In David Fincher’s Zodiac, the protagonist Robert Graysmith discovers that some of the letters written by the infamous Zodiac killer contain partial quotes from the 1932 film The Most Dangerous Game. In an incredibly tense sequence, Graysmith visits the projectionist of a revival theater where the Zodiac may have seen the film. The creepy projectionist lures Graysmith into his basement to look for a poster as sounds from above suggest the pair is not alone. In the plot of The Most Dangerous Game, a character hunts human beings for sport, not unlike the Zodiac killer and, ironically, not unlike Graysmith, who spent years of his life obsessed with finding the identity of the Zodiac. If you are curious about the movie forever linked with one of the most notorious unsolved murder cases in history, The Most Dangerous Game airs on TCM this Wednesday at 4:30pm.
IMPRESSIVE SPECIAL EFFECTS MAKE THE SHIPWRECK EXCITING.
Based on a 1924 short story by Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game stars a buff, young Joel McCrea as big-game hunter Bob Rainsford who is travelling aboard a yacht, regaling his fellow passengers with his philosophy on hunting. After the ship founders on the rocks, all the passengers are killed except for Rainsford, who swims to the closest island. There he stumbles on the fort-like estate of Count Zaroff, a Cossack and refugee from the Russian Revolution. The perversely decadent Zaroff is played with great menace by Leslie Banks, a British stage actor who made only a handful of movies. Rainsford discovers he is not the only guest at the estate when he is introduced to brother and sister Martin and Eve Trowbridge, who are also survivors of a shipwreck. Only Eve seems to understand Zaroff as a threat, while her brother drinks himself into oblivion and Rainsford is too naïve to see past the Count’s civilized manners. After a lengthy exposition heavy in atmosphere and dread, Zaroff’s real intentions toward his guests are revealed: The visitors become “the most dangerous game” after the Count sets them loose in order to hunt them through the jungles and swamps of his island.
THE DOOR KNOCKER TO COUNT ZAROFF’S ESTATE
Produced by Merian C. Cooper and codirected by Ernest Shoedsack and Irving Pichel, The Most Dangerous Game is often discussed as a dry run for Cooper and Schoedsack’s King Kong, released the following year. Apparently, the production of both films overlapped, and the connections between the two films are obvious. Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong, who were immortalized in King Kong, costar as the Trowbridges, while the two films share several personnel, including editor Archie E. Marshek, composer Max Steiner, and scriptwriter James Ashmore Creelman. The sets for the cave, swamp, trail, and ravine inThe Most Dangerous Game were repurposed for King Kong. Though interesting as film history, this context information detracts from The Most Dangerous Game’s unique strengths.
Count Zaroff’s island estate provided art director Carroll Clark with a wonderful opportunity for imaginative set designs. The gothic-style interiors remind us that the Count is part of the Old World, with its out-dated ideas of class, royalty, and privilege. A member of the aristocracy, he fled Russia during the Revolution when Communism not only made his social class irrelevant but also a liability. Certain details of the design reflect or foretell the storyline. As Bob climbs the winding staircase, he notices a tapestry that depicts a surprisingly brutal hunt, which causes him pause. Also, the film opens with a close-up of an unusual door knocker on the massive front entranceway. The knocker features a primal-looking figure carrying a scantily clad girl who is dead or incapacitated. The figure suggests the idea of the hunter becoming the hunted because the monster-like figure has an arrow protruding from his chest.
EXPRESSIONIST LIGHTING
The lighting inside the estate was heavily influenced by German Expressionism. When Count Zaroff descends the main staircase, his clearly defined shadow follows him, revealing a doppelganger. The shadow suggests that the Count is hiding a side to himself. In a telling close-up, Zaroff is lit from below in standard horror-film style, denoting his identity as the monster. Later the close-up is repeated after Zaroff has committed a violent act; the close-up precedes and follows shots of Eve in a tattered dress that accentuates her figure. Zaroff has transferred the excitement derived from committing an act of violence to Eve, underscoring his perverted equation of sex and violence. When Bob and Eve creep through the Count’s trophy room, the very low-key lighting envelops the characters in darkness, which is all the more harrowing when they discover Zaroff’s trophies are partially decomposed skeletons and human heads in specimen jars. The sequences inside the Count’s estate are depicted like a gothic horror film.
THE JUNGLE IS BEAUTIFUL BUT DEADLY.
Once the story moves outside the estate, the set designs are atmospheric in a different way. Cooper and Schoedsack were experts at creating exotic worlds that evoke but do not duplicate the African jungles, the South Sea Islands, or the Caribbean. Misty swamps, dangerous waterfalls, and dense foliage turn the jungle into an antagonist that stands in the way of the characters and their safety. The jungle scenes move along at a brisk pace, using shorter shots and a faster line delivery than in previous scenes.The Most Dangerous Game turns into an adventure film once the action moves to the jungle.
Prior to the introduction of Count Zaroff and his island estate, a lengthy sequence on board the soon-to-be-wrecked yacht sets up the key themes of the movie. I found this sequence interesting, not for cinematic reasons but for the ideas and implications behind the detailed conversation among the men. To me, the conversation seemed critical of certain masculine and/or patriarchal behaviors. All of the characters are gentlemen in formal attire, representing a certain class accustomed to being in charge. One gentleman notes the irony of calling a beast savage because it kills for survival while so-called “civilized” man kills for sport. This idea is reinforced through the character of the Count, who not only dresses formally but also plays classical piano and speaks with the refinement of a highly cultured person. On the surface, he is the epitome of the civilized man. He also orders the other characters around, determining when they should dine and when they should retire for the evening. Bob and the Trowbridges, especially Martin, are not in the same class as the aristocratic Count, who obviously feels his position affords him the privilege of determining his guests’ routines—and their fates. Likewise, the wealthy owner of the yacht feels he is qualified to go against the captain’s strongly stated recommendation to avoid the short cut around Baranka Island. The owner’s insistence on taking a shorter route dooms the yacht and most of its passengers.
While Bob Rainsford is clearly the handsome hero, his comments about the nature of big-game hunting in the opening sequence are wrong-headed. He is merely rationalizing his brutal pastime. He claims that the lions, boars, and other game actually enjoy the hunt and that he and the animals respect each other as worthy adversaries. There will always be the hunter and hunted, Bob says with confidence, adding, “Nothing can ever change that.” The arrogance of his opinion about man’s place in the animal kingdom begins to fall apart after he meets Count Zaroff. Shocked when the Count suggests they hunt human beings, Bob declares, “I’m a hunter, not an assassin,” though the line between the two is blurred. While on the lam in the jungle, Bob finally realizes that a hunted animal runs in a panic for its life, spending his last minutes in abject fear for no other reason than the pleasure of man. He laments, “The animals I hunted, now I know how they felt.” Compared to Leslie Banks as the Count, McCrea is a bit stiff throughout most of the film, but he delivers this line with true sorrow and regret.
The Most Dangerous Game was remade in 1956 as Run for the Sun with Richard Widmark and Trevor Howard. The main storyline in which humans are hunted as animals was also used in Bloodlust! (1961), The Woman Hunt (1973), Turkey Shoot (1982), and Surviving the Game (1994). My personal favorite updated version is director John Woo’s Hollywood debut, Hard Target (1996), in which Lance Henrikson hunts down Jean Claude van Damme.