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Most Dangerous Game (The)
R1 - America - Legend Films Review written by and copyright: Shane Roberts & Noor Razzak (2nd January 2009). |
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The Film
 After the boat he’s travelling on runs aground and sinks, famous big game hunter Robert Rainsford (Joel McCrea) washes ashore on the private island of Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks), himself a keen hunter, and is invited to stay at his mansion. Once there he meets other recent shipwreck victims Eve Trowbridge (Fay Wray) and her brother Martin (Robert Armstrong) and realizes that mishaps at sea are common around Zaroff’s island. But, where have all the other survivors disappeared to, why can’t they see Zaroff’s trophy room, and what exactly is this most dangerous game Zaroff talks of hunting now that he’s bored of animals? Once Robert finds out he and Eve are given a 12 hour head start and told if they evade the Count until dawn they can go free, and if not, he’ll have a new trophy. If you’ve ever seen any of the many variations and remakes of this story and wondered where they originated well, this is it. Based on a 1924 short story by Richard Connell it must be one of the most copied stories of the last 75 years from films like "A Game of Death" (1945) with John Loder and It seems familiar and pretty tame these days but to the cinema goers of the early 1930's this was close to a horror with reported incidents of people fainting or leaving the theatre after scenes involving a shark attack and the severed heads in Zaroff’s trophy room. There are even a few similarities to Tod Browning’s "Dracula" (1931) and James Whale’s "Frankenstein" (1931) that had both been huge hits the previous year; the isolated location, ‘Count’ Zaroff’s gothic mansion/castle, his hulking mute manservant Ivan. Banks’ wide-eyed and Lugosi-like performance must have kept people who were unfamiliar with the short story guessing as to where this tale was going (although Rainsford’s speech saying “I’ll always be the hunter, never the hunted” seconds before the boat sinks may have given them a clue). To be fair to Leslie Banks, his over theatrical style was still common at that time in actors who had been used to the style needed for silent movies and were still getting used to the talkies that were only a few years old. Fans of the original "King Kong" (1933) will notice a lot of familiar names on this film. Co-directors Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack shot this one, mostly at night, on the same jungle sets they were using for "King Kong" during the day (although "Kong" would be released a year later). Three of the main actors, most of the cast and crew including composer Max Steiner, screenwriter James Ashmore Creelman, art director Carroll Clark and set decorator Thomas Little all worked on "Kong." Luckily after years where all copies were thought to have been lost or destroyed, one print was found in the mid 1970's and restored so this early action classic wouldn’t disappear for good. It deserves to be checked out by anyone who is a fan of the genre.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.33:1 much like other Legend Films releases comes in two varieties - colorized version and the original black and white. The overall transfer quality (both versions) seem to come from the same source. I've found previous releases from Legend to be rather good and despite the age of these films the transfer (mostly the black and white) tend to hold up rather well (of course they're not perfect). This film does not look good at all, the image doesn't seem to have been restored, as it's soft, grainy, lacking in depth and occasionally the image has pixels and jagged edges. Not a good start. The blacks are not as deep as they could be and the grey tones are flat. Whites are decent but can be a bit noisy. The color version is to be skipped altogether, while the colorization process itself has improved over the years the image looks and feels unnatural; skin tones appear waxy and hair color is off. You're better off watching the film in its original black and white even though the image could use some extra care.
Audio
Whichever version you choose to view the film is available in English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono only. This is the film's original soundtrack and this track isn't the best. While dialogue is clear the overall track has some slight hiss to it. There were a couple of dropouts in-between scenes but nothing major. While some of the flaws can be forgiven due to the age of the film, I can't see why Legend didn't take the time to fully restore the soundtrack? Or maybe they did and this was the best they could so? There are no optional subtitles available on this disc.
Extras
Legend Films has included a series of interviews and bonus trailers on this disc. Below is a closer look at those supplements. "Ray Harryhausen on the Importance of a Movie Score" interview which runs for 2 minutes 31 seconds, the film legend talks about the impact of a film's score and what it adds to a scene and on the film as a whole. He also comments on the great composers he worked with and how they enhanced the visual image. "James V. D'Arc: Curator Merian C. Cooper Papers, BYU" interview runs for 4 minutes 29 seconds. Talks about the great Merian C. Cooper, on his career pre-film and his film career starting with documentaries and his later films. He talks about how Cooper cared a lot about the 'look' of films, production design, also on the music which Cooper used mainly his collaboration with Max Steiner among other things. "John Morgan, Composer on Max Steiner" interview which runs for 7 minutes 15 seconds. Morgan comments on meeting Steiner, on composing music for film and his influences. He talks about the three most important composers in film in the early 30's of which Steiner was one of them and how everything composers do today was established by Steiner among other things. Rounding out the extras are a couple of bonus trailers for: - "Things to Come" which runs for 1 minute 40 seconds. - "She" which runs for 1 minute 27 seconds.
Overall
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