Pete Wright: I'm Pete Wright.
Andy Nelson: And I'm Andy Nelson.
Pete Wright: Welcome to the next reel. When the movie ends,
Andy Nelson: our conversation begins.
Pete Wright: The most dangerous game is over. Those animals I hunted, now I know how they felt.
Trailer: Anybody around? My yacht just sunk with all hands. Welcome to my poor fortress. Here on my island, I have invented a new sensation. He sleeps all day and hunts all night.
Count Zaraf was so interesting, I didn't realize the danger. But what do you hunt here? I hunt the most dangerous game. The most dangerous game? You killed my mother.
Why, you you raving me? So that's your most dangerous game. You take half crowned men from ships you erect and drive them out to be hunted. Yeah. I give them hunting clothes, a woodsmen's knife, and a full day stuff.
Say you will hunt with me. Hunt men? What do you think I am?
Pete Wright: The, most dangerous game, you, I think this was new to both of us.
Andy Nelson: This was this was a series I put together. I thought it'd be fun talking about movies, with people hunting people. I am not sure what drew me to that particular topic, but I thought it you know, there are a lot of interesting movies that tackle that. We just we talked about some in our member preshow chat as we talked about great hunts in film. But I figured if we're gonna talk about this as a series that we have to start with the very first adaptation of the original short story.
Richard Connell wrote the short story in 1924, The Most Dangerous Game, and this is, the first adaptation of it. And so, yeah, neither of us had seen it before.
Pete Wright: Did you read the short story?
Andy Nelson: I didn't. I didn't end up reading it.
Pete Wright: Did you? I didn't. And I but I feel like I should have because this movie clocks in at sixty three minutes.
Andy Nelson: Nice and tight.
Pete Wright: Yes. It's barely a law and order episode. And I feel like after watching this movie, it's probably going to be one of the best adaptations of a short story we've ever had. Like, it got exactly sixty three minutes out of a short story. That's what it feels like to me.
So I'm I'm interested in reading it. I just didn't have time to get to it.
Andy Nelson: As short as it may be. Right.
Pete Wright: It's as short as it may yeah. Right. Right. I have nine other movies to watch this weekend. I just didn't I don't remember how to read in that context.
So here we are, with the movie, and I would like to start with the setup of the film. We start on a boat. Yes. And it's interesting because we've got a bunch of guys hanging out on this boat going to this miss this place to hunt with one of the great hunters in existence at the time hit by reputation, Bob Rainsford.
Andy Nelson: Bob Rainsford. Yep.
Pete Wright: Bob is a is one of the great hunters of some renowned. They're all going on a trip.
Andy Nelson: I think are they going on a trip, are they coming back?
Pete Wright: Oh, you're right. Maybe they're coming back. What's interesting about it is it feels to me like we're setting up a different movie. Like, this could be a a ship a shipwreck movie, a port in the storm kind of a movie. Like, they they kinda go all in on the vibe of all of these people that are hanging out together.
And then we immediately lose them all and the boat in what is, for 1932, a fantastic crash. And then we get into a completely different movie.
Andy Nelson: Yes.
Pete Wright: Do you do you share that? Like, is that what was this how the setup hit you?
Andy Nelson: Well, I I like the setup. I thought that was actually kind of a fun way to kind of kick things off because it really surprised me that we have this setup for the story that really ends up being nothing more than exposition to just set up our main character because all these other characters are killed. And we just have to know this guy is a great hunter. And, also, we're getting a sense that something is awry with the fact that these two guide lights, you know, these these lights on these boys have been there's something wrong. They're not in place where they should be, and the captain is very concerned.
The owner of the boat doesn't seem to care at all. And so, yeah, so they follow along through these channel lights and, of course, leads them right into the rocks where the boat is destroyed. And, know, so it's setting up a sense of something. I don't know. Maybe it played differently in 1932.
Maybe it played differently for, people who had already known what how the story went, but it felt to me pretty obvious that there was somebody abusing this. Also, we're walking into a film. We know what's gonna be happening. But I don't know. The yacht owner seemed like, his disregard, I'm like, I don't know.
I feel like you should listen to the captain maybe.
Pete Wright: Yeah. No. I didn't. I he was, yeah. The captain, I felt like, deserved more deserved more credit for sure.
I think that's that's really true. It just there is something about the level and it's not very long. We're not on the boat for very long, but there's something about the level of investment that we get into meeting these guys so briefly that, it just maybe it's that we're when we're on a boat, I feel like I'm gonna get a certain kind of movie, and we don't stay on the boat long enough. Like, I want a boat movie. But, anyhow, we end up on, as a shipwreck, and we have a survivor, and that's Bob, our hero, the great hunter.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. And I wanna go back to this this shipwreck question for you because I I have a a question for you because I I didn't read the original story, but I did read the synopsis of it. And so I posed to you this question. In the original story, the our hunter, our character Rainesford is now he's actually heading down to the Amazon to go on a hunt. They're passing this island that is notorious as, like, a place that's evil and, you know, all sorts of dark things.
You know, they always have these stories about these places. And while he's there, he hears gunshots, and he runs to the deck and looks over the railing and slips and falls overboard, and then ends up having to swim to this island. And that's kind of how the story is set up. So the boat, I don't know if they actually end up pursuing or, like, trying to figure out what happened to him. I'm not exactly sure, but I am curious, like, how that would play for you if that had been the setup instead.
Pete Wright: Right off the dome, I think I like the shipwreck better because there is a certain point of no returnness to it. If he slips and falls, there is room for a redemptive rescue.
Andy Nelson: Right.
Pete Wright: And I like the idea of sort of burning our bridges behind us for this movie, for Bob. Like, it's there's no there's no way back. I think the movie made a good choice.
Andy Nelson: I do too. And see, that's the thing is, like, I don't think it bothered me as much as it bothered you, but I definitely prefer the way that we went in the film. Like, having this shipwreck and having what? I think we have three people survive the shipwreck, and then immediately two of them are eaten by sharks.
Pete Wright: Yes.
So all we have is Rainsford who manages to swim to the island.
Andy Nelson: I thought it worked. Like, it it set up the story in an interesting way where it gave us a shift. You know, you could argue it's like Psycho in that where, you know, we set up one story, but then immediately are shifted into something else. That's a great comparison. Well, thank you.
Pete Wright: Okay. Yeah. No. That was that's you've convinced me. That's a winner.
Yeah. So now we're on the island for the rest of, you know, the movie, and we meet our benefactor, Zarath, who seems like a nice enough guy. He's a little obsessed with hunting.
Andy Nelson: Well and also, he seems a little strange. I mean, he has built a, you know, a or rebuilt, essentially, a Portuguese fortress to be his home on this island that seems like a very dangerous place because as we learn, people keep shipwrecking nearby. And we have a brother sister pair who are also here because their ship had wrecked. And so we've got these three people now staying with Count Zaroff. And the the other thing that never comes up when Bob first makes it to the island is like I mean, he mentions that his the ship wrecked.
I you know, you're in the water. How does he know no one else survived? I mean, yes. We he knows there was a big explosion. Certainly, people could have died.
But they, like, say they don't ever say, well, we should go out and look and see if anyone else survived. How like, he never brings up, how can I get off this island? Like, he just seems very content at like, oh, I'm here. You're you've got a great place. Hey.
I'm gonna change clothes and chill for a while.
Pete Wright: Yes. There is no Agita about what just happened to him at all. And let's just say on the flip side of that, Zaroff is remarkably hospitable. And I it just makes me think back to this era where wayward strangers show up at your door, and you offer them bedclothes and a martini. Just come and stay as long as you need kind of hospitality.
And, there are few people that I have in my list that I would offer bedclothes and a martini, if they just show up at my house.
Andy Nelson: Especially strangers. Like, well, yeah, I guess that's your point. It's like, I mean, there are plenty of friends I have who yeah. If they showed up, I'm like, yeah. Come on in.
But yeah.
Pete Wright: Wait. You're here and you need bed clothes? Of course.
Andy Nelson: I mean, I guess maybe it's different if you live by yourself on an island. Like, you could see the person as, like, maybe they're just desperate.
Pete Wright: Yeah. But he also has all of his Cossack roommates.
Andy Nelson: Cossack roommates who I don't know. And I don't you know, I know your wife speaks Russian. I don't know if you watched any of this with her to see if they were actually speaking Russian or if they were making up their own fake language.
Pete Wright: I didn't, but that's really good. I should I should make her watch some scenes.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. Just to check.
Pete Wright: Yeah. Just to check. Yeah. So anyhow, we have an incredibly hospitable home here. Yes.
And all of that we find out is, is grooming for the hunt.
Andy Nelson: Oh my goodness. Yes.
Pete Wright: And we get through this fantastic scene where, Leslie Banks and Leslie Banks, apparently, half of his face was paralyzed, and so he used it to be sin to be all sinister. Did you did you see this?
Andy Nelson: Where No. Interesting.
Pete Wright: That's what makes, his face so kind of off kilter and sinister because when he raises his eye eyebrow and opens one eye, the other one doesn't. It's because half his face is, I think, somehow injured. And In in it real life, you're saying? In real life. Yeah.
Andy Nelson: Okay. Because I know in the movie, half his face also had been injured because he had that huge scar down his forehead from, I can't remember what it was that he said had attacked him. But Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.
Pete Wright: Like a rhino or something. Yeah. That was the Zaroff injury, but Leslie Banks was also injured and had some some challenges with numbness. Yeah. Oh, here it is.
Face he he suffered a facial wound during World War one, which left one side of his face partially paralyzed. He used this to his advantage, exaggerating expressions on one side to enhance Zaroff's sinister look. So Wow. Go Leslie Banks. That's really method.
Yeah. So anyhow, we he has a fantastic sequence where we get to see his his or we get to hear his obsession with the hunt. And he uses some really strong language to, sort of exert his zealotry that his that god made him for the hunt, that his finger was meant for the trigger. And I this is this is one of the things about the movie that I think is fascinating that it really deals with the morality of hunting. And hearing Zaroff explain his perspective from the perspective of somebody who is a zealous hunter, I actually I see how the the story is a thought experiment that asks asks us to address the morality of hunting, and I think the film explores that, nicely for 1932.
Andy Nelson: Well, it is an interesting angle, and that was something interesting that I did read about the original short story is that Richard Connell took the popularity at the time of these big game hunts in Africa and South America where wealthy Americans would travel to to do this. And, I mean, they still do largely in in many capacities, but at the time, it was becoming more and more popular. And so it was a great idea to kind of take that into this story here and and adapt it. But also, as you said, give us this perspective of the hunter as as a figure of power who sees it not just as a means to take down an animal to use for your food or other supplies like, you know, the indigenous people would do, but use it as a source of demonstration of power. Right?
It's not just, I'm gonna kill this this bison to to feed my family over the winter months and provide the skins to use and everything. It's all about I wanna kill this animal so that I can mount its head on my wall to demonstrate I am more powerful than it. That really kind of becomes like, he is he is a precursor to Craven the Hunter wearing the giant lion head on his own chest as a demonstration of power.
Pete Wright: Yeah. Right. Right. And that distortion is, you know, obviously central to the the story itself because he's taken that, you know, and and made it an expression of power and dominance over human because he can't get enough of a fight from the beast anymore. And therein, we find our, central premise, that he is actually grooming his guests.
There is no way out. They can't get away. He says there's no boat. Boats never come, but in fact, he has a boat. And, he he ties them up in his trophy room for a couple of days and then gives them the option, if you can stay alive until dawn, you can go free.
And, no one has ever done that.
Andy Nelson: Right. No. And and we learn. And it it plays in an interesting way. It's not like what I thought was nice.
I mean, I was you know, we're talking about Bob's lack of emphasis about the fact that he had just been in a wreck, concerned about his shipmates, concerned about getting back, like, all of that. But we do have an interesting scene that plays out after we meet the, brother and sister. You know, this is, Eve and Martin. There is this conversation. Martin is drunk off his ass and gets Count Zaroff to play the piano, something that apparently Zaroff loves to do.
And while that was happening, and I thought this was interesting, we have this scene where Eve pulls Bob to the side, and and they sit down, and she's kind of trying to give him clues as to what's actually going on. Like, there's more to this guy than just some friendly stranger. And I thought that that actually played in an interesting way because it leads pretty quickly to that setup that you said of him saying, I'm gonna hunt you. But I liked that we actually have this moment here. Apparently, they're additions to the story, like, the to the film.
They weren't in the original story. But what I liked about it is it gives us this sense that their start at least Eve is. Martin, we don't think is actually concerned about anything. He's just drunk and happy to just drink. But Eve is sensing something else is going on here.
We were shipwrecked with two other people. They have been invited to to count Zaroff's trophy room to check it out and have never returned. You know? And he's he says, oh, they're out, you know, hunting or they're on like, they're doing something else. Like, he has he keeps having these excuses, but Eve is starting to get suspicious.
The fact that the boat that he has and that's the first time in the film that it it's mentioned a way off of this island. He has a boat, but it's being worked on. But I heard it coming back the other morning, so I know it's actually working. Like, we're starting to get these clues peppered in here in this conversation that something is amiss. And I think that that was an important element to have.
It's I mean, to a certain extent, because the film is only sixty three minutes, that shift from that conversation to Zaroff saying, you know what? We're gonna we're gonna go hunting, is is you know, it's a pretty quick turn. I mean, Martin is the one who's taken next down to the trophy room after, Eve and, Bob are sent up to their rooms. And it plays fast, but I like that we have that because we're starting to get a sense of more at play here before the before he kind of comes in and announces it.
Pete Wright: No. I'm I'm glad you brought that up because well, first of all, you're absolutely right. All of that happens in their first drink. Right? That first night, we get everything.
We get the introducing the brother and sister. We get the I'm gonna play the piano. We get the what what amounts to sort of exposition dump. Right? I mean, the but it doesn't play that way to me.
Like, we need to get some of this information, and her anxiety is is right on. That the movie is so short makes it feel rushed. Like, that conversation in a two hour movie wouldn't happen, I think, until, you know, almost the halfway point, right, where we we get to meet the characters a little bit more thoroughly. But it really moves us into the the next phase. And, yeah, I guess, you know, the next thing that feels like it moves fast is their relationship.
As a result of this, we get some pretty of the time stereotypical gotta save the damsel in distress vibes from Bob, and she appears to fall for him very, very quickly in this movie in a way that is less believable, the transition. And yet by the end, it's so it's such a trope of the period that I'm I'm sort of invested. What did you think of their relationship? Because it all starts, obviously, by the fire right then.
Andy Nelson: It starts right there. It, you know, it plays it gets it played fine to me. I mean, as far as, like, the relationship, it isn't necessarily portrayed as, like, a romantic one. Although you do get a sense that there is a draw between them. There is a sense There's
Pete Wright: the thing.
Andy Nelson: There's yeah. It there's a sense of some you know, that kind of cat and mouse pursuit of hunters and prey. You could say that there's a there's a draw that they have of her to him in some capacity playing with that. But I I think that it does end up being a little more damsel in distress, which definitely felt of the time. Like, let's take a woman and put her in danger to the point where, you know, he chooses Bob, I should say.
Bob chooses to take her with him. Right? You know, the the hunt is count Zaroff hunting Bob. Yeah. But Bob doesn't want to leave her behind and is concerned that because I I I can't remember.
Did was it count Zaroff who'd said something about, like, after his hunts, like, he's like, there's a a sense of kind of a sexual needs. I can't remember if if there's some allusion to something like that. But
Pete Wright: You have it's that there there's he has that line. What was it? You haven't lived until you first you kill, then you love.
Andy Nelson: Yeah.
Pete Wright: Right. You know, that's the pinnacle of human experience.
Andy Nelson: Right. Which makes it seem like, okay. That's essentially Bob's cue to take Eve with him because he's concerned that if something should happen to him, regardless, she's gonna be left as the, the woman that Zaroff continues to use every time he returns from any hunt that he does. And so he takes her with him. Yeah.
It does end up playing a little too much like, you know, she's there as the vessel needed to get into trouble because eventually, she does end up getting caught by Zaroff and taken back to his place. Right?
Pete Wright: Yeah. And, the line is kill, then love. When you have known that, you will have known ecstasy. Now I I I think it's interesting that, like, the so much of this is just, like, weirdly manifested love energy. Right?
Because Bob takes her even though Zaroff, who has said nothing to indicate that he's not a nobleman on this particular adventure, right, that he would betray his word. He says, I never killed the female of the species.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. Right.
Pete Wright: So he's not going to hurt her. He was never going to hurt her.
Andy Nelson: Right.
Pete Wright: So why is Bob taking her if he doesn't have this sort of manifested emotion for her? Right? This this he's he's attracted to her and wants to rescue her in in some way. So that that's the part that feels, like, I I just don't understand that the movie sets up a logic that he doesn't follow, and that's not an argument against him. It's that the movie set up an insufficient reason for her to go with him.
Andy Nelson: I I yeah. The and the only reason that I the only way I can take it is that he doesn't I don't know if it's because of jealousy or protectiveness, but he doesn't want to leave her with a man who said, kill then love. You know? And so I think he's read into it like he is going to take her as his new forced lover, essentially. And so not that if he ends up getting killed on the hunt, Zaroff's gonna take her anyway.
Like, it's it I don't know. Yeah. It just that plays as an element that definitely feels the most forced of anything in the film.
Pete Wright: Yeah. And the the practical reason to have her go with him is that Feyre is delightful as an actress, and we need more of her on screen.
Andy Nelson: She's always fun to watch. And it does play very much like like her King Kong, counterpart again, where she is in a situation where she is the damsel in distress and just is needed to to be there to to look concerned and to scream when when
Pete Wright: And great. And she's doing it on the same sets. Yeah. The same jungle sets as King Kong. That's so funny.
Andy Nelson: With a lot of the same cast. It's her, Robert Armstrong, who's a noble Johnson, and I can't remember the fourth one. Steve Clement, is he the other the fourth one that was also in King Kong? So no. James Flavin.
James Flavin is the is the fourth one. He was the first mate on the boat. So those four people had been in both movies.
Pete Wright: Steve Clement was also in King Kong.
Andy Nelson: Was he?
Pete Wright: He was the witch king.
Andy Nelson: Oh, okay. There you go. So you you get the same sets. You get some of the same cast. They're shooting it some of the same time, directed by some of the same people.
Ernest B. Schotzak and Miriam c Cooper co directed king Kong. Here, we have Ernest B. Schodzak co directing with Irving Pitchell. And, Miriam Cooper is, I believe, handling some of the effects sequences.
So, yeah, it's very much kind of the same core group of people working on this for RKO to deliver both of these movies at the same time. Close time. Close
Pete Wright: Close time. Very, very close. And some a similar vibe. Right? When you look at at sort of man versus beast, King Kong exaggerates it in a different way, a different direction, but it's kind of the same story, especially that we get, right, survival versus, or or survival in human instinct and, you know, civilization versus the savage wilds.
And, ultimately, there are stories about power and control. Power and control over fellow man in this one and power and control over the wilds of nature as as crazy as it can be in king Kong. And I think that's that amuses me on some level that these that these movies are sort of ideologically sowing the same song.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. That's definitely an interesting element there that you have with both both these stories and the, you know, the bestial nature of somebody on these hunts and and drawn to the half naked woman. Also, we should say this was pre Hays Code. So as we have Faye Ray and and Joel McCray running around, they're both their clothing gets more and more ripped to shreds as they continue. And so it definitely felt of the era in that capacity.
Pre pre prude. Yes. No. Everything about Zaroff was so sadistic and and twisted that it it played in such a fascinating way in the story. And and I don't know.
I just I enjoyed that with this pre Hays Code sort of story, you're getting things like a trophy room with heads floating in jars or human heads mounted on walls. Like, some of that stuff was just great to play. Apparently, in the, the original cut of this film, there was more of that in that sequence where you had an actual, like, stuffed person included in the lineup of everything mounted next to a tree, and another full body figure stuffed, with the bodies of the two hunting dogs mounted in a death grip. Wow. Yeah.
Apparently, this film had several scenes that people would walk out on. It was too difficult for some people. One was the trophy room where you could see a head floating in the jar. A lot of people walked out. And the other is when Joel McCray is getting attacked by Zaroff's men, and he takes one over his back, and he breaks his back.
He, like, you know, cracks it, and that was the second time people walked out. Pretty interesting, especially in this sixty three minute film.
Pete Wright: That was I I've gotta say, that was a sequence that was, I I thought, really interesting to demonstrate on film, the
the
backbreaker. And to think of all of this stuff that makes people walk out and then to think about the substance, which I still haven't watched but is next on my queue.
Andy Nelson: Oh my goodness. Just wait. Just wait. Yeah.
Pete Wright: Yeah. Right. Things they do in film. Yeah. The in terms of, the rest of the cast, I think we've we've covered them.
Right? I mean, we've there are the boys on the boat, but they die quickly.
Andy Nelson: Well, we haven't really talked about Joel McCray just as an actor before. I mean, I I love watching Joel McCray. He's always somebody worth checking out. I mean, he's been in so many great films. Sullivan's Travels and The Palm Beach Story are two great films he did with Preston Sturges.
Then, of course, he was in ride the high country and Hitchcock's foreign correspondent. He's just an actor that I I generally enjoy watching. And it's interesting because here, like, he's fine, but I and and maybe this is just one of the curses of a story being told so quickly. I mean, he's painted in kind of a white hat cowboy sort of way where it's just you know, he's just kind of a a great guy. And to have such a fantastic villain in in, Leslie Banks' count Zaroff, I kind of would love to have seen a little bit more in in Bob as far as what Joel McCray gave him, but I don't know if that if I can fault that on Joel himself or just the way that the script crafted that character.
Pete Wright: Yeah. It it's pretty one dimensional. I can can I take a brief sidebar on Joel McCray? Please. I haven't seen many of Joel McCray's movies, but I just as I scroll, I feel like it's important that we note that after this movie, he goes on to do Barbary Coast adventure in Manhattan.
Stay with me. Stay with me. Union Pacific. Yeah. That doesn't really count.
Palm Beach story, Buffalo Bill, the Virginian, south of Saint Louis, Colorado territory. I'm still going. Hollywood story, San Fran the San Francisco story, Black Horse Canyon, that's another place, Wichita, the Oklahoman, the first Texan, has the the gunfight at Dodge City. I and and, you know, all of the other ones that are are, like, illusions to places, Mustang country, ride the high country. What is going on with Joel McCray and place movies?
That's outstanding.
Andy Nelson: That's pretty funny. I don't know
Pete Wright: if I would have pulled that as an element of his career. But as you go through the list, there are quite a number
Andy Nelson: of films related to places. Yeah.
Pete Wright: Very funny. Very funny. Anyway, I like Joel McCrea. I haven't seen a lot of them, as I mentioned. I I like it in this movie.
I've, you know, I've I've seen, I have seen The Oklahoman because I had to.
Andy Nelson: And Being from Oklahoma, is that requirement?
Pete Wright: Yeah. That's, my my dad made sure that that happened. Some of the other, like, gunfighty ones, but I don't have great memories of them. Okay. Yeah.
I I'm I'm not a a Joel McCray Americana expert.
Andy Nelson: What about Faye Ray? Have you seen much of her? I feel like I've only seen this in King Kong. Oh, and the four feathers. I did see the original four feathers.
Pete Wright: I did not see that. Definitely, King Kong. She ended up doing a lot of TV late in her career, which I'm I'm sure I've seen some of those.
Andy Nelson: Did you watch the thirties version Mystery of the Wax museum for sitting in the dark, or was that just the later Vincent Price version? It was Vincent Price. Okay. So you didn't see It does make
Pete Wright: me wanna go back, though, after I
Pete Wright: saw that she was in that.
Pete Wright: Yeah. Yeah. The the thirties version. I mean, I'll bet it's it's even more celebratory of the grotesqueries of the concept than Yeah. Vincent Price.
Yeah. No. I haven't seen a lot of Feyre, but I just I know I feel like I know her so well, and I have such a fond memory of her as the damsel in distress in king Kong. But, man, she's got a lot of credits.
Andy Nelson: She's got a lot of credits, and I just feel like she's somebody who I just haven't seen much of. And I feel like I largely only know her because of King Kong, which really isn't fair. I should check out some more of her stuff.
Pete Wright: Well, I smell another series coming up.
Andy Nelson: There you go. And Leslie Banks is another one who I don't feel like I mean, he was in the man who knew too much, the 1934 version of that that, Hitchcock did, along with Jamaica Inn, another Hitchcock film. But not as many films in his career, and I've seen only this in the two Hitchcocks.
Pete Wright: I'm in the same boat. What's going on? And what's funny is, you know, how well I feel like I I have a such a strong memory of these people, and I have not seen enough of them.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. Oh, he was in Olivier's Henry the fifth. I have seen that one. He played chorus in that film.
Pete Wright: Oh, I don't remember him.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. Interesting. Oh, you know what? And I did find out that he did actually have a Russian coach come to make sure that he spoke his Russian in the film properly. So there you go.
It is real Russian.
Pete Wright: Well, it might be fake words spoken with an authentic accent. We just there's a lot we don't know is what I'm saying. Yeah. That Russian coach may be out to troll him.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. I mean, this film definitely feels of the era as far as kinda like the thirties adventure films, especially like what you get with King Kong. But also like Max Steiner's score, who also scored King Kong. Like, I feel like this period really started crafting some really strong film scores that felt very much, like, full adventure. Like, the score here, even even when, count Zaroff plays the score on the piano later in the film, I'm like, oh my god.
The scores become diegetic music, but it's still played. Like, I enjoy it. Like, they crafted something that actually felt very adventuresome, and it really kind of emphasized the story.
Pete Wright: I think it's funny that it does. It becomes diegetic music, and that is the musical equivalent of using the name of the movie in the script, which this movie also does. Which it does. And, you're right. I actually have less of a problem, with it than I do the movie title.
Andy Nelson: But, you know, but the movie title in this film, it feels like something that somebody would end up saying. Like, I don't know. I guess I didn't end up having a problem with it because it just is like the whole concept of, like, I'm I want to hunt the most dangerous game. Like, it comes out as something that you could potentially hear someone say. It didn't feel forced, I guess.
Okay. You found it forced.
Pete Wright: I well, here's here's my problem. Ideologically speaking, I'm on the record as really having a distaste for this. And the last couple that we've done, I've actually found an excuse, a way to rationalize that it's okay. And I'm feeling like my wits are stretched. Like, personally, I can't let too many of these through, even though probably this one's okay.
I just have to
Andy Nelson: say the line must be drawn here and no further. The film was released as the hounds of Zarath in England.
Pete Wright: See, now that's not a
Andy Nelson: bad title for an adventure. And in 1938, they reissued it and called it Skull Island, which
Pete Wright: is like now suddenly, like, are we crossing Problematic.
Andy Nelson: The streams with everything? But yeah. So I I'm curious about, like, the Hounds of Zarath. I like the most dangerous game better. I think it works better.
Pete Wright: Okay. I'm I'm I like Hounds of Zarath because it plays on the dogs. And the dogs don't, don't get off well in this movie, some of them. Couple of the dogs are treated poorly.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. And then you feel bad for that one who wants to make it up the slope. All the others did.
Trailer: I know.
Pete Wright: You just can't.
Andy Nelson: And you have the one dog.
Pete Wright: That's the dog during the during gym class who couldn't climb a rope.
Pete Wright: I felt bad for that dog.
Pete Wright: I did too. I felt terrible for
Andy Nelson: that another shot.
Pete Wright: You know that dog's not gonna make it. Like, Zaraf's keeping score, and he's gotta he's getting rid of the weakest links. Yeah. That dog got in the way of other potentially stronger dogs because he the dog, like, clogged up that little channel.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. Right. Couldn't do it. But you it's interesting because as as I was talking about the outtakes of the trophy room, there was that stuffed figure of a person who had been who died, like, climbing a tree or whatever, who had the two dogs stuffed with him, you know, demonstrating them kind of pursuing him. But it does make me wonder, did they die, or did Zaroff say, you know what?
You're better off being stuffed as part of my display as great as you were for catching this guy. Like, what what is the thinking with that? Does that mean he killed, like, two prized hunting dogs just because they would work better in a stuffed situation?
Pete Wright: Oh, a stuffed situation, Andy. Yeah. I think he got into a stuffed situation. That's terrible. It is terrible, but so much better for the character.
Like, of course, Zaroff would do that.
Andy Nelson: I did wonder about this island because this island, as we demonstrate, you know, we have Joel McCray and Faye Ray. They climb up to the top of what they think is a peak leading to more space beyond to to flee only to see that that's the ocean on the other side. And you get a sense that this is a pretty small island, And yet, it has a massive massive river and waterfall running down it. It's like Yes. Where is all the water coming from?
Like, it's only gonna do that, like, after heavy rains. Like, you're not gonna get heavy waterfalls and rivers like this that can sustain on a little
Pete Wright: Just from erosion, that that river, I think the island is not long for the ocean. Like, it just doesn't it feels like it's going to erode into the sea.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. Right. It's just that was something I was like, wow. This is an island with that has a serious, like, flowing like, quickly flowing river and waterfall.
Pete Wright: Yeah. Yeah. That was good. I like that. I mean, the setting is great.
I I think And I think, you know, repurposing the sets from King Kong, whatever. I had a blast. The the jungles were great, and there is a sequence where they're running through the jungle. And the camera is like so we've got Feyre. We're on Feyre while she's running away, the camera's following her.
And then it turns around, and we're following the follow cam is, like, running headlong into leaves. And I loved that. I loved that shot. That was so great. And and I I almost feel like it wasn't paid off well enough because I it was that camera was a POV of Zaroff in Chase, and I really like the idea of Zaroff being so fixated fixated on this that he was looking at the leaves and not looking down and, like, trips.
I wanted I wanted him to, like, fall up for, but he was too he was too savvy.
Andy Nelson: That was an interesting shot. I it really stood out to me too because I was, like, excited by the fact that we're actually getting a POV moving forward running through jungle and pushing the leaves out of the way. And, like, getting a shot like that seemed like we were doing something pretty interesting at the time. Henry w Gerard was the DP, and I didn't check, but did he also shoot King Kong? I'm kind of guessing because it seems like a lot of the same people.
Yeah. He did. It's just pretty interesting that it definitely felt very energetic in the way that they were crafting the camerawork.
Pete Wright: Yeah. That's interesting. There'd be an interesting series to do. You know, we've done movies in their remakes. I think it would be fun to do set duplicated movies like this and King Kong and look at which parts of the set were aped.
I wonder how many movies there are like that.
Andy Nelson: Which were aped?
Pete Wright: Probably in thirties and between the thirties and fifties a lot.
Andy Nelson: Well, we talked about, that in our member bonus series when we were talking about Little Shop of Horrors and Bucket of Blood as far as Roger Corman. Yeah. We yeah. The Corman stuff. And certainly, several other sets likely were repeated on some of the other films that we've talked about.
Pete Wright: Know have to believe it.
Andy Nelson: Who's done that quite a bit. Well, not exactly the same film, but when we talked about targets, Peter Bogdanovich's film that he did for Corbin, in that film, you have Boris Karloff, who is watching footage from one of his older films. And that older film that he was in had been one that also had like, its sets were used on two different Corman films. So interesting. Yeah.
So, yeah, it definitely happens.
Pete Wright: Where does that put us?
Andy Nelson: Well, I guess, you know, just wrapping things up for this conversation in the scope of people hunting people stories. Like, I mean, how does it play? This is the first film that really featured that, and there have been a lot that have followed. And, you we'll be talking about a couple of them over the course of the series. We've talked about others on, like, the film board.
Like, we talked about the hunt over there. I mean, how does this work as far as setting up this concept? And is the innate sense of this story something that people want to see repeated so often because of just something that is we're innately drawn to this concept.
Pete Wright: Yeah. I mean, it it feels very much like we're innately drawn to this to this concept. It seems like the most brazen interpretation of this concept because we're we're accustomed to, you know, people doing violence against each other in movies. And in that regard, like, all of the slasher horror movies are people hunting people movies. The thing that makes this one interesting is it's you know, in spite of all the booze, is it's sobriety in the concept that this is a thing that exists for no other reason than the hunt.
There's no basis in psychosis or delusion or ghost stories or anything else just for the satisfaction of the hunt and minimizing fellow human beings to in the the sort of ideology of these movies, the mindless animal. And I think that is what makes these things compelling. The other movies that we talked about on sitting in the dark when we did this series, we did talk about the hunt. We we talked about run, sweetheart, run and get duped. One of the funnier, Get Duked was more of a comedy, and it was about old people killing young people.
And Run Sweetheart Run ended up being a a real rug pull of a movie that had a fantastic setup and a broken back end. But both both of those do a similar thing. For whatever reason, they're writing humanity by eliminating the the otherness of these people, young people. And they don't I don't think they end up doing as well as, like, the hunt and this movie because they they have their purpose so so indelibly scrawled on their sleeves. We're hunting you because we're hunting.
We're not trying to get rid of a problem. We're not trying to do anything else. It's just what it is. We're hunting you because we wanna, and that's what makes these movies, I think, scary. I think this one does a great job at it.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. I I think the draw to the fear of the the idea is it works really well. I I'm curious because Bob is a hunter already to the point where Zaroff wants him to stay and live on the island with him and hunt people too. Like, that's his initial pitch. Like, let's do it together.
You're the best hunter out there, and I've read all of your books, and you're fantastic, and we will be chums, and we'll hunt all these people. And then suddenly, it shifts when Bob, again, white hat Bob is like, you know, you can't hunt people. That's that's, you know, a horrible thing to do. But then it really does kind of play into this reflection of human nature as far as like this lie and and there's even that great line early in the film. I was thinking of the inconsistency of civilization.
The beast of the jungle killing just for his existence is called savage. The man killing just for sport is called civilized. Right? You get this idea between civilization and savagery, and it really kind of starts questioning society as a construct and what it all means and what are our primary or not our primary. What are our primal urges as far as drawn to feed, and how has that expanded into something more as we were talking about just the idea of trophy hunting and everything.
Mhmm. And you get all of that, and you get end up getting a much more psychological exploration of humans, especially because humans are so different than these other animals that are hunting just because they need the sustenance. Now it it ties into our morals and ethical dilemmas versus survival instincts. And even to the point, we don't touch on it in quite so much in this film, but you're getting some social commentary as far as different groups of people feeling like that they might be better. You certainly see that more in something like the hunt.
I mean, I guess
Pete Wright: you get a little bit
Andy Nelson: of it here. These are all Cossacks, and there is a sense that, you know, they they seem to be painted as feeling that they're they're better than other people. It it's Yeah. Not as strongly painted in this film, but we certainly see that. And it'll be interesting to kind of explore over the course of this series.
Pete Wright: That's the thing for me. It's that that these movies are saying you you know, there's another movie we didn't mention in the preshow, the purge, that civilization is performative. Right? That's one of the things this movie these movies are saying is that being civilized is a performance that we put on for one another. And when we stop performing, what do we do?
Right? That's the that's the question. And these movies say, well, we do anything we want, and that includes killing each other, because we're all animals. It's just the kind of language we use to talk about it.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. It's exactly where our country is headed right now.
Pete Wright: So we're doing fine. We're doing fine. Doing fine. Yep. Not here at True Story, though.
When we let down all of our barriers, we podcast about it.
Andy Nelson: That's right. That's right.
Pete Wright: At a safe distance.
Andy Nelson: At a safe distance. Okay. Alright. Well, I guess that's it. So we'll be right back.
But first, our credits.
Pete Wright: The next reel is a production of True Story FM, engineering by Andy Nelson, music by Yifrat Shamir, Pietro Diero, Tico Tico, Royal Novella, and Eli Catlin. Andy usually finds the stats for the awards and numbers at d-numbers.com, box office mojo Com, I m d b Com, and Wikipedia.org. Find the show at truestory.fm. And if your podcast app allows ratings and reviews, please consider doing that for our show.
Andy Nelson: Good evening, listeners. Let me tell you a tale of a hunt unlike any other. It was a crisp spring morning when I set out into the wilderness, armed not with a rifle, but with a keen eye for the most extraordinary quarry, rare and captivating designs from the realm of cinema. As I traverse the digital landscape, I stumbled upon a treasure trove, a virtual bazaar overflowing with unique and enchanting merchandise. It was none other than the Next Reels podcast merch store at the Next Reel dot com slash merch.
And what a magnificent collection it was. From the visionary works of Akira Kurosawa, John Carpenter, Sergio Leone, and Kubrick to the haunting blood moon centennial celebration from Messiah of Evil, Each design was a masterpiece waiting to be worn or displayed. As I delved deeper, I discovered more hidden gems. The iconic streetcar from a streetcar named desire, the inviting smutty nose island from weight of water, and the mesmerizing and moldy stained glass from relic, each one a testament to the artistry of filmmaking. But the hunt didn't end there.
I found myself drawn to the whimsical charm of Spicoli surf school or the Ridgemont High logo from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the nostalgic allure of Kelly's Pet Store from Johnny Dangerously, and the geeky cool of Pac Tech from Real Genius. And let's not forget the ever popular Rusty the European Tour from National Lampoon's European Vacation, a true classic that never goes out of style. But perhaps the greatest prize of all was the opportunity to wear the next reel's very own logo, a symbol of our shared passion for cinema and storytelling. And here's the best part, my fellow hunters. These designs are not just confined to T shirts.
You can have them emblazoned on hoodies, tank tops, hats, stickers, kids T shirts, mugs, crewneck sweatshirts, long sleeve T shirts, baseball T shirts, phone cases, totes, pins, magnets, wall art, pillows, and even tapestries. So my friends, I invite you to embark on your own hunt. Venture into the Next Wheel's merch store at thenextwheel.com/merch and discover the treasure that await you. With every purchase, you're not only adding a unique piece to your collection, but also supporting the show and helping us continue to bring you in-depth movie conversations every week. Trust me.
It's a hunt you won't regret. Until next time. Happy hunting.
Pete Wright: Sequels and remakes, Andy. This seems like a long segment.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. You know, it's so big that there's a page on Wikipedia just called adaptations of the most dangerous game. Holy cow. I'm tempted to just plow through it all. This was the first one.
And then are you ready for this?
Pete Wright: Go for it.
Andy Nelson: This is just film. Nineteen forty five, a game of death. Nineteen fifty six, run for the sun. Nineteen sixty one, bloodlust. 1966, the naked prey, 1968, confessions of a psycho cat, 1972, the suckers, 1972, the woman hunt, 1982, turkey shoot, 1987, slave girls from beyond infinity, 1987, deadly prey, 1993, hard target, 1994, surviving the game, 1997, the pest, 02/2004, the eliminator, 02/2006, apocalypto, 02/2017, never leave alive, 02/2019, ready or not, 2020, the hunt, 2020, tremors, Shrieker Island, 20 20 1, apex.
Twenty twenty two, a remake of the most dangerous game, and also 2022, death hunt. That's just film. There's also radio adaptations, TV episode adaptations, not to mention all sorts of other, like, books, films, comic books, video games. It's crazy how popular the idea of people hunting people really is.
Pete Wright: Amazing. Amazing. And we're gonna
Andy Nelson: be talking about a few more of those on our upcoming, episodes. Should be fun.
Pete Wright: So how did it do at awards season?
Andy Nelson: It did okay at the time. You know, it's interesting. Awards at the time, there the Oscars were around, but there weren't many film awards. But what's interesting, Pete, have you heard of PhotoPlay magazine? I have.
PhotoPlay magazine subscriber, but I've heard. Right. It was established in, 1911, and it lasted in various iterations until 1980. But its real peak was in the twenties and thirties. And, actually, I don't think I knew this, but PhotoPlay established what is considered the first significant annual movie award.
No kidding. So before the Oscars, PhotoPlay was awarding their magazine medal of honor. They actually had a medallion produced by Tiffany's that they would award to different films, and they had the readers of the magazine would vote on it, and it would be awarded to the producer of the year's best film. The very first winner, 1920, is when they started this, was the film Humoresque. By the time we got to this film, it was actually Cimarron that ended up winning that particular year.
But the other interesting thing that the PhotoPlay magazine started doing in the, I think the very next year, 1921, they started awarding the best picture of the month. And then the following year, they started awarding best performance of the month. Well, as it turns out, this film did end up winning several of those. In October 1932, it won best picture of the month and best performance of the month for Leslie Banks. Look at that.
Best picture of the month. Of the month. I know. So specific.
Pete Wright: That's I mean, you've gotta see every new release movie every month to do that award. I'm just trying to wrap my head how we could podcast about that.
Andy Nelson: I have a feeling that what they were probably doing is they were having readers of the magazine vote. And, obviously, the readers weren't watching every movie that came out every month, but they were probably voting on the ones that they ended up loving the most for a particular month.
Pete Wright: And between every reader, there is probably a good swath of of movies that are watched.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. Especially because this magazine really was, especially at this time, the twenties and thirties, it was the film magazine that people were following. So yeah. Fascinating. Really interesting.
They they stopped the awards for a while in 1939 because it was, to a certain extent, reflecting too much of their primarily female readership. So yes. Oh my god.
Pete Wright: So how to do at the box office?
Andy Nelson: You know, it did okay for itself. Pitchell and Schodzak had a very specific budget of $2,019,869 dollars for this film or just over 5,000,000 in today's dollars. The movie opened 09/16/1932 opposite Blonde Venus, and it did well for itself going on to earn 443,000 or 10,200,000.0 in today's dollars, more than doubling its costs. That lands the film with an adjusted profit per finished minute of $83,200, doing well for itself regardless whether audience members were walking out or not.
Pete Wright: Well, I thought this movie was great. I really enjoyed my time with it. It was fun. Is it, you know, did it change the way I live my life forever? No.
But did I really enjoy my time? I'm glad we watched it.
Andy Nelson: You know, I really yeah. This was a great film. It's one that I I would love to see a restored version. I don't know if anyone has released that because the version that is on right now, you can stream it on Criterion and Max along with a number of other different places. It was pretty crummy looking.
It was pretty DVD quality sort of restoration. So I'm just checking to see. It looks like Flicker Alley did release it, a restored version in 02/2012. So along with, Eureka Entertainment again in 2022, and it looks like a much nicer version. So, yeah, if you wanna check out a really pristine version, you might wanna pick up one of the restored versions on DVD.
Trailer: Alright. Yeah.
Andy Nelson: Now we know. I guess that's everything. So we'll be right back for our ratings. But first, here's the trailer for next week's movie, Ernest r Dickerson's Surviving the Game.
Trailer: Why would you wanna kill yourself? Maybe I like the idea of choosing when I die instead of having somebody else choose for me. If someone offered you a good job, would you be interested? What kind of job are you talking about? We need someone to help us with our hunts out in the wilderness.
Are you sure about this one? Oh, I'm sure. Has he got courage? Gentlemen, I would like you to meet our new hunting guide, Mason. Here's a toast to the hunters and a prayer for the hunted.
The hunt begins now. It can't begin. No. Let me get the door for you. Go.
Go. Go.
Pete Wright: We're not really gonna hunt him, we?
Trailer: He's nothing.
Andy Nelson: He's less than
Trailer: nothing. You're mine, Mason.
Pete Wright: Don't take any part in this.
Trailer: I want you. If you make it to civilization, you live. If you don't, maybe God will have mercy. Think he's gone back to the cab. None of them has ever done that before.
Andy Nelson: This is delayed, sir.
Trailer: It's that smell. Everybody out of the cab. That might not be rare. Trap well done, bitch. Jack Mason knows he's going to die someday.
Damn it. We should never start smoking. But today, he's not in the mood. This is where it gets interesting. Never underestimate Come on, Mason.
A man who has nothing to lose. Rutger Hauer, Charles Dutton, Gary Busey, f Marie Abraham, William McNam McNamara, and Ice T. Surviving the game. Bird. Directed by Ernest Dickerson.
Ah,
Pete Wright: welcome, my dear listener. You have wandered into my domain, much like the unfortunate souls who wash ashore on my island. But fear not, I do not hunt you, unless, of course, you refuse this most generous invitation. You see, I've discovered something even more thrilling than the chase, something truly dangerous. The next real family of film podcasts membership.
Join us, and you shall receive early access to episodes, bonus content, and even the occasional mailing, all a token of my appreciation. You will have your own personal podcast feed free from the tiresome burden of ads. And if you dare, you may even witness the hunt firsthand. I mean, access the livestream recording sessions and exclusive Discord channels where most dangerous film discussions unfold. But the greatest reward of all, the satisfaction of directly supporting the podcast you love, A noble pursuit indeed.
So, my dear listener, will you accept the challenge, or shall I release the hounds? Visit truestory.fm/join before I must persuade you further.
Pete Wright: Letterbox, Andy. What are we gonna do? True star the next reel? No. Letterbox.com/thenextreel.
That's where you can find our HQ page over on our favorite movie review service. What are you gonna do? Where are you gonna portion your stars and hearts?
Andy Nelson: This was a really fun film, and I think it helped that it was so short. Like, it just feels like a tight adventure story. You know, you've got this paired with something like, like king Kong. I think back to back, that makes for a really fun sense of thrilling adventure movies to watch. This is one that I'm like, is it is it all the way up to four stars?
I don't think it's really there, but I think three and a half is a fair place for a film like this. I had a great time with it.
Pete Wright: I think we're in the same boat. I landed at three stars. Again, did it change the way I live my life forever? No. Did it make me wanna watch more human hunting human movies?
Sure. You bet.
Andy Nelson: I What does that say about us?
Pete Wright: It's bad. I I enjoyed my time. I enjoyed the people, and, I think it's a it's a fun setup for a a thought experiment that is that is appropriately, dark and good for the era in which we live today.
Andy Nelson: Here. Here. Well, that will, average out to 3.25 and a heart, and it'll round up to three and a half and a heart over on our letterbox account, which Pete said is at the next reel. You can find me there at Soda Greek Film. You can find Pete there at Pete Wright.
So what did you think about the most dangerous game? We'd love to hear your thoughts on this one. Hop into the ShowTalk channel over in our Discord community, where we will be talking about the movie this week. When the movie ends, our conversation begins.
Pete Wright: Letterbox giveth, Andrew.
Andy Nelson: As Letterbox always doeth.
Pete Wright: Alright. Did you go high or low?
Andy Nelson: I didn't go either way. I just went with somebody who only has a heart. No stars. What? Doesn't doesn't Is
Pete Wright: it Demi Adijoibi?
Andy Nelson: No. It isn't. It's Robert Franco who had this to say. When I was little, my dad would tell this as a bonfire story. It was my favorite, and I'd make him tell it over and over again.
To make a long story short, this has a special place in my heart. Oh, what I'd give to experience those memories again. That is just like a sentimental and sweet little review. I just thought it was very special.
Pete Wright: You didn't read the last line. I'm writing this from prison. I've successfully hunted 18 humans.
Pete Wright: Love, Johnny.
Andy Nelson: You just took that dark. Alright. What's yours?
Pete Wright: This is a three star in a heart from Ealy who says, if you watch the princess bride and wish the whole movie was just the fire swamp and the pit of despair, then this movie is for you. It totally is. Nailed it.
Andy Nelson: So funny. Thanks, letterboxed. You know, we didn't even mention the the fact that there's, at one point, like, a crocodile walking through the swampy area. And they just, like, casually, like, wait for the crocodile to walk by and then run as if the crocodile is, like, not gonna turn
Pete Wright: the their antenna. I'm like,
Andy Nelson: a minute. Like, that's like, jeez. I'd be a little reticent to step into water if I saw a crocodile walking by. Right?
Pete Wright: Oh, no. That that island was appropriately full of threats.
Andy Nelson: Yeah. Yeah.