Richard Connell's short story - known variously as both 'The Hounds of Zaroff' and 'The Most Dangerous Game' - has undergone a variety of permutations and adaptations over the years since it was published in Collier's magazine in 1924. First produced in 1932 by the son-to-be King Kong combo of Ernest Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper and co-directed by Schoedsack alongside Irving Pichel (in his directorial debut), it would be successively remade as A Game of Death by Robert Wise in 1945 (with the mad hunter Zaroff updated for the age as the Nazi Erich Kreiger), as Kill Or Be Killed in 1950 by Max Nosseck, and again in 1956 as Roy Boulting's Run for the Sun before being twisted into such shapes as the pseudonymous Arthur Byrd's The Suckers, Eddie Romero's The Woman Hunt, and George Schenck's Superbeast (all 1972). The format of the hunter in search of human prey would find ample grounds for recycling in such pulp action/exploitation fare as Brian Trenchard-Smith's infamous Turkey Shoot (aka Blood Camp Thatcher, 1982), David A. Prior's Deadly Prey (1987) and John Woo's 1993 Jean-Claude Van Damme wham-bam Hard Target as well as being a pliable enough plot to metamorphose into howling lupine form for Paul Annett's (yes, Kochanski from Red Dwarf's dad) 1974 Amicus werewolf whodunnit The Beast Must Die.
As is often the case, however, the original stands above the later generations as the best version - and when that includes a Robert Wise movie then in the words of Bananarama we're really saying something.
We open to meet big game hunter Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea in an early lead role, just after playing another stranded mariner alongside Dolres del Rio in King Vidor's Bird of Paradise) aboard his ship as they navigate dangerous and shark-infested waters around the coast of South America. Discussing the photographs of his latest safari-style expeditions (much in the mode of the real life Schoedsack and Cooper, who had shot many pseudo-documentary films involving tropical wildlife such as 1927's Chang: A Story of the Wilderness), Rainsford's co-passenger Doc (Landers Stevens) questions the morality of the 'sport' of hunting live animals.
"I asked you if there would be as much sport in the game if you were the tiger instead of the hunter."
"Well, that's something i'll never have to decide. Listen here you fellas - the world's divided into two kinds of people: the hunter and the hunted. Luckily, i'm a hunter. Nothing'll ever change that."
And so the fickle finger of fate descends to tap Rainsford hard upon his hubristic shoulder, as suddenly the ship develops that sinking feeling and capsizing all hands into the lonely sea. As passengers and crew either drown or are picked off by selachian predators, it is Rainsford alone who manages to make his way to the shore of the nearest island - a forsaken jungle hell with only one mighty erection: a Spanish conquistador fortress occupied by the Russian exile Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks giving a barnstorming turn in his US film debut).
Zaroff courteously welcomes Rainsford as his guest, introducing him to fellow shipwreck survivors Martin and Eve Trowbridge (Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray, both soon to be reunited in the more iconic roles of Carl "'Twas beauty killed the beast" Denham and Ann Darrow in King Kong). While Martin is a jovial - if slightly annoying - drunkard happy to take advantage of the Count's hospitality (especially his extensive drinks cabinet), Eve is more suspicious of Zaroff and his claims that he will soon have his only launch repaired and be able to convey the trio to the mainland, warning Rainsford in hushed tones that their fellow sailors have not been seen for days after being shown the Count's mysterious iron-doored Trophy Room.
Zaroff is delighted to have a fellow mighty hunter as his 'guest' of honour, Rainsford's reputation having preceded him even in this remote and wild locale. The Count, saturnine, suave and Satanic, praises Rainsford's writings on the art of the hunt but confesses that over the years he had become disillusioned with the stalking of animals until his ennui was dispelled by arriving on this island and discovering "the most dangerous game". The somewhat sinister undertones of this great house are reinforced by the silent but deadly presence of the Count's brutish and hulking henchman - the mute Cossack Ivan (the pioneering black actor Noble Johnson, who would play the role of Imhotep's Nubian servant in the same year's The Mummy as well as the tribal chief of Skull island in both King Kong and Son of Kong the following year). Like an erect Ygor (now there's an image!) from Son of Frankenstein crossed with Morgan from The Old Dark House, Ivan radiates menace as he conveys the strandees to their rooms. The atmosphere of dread as accentuated by the tapestry hanging above the staircase - a menacing satyr struck Saint Sebastian-style with arrows, carrying a half naked woman like a premonition of Walerian Borowczyk's The Beast (and though the lady in question was covered-up in the 1945 remake, we're gleefully pre-Hays Code here).
After Martin drunkenly demands the privilege of seeing Zaroff's sanctum sanctorum (the aforesaid Trophy Room) and disappears, Eve begs Bob to help her search for him - leading them to venture beyond the iron door to find a mounted display of severed human heads: the spoils of Zaroff's mad man hunts. "Humans are such easy prey", as the daemonic Praetorius of From Beyond so wisely said. Captured by the Count, Rainsford finds himself prepared to be the latest quarry in this game of death -
"I give them every consideration - good food, exercise - everything to get them in splendid shape... I give them hunting clothes, a woodsman's knife and a full day's start. Why, I even wait until midnight to give them the full advantage of the dark. And if one of them eludes me only 'til sunrise, he wins the game!"
Released into the jungle along with Eve to be the pawns in this "outdoor chess" match armed only with a single knife ("Your fangs and claws!"), Rainsford finds that this is no garden of Eden as Zaroff pursues the pair with his pack of gigantic baying hunting hounds (Great Danes dyed black and mostly shot from below to appear more colossal and menacing). Darting across very familiar foliage (the jungle sets being the same as Kong's Skull Island, this film being shot contemporaneously, mostly at night Spanish Dracula style) the duo must become deadly prey and turn the tables upon their relentless and lethal opponent, who aims to satiate his post-killing of Bob arousal by taking Eve like a pack alpha taking a mate.
The best screen version of a classic story, The Most Dangerous Game is one of pre-Code talking cinema's oft-overlooked gems and comes highly recommended to any film fan who has not yet had the thrill of experiencing it. Remember though, "The thrill is in the chase, never the capture!"
"Those animals I hunted - now I know how they felt!"
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