The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Predator had to have been inspired by something? Well apparently that particular “something” dated 50+ years prior to Predator itself.
Brief Backstory
During the early days of RKO, some classic movies were written and released to the public in the early 30s with near perfect reception. King Kong was one of them, but so was another movie known as The Most Dangerous Game, based on a public domain story.
Story
Shipwrecked on an island, Robert Rainsford and Eve Trowbridge (who’s been there for a while) end up in trouble with Count Zaroff, an obessive hunter who’s gone cuckoo. Zaroff gives them a time frame to stay alive, which he tries to make as hard as possible.
Random Facts
A large portion of this classic does not involve the actual “hunt” – like many older classic horror movies, the characters are given more depth instead of throwing them into the story and freaking viewers out immediately like in Halloween (1978), and even that one didn’t go that route completely. So if you’re used to how modern horror movies just go the way of “releasing the hounds” that’s not going to be the same with this one.
Adding to this, if you’ve seen Bambi before, you might’ve remembered the scene where the pheasant flies out saying “I can’t stand it any longer!!” and getting killed, it doesn’t happen immediately. The other pheasants try to tell her not to do it, and after about 15 seconds or so, she takes off and unfortunately dies. This is how the movie goes – it doesn’t go straight to Count Zaroff hunting others immediately.
The concept of this classic movie has been recycled countless times over nearly a century, either as a retelling or using some of the same setting style.
Predator, made in 1987, took inspirations from this movie. An episode of Kids Next Door (Operation Safari) was also based on this movie.
Seeing hunting dogs going after Rainsford was like Bambi and Faline being attacked by hunting dogs in Bambi. Is that where Disney got the inspiration?
Random Opinions
With all the tobacco usage, I almost wonder how many years these people took off their lives.
The traps make me think of the opening to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I felt like Zaroff should’ve just taken his gun in the first place, not a bow. But then again he just wanted to be stealthy for the first sliver of the “game” on the other hand.
Seems like older horror movies are just better written and scarier. Some of it might be due to a large amount of build-up (something that I haven’t seen in modern movies that much) or something.
Pros
- Great build up to the “game” itself. Sure it would’ve been nice to have Rainsford and Trowsbridge immediately on the lam, but then we don’t get to know much about the characters. Besides, even though this was just as long as Dumbo, it would’ve gotten really boring just watching an hour long hunt.
- I enjoyed the sequence of Rainsford and Trowbridge trying to set up traps. It had a feeling that was similar to Wacky Races and especially the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Cons
- I think the only con I have is that we don’t see Mr. Trowbridge’s body.
- If Zaroff was planning to hunt Rainsford, why not just bring the gun from the get go – especially since it was deadlier? Not trying to downplay the bow but still.
Rating: 9/10 – Amazing
This one deserves a re-watch by myself. I enjoyed listening to Zaroff talk about his hunting fetish and then getting to know about what happened to some of the other shipwrecked people. The fact this leads to a classic hunt in the jungle just seals it for me – this is one of the best movies of the early 1930s. You’ve probably heard people complaining about how horror movies just aren’t the same anymore, and I can’t agree any more than they can. You want to know why? Well watch something like this and you’ll understand their grievances.
Keep in mind though you are going to need an acquired taste for these kinds of movies.
One response to “The Most Dangerous Game”
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No offensive, I wouldn’t call The Most Dangerous Game amazing. It didn’t appeal to me. If you wanna see similar works like this one, try out Battle Royale, The Hunger Games Trilogy & Squid Game.
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