. The stage is a large creepy mansion.

Customer Reviews:

Oh come ON, my man GODFREY!!!.......2007-06-13

Mike is correct in his rating of this DVD, as well as the Marengo product in general. For a mostly Public Domain DVD company, it doesn't get much better than Marengo Films.

Oh, come ON, Mike !.......2007-03-22

I'm not reviewing the product - thus the solitary star - but rather commenting on the fact that Mike Smith's review, see below, felt a little contrived somehow - and sure enough, click the link to his other "reviews" and they are ALL glowing reports of Marengo's product ! Stuffing the ballot a little, eh Mike ? Oh, why not, and good luck to you and whatever interest you have in Marengo.

MARENGO SHINES ON TWO GORGEOUS TRANSFERS.......2007-02-26

If you have been looking for quality transfers of these two titles, here they are. MARENGO'S work on THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME is every bit as good as the CRITERION version and, in my opinion, better in one respect. The Marengo transfer is printed a shade lighter which results in sharper details in the outdoor night scenes which comprise the vast majority of this wonderfully exciting classic. And the clear and booming audio track will blow you away as well.

For AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, MARENGO does a freeze frame on each of the main titles with a seamless bleed over from one to the other. This completely clears up the soft focus and distortion caused by the jumpiness of the main titles in the IMAGE version. And the rest of the transfer is sharp with a clean and clear soundtrack.

Kudos to MARENGO for a job well done.

Finally, a decent transfer of these films..........2006-11-23

Both of these films have been in the "public domain" for a while, and really lousy video & DVD transfers have inundated the shelves, cheap quickies with poor picture & scratchy sound. Both films are classics, and deserve a treatment as good as this (if not better). I enjoy "And Then There Were None" maybe a little more. The very stylish director, Rene Clair, assembled a cast of reliable "supporting" players, including Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Judith Anderson, Roland Young, etc., and they are in confident command of the wonderful Agatha Christie material. "The Most Dangerous Game" is also terrific; at only an hour long, it is suspenseful and the entire cast is marvelous (Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks, Robert Anderson). You could do a lot worse than to purchase this fine duo by Marengo Films.

Joel McCrea Double Feature: "The Most Dangerous Game"/Bird Of Paradise

Average customer rating:

Double dose of island adventure!

Joel McCrea Double Feature: "The Most Dangerous Game"/Bird Of Paradise
Starring: Bird of Paradise , and Most Dangerous Game
Manufacturer: Vci Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002VL05G
Release Date: 2004-11-16

Description

This Joel McCrea double feature DVD begins with Bird of Paradise. In this south sea island adventure a man aboard a yacht rescues a beautiful native girl from a volcano. He falls in love with her, wishing he could stay, but he has to overcome many obstacles. The second feature, The Most Dangerous Game, is one of the tightest, action-filled 62 minutes in movie history! A crazed Russian expatriate hunts people who shipwreck on his deserted island for sport... but McCrea and Wray are tougher prey than he expects. Note: The Most Dangerous Game was filmed almost simultaneously with another RKO classic King Kong and shared many of the same sets and personnel. Bonus Features: Scene Selection| Bonus: "King Kong" Trailer and Betty Boop Cartoon "Bamboo Isle" Specs: DVD9; Dolby Digital Mono; 142 minutes; B&W; 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA - NR; Year - 1932; SRP - $4.99.

Customer Reviews:

Double dose of island adventure!.......2005-02-06

To be honest, the only reason I got this dvd was because of the 1932 classic "The Most Dangerous Game", which I've desperately wanted to see ever since I read the story by Richard Connell in high school. But surprisingly enough I enjoyed both movies, as well as the bonus features.

The first movie, 1932's "Bird of Paradise", is honestly a very ridiculous movie, but I found it entertaining. Joel McCrea and his comrades are traveling on a yacht in the South Seas when they find a beautiful island inhabited by natives who worship a volcano. McCrea nearly drowns while fishing one day, but he is saved by a beautiful native-girl (played by the ultra-hot Dolores Del Rio). It's love at first sight, but when her chief comes between their happy romance, they flee to a deserted island nearby. Will she choose McCrea over her loyalty to her people? Watch and find out!

Next, we have the 1932 classic, "The Most Dangerous Game", where a lunatic hunter, Count Zaroff (played to creepy perfection by Leslie Banks), has his own mysterious island where his prey are shipwreck victims. But, his latest shipwreck victims, Joel McCrea and Fay Wray, prove to be more than a match for the crazed Zaroff. This very entertaining classic was filmed at the same time that "King Kong" was filmed, using many of the same sets and crew.

The picture quality is pretty good considering the movies are over 70 years old (and the dvd is so inexpensive!). The bonus features are a fun 1932 Betty Boop cartoon and the original theatrical trailer of "King Kong". I'm very glad I bought this dvd and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys an old-fashioned island adventure!

Great Adaptations - Criterion Collection (Great Expectations / Lord of the Flies / The Most Dangerous Game / Oliver Twist)

Average customer rating:

Great Adaptations - Criterion Collection (Great Expectations / Lord of the Flies / The Most Dangerous Game / Oliver Twist)
Starring: Joel McCrea , Fay Wray , Leslie Banks , Robert Armstrong , and Noble Johnson
Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack , Irving Pichel , and David Lean
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002JELNQ
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Description

Great Expectations: One of the great translations of literature into film, David Lean's, Great Expectations brings Charles Dickens' masterpiece to robust onscreen life. Pip, Magwitch, Miss Havisham, and Estella populate Lean's magnificent miniature, beautifully photographed by Guy Green and designed by John Bryan. Lord of the Flies: Lord of the Flies is famed theater director Peter Brook's daring translation of William Golding's brilliant novel. The story of 30 English schoolboys stranded on an uncharted island at the start of the "next" war, Lord of the Flies is a seminal film of the New American Cinema and a fascinating anti-Hollywood experiment in location filmmaking. As the cast relived Golding's frightening fable, Brook found the cinematic "evidence" of the author's terrifying thesis: there is a beast in us all. The Most Dangerous Game: "One of the best and most literate movies from the great days of horror," The Most Dangerous Game stars Leslie Banks as a big game hunter with a taste for the world's most exotic prey—his houseguests, played by Fay Wray and Joel McCrea. Before making history with 1933's King Kong, filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack wowed audiences with their chilling adaptation of this Richard Connell short story. Criterion is proud to present the DVD premiere of The Most Dangerous Game in a new digital transfer. Oliver Twist: Expressionistic noir photography suffuses David Lean's Oliver Twist with a nightmarish quality, fitting its bleak, industrial setting. In Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home.

{17 Movie Set} Seven Doors to Death, Hot Rod Girl, Blonde Savage, They Made Me a Criminal, the Silver Horde, Bird of Paradise, Outpost in Morocco, Renfrew of the Royal Mounted, Monsoon, Most Dangerous Game, Amazing Mr. X, Swamp Fire, & MORE...

Average customer rating:

{17 Movie Set} Seven Doors to Death, Hot Rod Girl, Blonde Savage, They Made Me a Criminal, the Silver Horde, Bird of Paradise, Outpost in Morocco, Renfrew of the Royal Mounted, Monsoon, Most Dangerous Game, Amazing Mr. X, Swamp Fire, & MORE...

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Monsoon/The Most Dangerous Game/The Amazing Mr. X/Swamp Fire

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Monsoon/The Most Dangerous Game/The Amazing Mr. X/Swamp Fire
Starring: Adventure Classics
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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[18 Movie Pack] Monsoon, Most Dangerous Game, Amazing Mr. X, Swamp Fire, Prehistoric Women, Call of the Yukon, Scott of the Antarctic , Crashing Thru, Vanishing Point, Dead Ringer, Open Window, Gypsy, to Know the End, the Vision, the Riddle, the Lovers, Anniversary of a Murder, the Sorcerer

Average customer rating:

[18 Movie Pack] Monsoon, Most Dangerous Game, Amazing Mr. X, Swamp Fire, Prehistoric Women, Call of the Yukon, Scott of the Antarctic , Crashing Thru, Vanishing Point, Dead Ringer, Open Window, Gypsy, to Know the End, the Vision, the Riddle, the Lovers, Anniversary of a Murder, the Sorcerer

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

Product Description

SPECIAL FEATURES: Digitally Mastered, Interactive Menus, Chapter Selections, Digitally Enhanced Audio 5.1

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