The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

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The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
Topic Started: Aug 24 2008, 11:22 AM (230 Views)
Laughing Gravy	Aug 24 2008, 11:22 AM Post #1
Revered in the UK Posts: 11,070 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: August 31, 2005	On a jungle island somewhere off the coast of somewhere else, mad Dr. Zaroff (Leslie Banks) hunts human prey that he lures to his preserve via shipwrecks. His latest targets are Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Frank Fay, Stubby Kaye, Doris Day, Elaine May, Turhan Bey, Marvin Gaye, Martha Raye, and... Oy vey! I got carried away! That's not his prey! Okay, well, Joel and Fay are there, and so is Robert Armstrong. Apparently, Miss Wray and Mr. Armstrong were hanging around the sets of King Kong and decided to make THIS movie while they were there (Ernest Schoedsack is one of the directors; Irving Pichel is t'other). Like another movie I saw recently (Three on a Match), this film is only a couple of minutes past an hour long, so everything happens really, really quickly. The excitement never lets up, the cast is excellent (I really like Joel McCrea, although he looks so much like his son Jody that I think of "Deadhead" from the Beach Party movies EVERY time I see th' guy), Miss Wray had the best scream in the business, Leslie Banks' Zaroff is one of the great nutjobs in movie history, and the film is amazingly well photographed -- check out the Swamp of Fog! Top-notch film, and the cheap Alpha DVD is the best offering I've ever seen from that company.



AndyFish	Aug 26 2008, 06:57 AM Post #2
Movie Watcha Foist Class Posts: 203 Group: Members Member #224 Joined: June 11, 2007	Another one of my favorites! I'd read that McCrea was the first choice for King Kong but Bruce Cabot ended up with the part. Great sets-- great action-- fast paced and exciting. If Bela Lugosi had played the villain this would have been even better-- although Leslie Banks was fine. Noble Johnson (Ivan the Bodyguard) was the lead native in King Kong, and the great danes at the end actually belonged to Harold Lloyd-- and apparently they were the furthest thing from ferocious! The reason the Alpha DVD looks so good is that they copied the Criterion print-- I have both and they are the same!
	www.hebsandfish.com


riddlerider	Aug 26 2008, 08:01 AM Post #3
Balcony Gang, Foist Class Posts: 799 Group: Members Member #68 Joined: November 26, 2005	AndyFish Aug 26 2008, 06:57 AM Another one of my favorites! Andy, I think this film is probably one of everybody's favorites. Even more than 30 years ago, when all you could get on this title was a 16mm dupe of lousy quality, most collectors were dying to buy prints. Although GAME isn't a horror movie, strictly speaking, it has horror-movie trappings that align it with the other films making 1932 my candidate for the best year in the history of American fantastic cinema. (WHITE ZOMBIE, THE MUMMY, FREAKS, THE OLD DARK HOUSE, CHANDU THE MAGICIAN, DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE, DR X, THE MASK OF FU MANCHU, etc., etc.)



panzer the great & terrible	Aug 26 2008, 08:22 AM Post #4
Mouth Breather Posts: 10,352 Group: Members Member #13 Joined: September 3, 2005	The reason everybody loves this picture is the story. Isn't that a novel concept?
	We Wear Short Shorts Flying Purple People Eater


Black Tiger	Aug 26 2008, 11:23 PM Post #5
Charter Member Posts: 1,814 Group: Members Member #50 Joined: September 15, 2005	Absolutely one of my favorite films. Leslie Banks is demonic. Based on the superior short story of the same name by Richard Connell. The film is a mostly faithful adaptation of the story and maintains it's fast-pace and thrills. Amazing how a movie well-told can clock in at a little over an hour and still be great. A lesson that Hollywood can take note of with their overbloated 2 1/2 hour plus opuses.



Laughing Gravy	Aug 27 2008, 06:02 AM Post #6
Revered in the UK Posts: 11,070 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: August 31, 2005	Odd that I'd never seen this film before. It's a great one. I SHOULD mention, I guess, that -- sadly -- I am quite familiar with its early 1960s remake, a dreadful piece of crap called Bloodlust that replaces Joel McCrea and Fay Wray with (you better sit down) Robert "The Father on the Brady Bunch" Reed and June "Earth vs. the Spider" Kemmer. I don't recall who played the insane hunter, but he was made up to look just like Leslie Banks. Or maybe Cap'n Mephisto. I have trouble telling those two apart. Anyway, it was a particularly delightful episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.



Vornoff	Aug 31 2008, 08:23 AM Post #7
Charter Member Posts: 484 Group: Members Member #54 Joined: September 16, 2005	That's June Kenney, LG, a very cute actress who worked mostly in the 50's in such flicks as TEENAGE DOLL and SORORITY GIRL to name two. She was also in ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE as well as EARTH VS THE SPIDER. I always liked her so am going to bite the bullet and have placed BLOODLUST on my Netflix list, just to see her! It's a double bill with ATOM AGE VAMPIRE, which I haven't seen in a long time. The insane hunter was played by Wilton Graff who was in a bunch of movies in the 40's then went crazy doing tons of tv show appearances in the 50's.
	"Doctor of nothing!"


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