Rent The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

Early talkie horror. - The Most Dangerous Game review by Steve

This lurid, fairly explicit precode version of Richard Connell's story was shot on the sets of King Kong (1933) by the same crew. An all American big game hunter Bob Rainsford (a slim Joel McCrea) is lured onto the rocks of a remote jungle island by crazy Russian aristocrat Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks in his screen debut). The hunter becomes the game.

Banks wears the devilish goatee that in early horror indicates true evil, with the traditional past head injury. Rainsford proves a wily quarry, experienced as he is with bloodsports. He is accompanied by the Queen of Scream, Fay Wray. As they make their way though the rugged terrain pursued by Zaroff and his hunting dogs, their clothes become shredded in a way that would lead to extensive cuts by the Hays Office on its re-release.

This is a tremendously exciting film, full of action with a great atmosphere as the fog falls on the island at twilight. There are evocative sets and locations. We get a brilliant display of theatrical overacting by Leslie Banks, which really works. A touch of philosophy in the script adds context, without undermining the horror.

The film's most grisly moment is when Zaroff shows Bob around the human remains mounted in his trophy room. Apparently there was a lot more of this but audiences complained it was too upsetting so RKO cut 20m. It has been remade many times, but even in its self-censored form it is the touch of the macabre, the feeling of transgression that other versions have never captured so well.