#46: The Most Dangerous Game
Hey babes,
How are you?
I have just been staring at a blank calendar for 2 weeks trying to see how I will be able to do all of the THINGS I want to DO this summer/feel pressure to do this summer after a year in quarantine while also making time for just being and relaxing which is what I ultimately WANT to do and as many of us know, doing what we wanna do is not always reality.
š
#46: The Most Dangerous Game
Director:Ā Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack
Country: United States
Year: 1932
Runtime: 63 minutes
Language: English
**As always, this post contains spoilers**
CW: Hunting, death, murder, violence
This viewing experience was a familiar one: a black and white movie from the 30s I didnāt care about that turns into a VERY GOOD MOVIE which is the most delicious way to eat oneās hat. Iāve done it a few times in this newsletter and I canāt wait to do it again.
The opening credits include a shot of a door knocker that Josh had to pause to take a picture of (he is an artist and this happens often) because it was super cool. It was!
Four men plus a captain and a first mate are at sea on a very fancy yacht. Theyāre sailing through a channel in South America. The men include a photographer, an author, a doctor, and another guyāall big game hunters on a hunting trip. The captain alerts them that thereās a problem with the light buoys (little lights in the water that show boats the safe area to pass through re: water depth); they are in a different place than they should be on the map. The captain suggests they turn around and not pass through them, but the owner of the boat (who shall remain nameless because I did not catch his name) insists they forge ahead.Ā Ā
The men talk about hunting and it gets deep FAST.
The doctor (also nameless) says, looking at a photo of himself hunting a tiger, āI 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. Itās a bit contradictory, isnāt it?ā HOO-WHEE yes, letās talk about it, doctorrrr (minus the use of the words ābeastā and āsavageā to describe people, of course).Ā
Author and hunter, Bob Rainford (Joel McCrea), replies, āWhat makes you think it isnāt just as much sport for the animal as it is for the man?ā He argues that the animals donāt want to get away; they get interested in the game.
The doctor says, āPerhaps, but would you change places with the tiger?ā
Bob says, āWell...not now!ā He laaaaugghhs and lauughhs.
If youāre familiar with the plot of this story at all, you will recognize this as a SWIFT AND GORGEOUS (if not a bit heavy-handed?) setup to the rest of the movie. Weāre 5 minutes in!
And then out of absolutely fucking nowhere, the boat hits something and tips over IMMEDIATELY. All the men go flying across the room, the lights go out, and water pours into the hull (? the belly of the ship thatās empty except for the poor men working in it). This made me appreciate (cinematically! not IRL!) the slow burn of the boat sinking in the Titanic. And then the ass end of this little ship EXPLODES as the men flail about in the water and the whole boat sinks.
This little yacht got totally werked. I didnāt time it but this whole sequence had to have taken less than a minute.Ā
Some of the men drown and two men, including the captain, get killed by a single shark in less than 15 seconds, leaving Bob, the author, as the only survivor. V intense. He is swept up on the shore of an island.Ā
It hits me at this point why I had a small ball of familiarity/excitement in my belly about this movie before we started it. I had repressed a memory of a high school class where we studied literature that had been adapted to film; so we would read the books and then watch the movies. Our final project was adapting a short story to a short film ourselves. One of the groups in my class did The Most Dangerous Game and I donāt remember the details, but I remember laughing my ass off at what these guys made. Absolutely diabolical. My group did O. Henryās The Furnished Room and as an aspiring actress, I took it...very seriously? Thankfully that footage has been lost to the annals of history.
ANYway, Bob stumbles upon a stone castle with the door knocker from the beginning.
Bob knocks and, of course, the door opens on its own. Bob walks in and thereās a man, Ivan (Noble Johnson), behind the door who looks very much like my own father. Bob tries to talk to him about the whole shipwreck situation, but Ivan just stares at him.
And then, gliding sassily down the stairs in a tuxedo, holding a very long cigarette, is Russian Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks). He explains Ivan, his helper, doesnāt speak. Bob explains to Count Zaroff that heās the only survivor of a shipwreck.
Apparently there have been many shipwreck survivors landing on the shores of Count Zaroffās castle over the years, which he owes to bad luck. In fact, there are two others there right now! Count Zaroff is hospitable, offering Bob a room and a change of clothes. As he walks up the grand staircase, there is a huge mural depicting the same scene as the door knocker. We again pause so Josh can take a picture because itās even cooler than the door knocker.Ā
Bob changes clothes and is invited to coffee with Count Zaroff and the two other shipwreck survivors: a brother and sister duo named Martin (Robert Armstrong) and Eve (Fay Wray).Ā
Martin, who is very drunk, asks Bob about himself, but Count Zaroff interrupts him to say he doesnāt have to tell them anything because heās a celebrity! Martin guesses heās a flagpole sitter, which I had to look up and still donāt totally get. Count Zaroff tells them that Bob is actually a famous big game hunter.
The count knows this because would ya know that he is also a hunter! Itās his āone passion.ā Huh!Ā
Bob asks him what he hunts and itās just the WORST question you could ask this man because his monologue about hunting begins with, āI hunt a rare thing. I have invented a new sensation.ā Can you imagine hearing that IRL?? There are many reasons to despise Count Zaroff, but to me, his pretentiousness is at least #2.Ā
Apparently, hunting began to bore the count. So now he hunts a new animal...which he will not reveal, nor will he show anyone his trophy room. Ugh.
Martin gets belligerent and demands Count Zaroff play the piano in a display of the worst fake piano playing Iāve ever seen. This allows Bob and Eve to get some alone time across the room, where Bob looks out the window to the balcony where there are 10 huge dogs just lounging. Hunting dogs! Eve tells him to keep his voice low and begins to talk very fast. She tells him the count is trapping them there on purpose. There were four of them a week ago, but the other two disappeared after visiting the countās trophy room. Count Zaroff notices them talking and stares at them from across the room.
Eve and Bob head to bed and Count Zaroff tells Eve he will take care of Martin, who is belligerent and ready to party. Zaroff proposes he show him his trophy room and Martin is IN. TO. IT.
That night, Bob is woken to the sound of dogs barking and someone knocking and trying to open his bedroom door. Itās Eve and she is scared because she hasnāt heard her brother come up to bed. Bob says heās probably with Count Zaroff and she says that's exactly what sheās worried about, DUH. They agree to begin looking in the trophy room, which is, weirdly, unlocked.Ā
Inside, on the wall, they see a manās head mounted like a deer, and another manās head in a vat of liquid.
They hear people coming, so they hide. Count Zaroff walks down the steps carrying a candelabra like an evil Liberace. Behind him are Ivan and his other helper, Tartar (Steve Clemente), carrying a blanket-covered body on a plank. Bob and Eve confront Count Zaroff and confirm the body is Martin.Ā
āYou killed my brother!!ā Eve yells at him in a way noone has yelled on film since the 60s. Count Zaroffās helpers carry a screaming Eve away and tie up Bob in the trophy room.Ā
Aaaaand here goes Count Zaroff on one of his monologues. Listen, he doesnāt want to treat Bob like the rest of his guests because heās a hunter like him. This is a variation on the āyouāre not like other girlsā line and I hate it. Bob finally connects the dots and says, āSo THATāS your most dangerous game.ā Bingo bango, Robert.Ā
In the span of 5 seconds, the count says, āProvidence provided my island with dangerous reefsā and then admits he moved the light buoys to throw off ships and run them aground in the reefs on purpose.Ā
He then explains his schtick to Bob: He gives his shipwrecked guests (*his prey*) hunting clothes, a knife, and a full nightās start. If they evade him, they win the game and he will set them free. He canāt tell Bob what happens when they win because no one has won yet. If they refuse to hunt, theyāre put in Ivanās torture device. No one has chosen that option yet.
Count Zaroff demands Bob hunt with him, but he refuses. Zaroff informs him that he will then have to be his next prey.Ā
The count takes Bob outside to prepare him for the hunt. Eve rushes out to them and decides to join Bob. The deal is: if Bob survives until 4 AM, he gets the key to the boathouse and boat so he and Eve can leave. Zaroff will not hunt Eve because sheās a woman, but if Bob is killed, she must return to the castle with him. They are given a head start and a knife and they run into the jungle.Ā
BTW, do you think making a reasonably believable jungle set would be easy? Because itās just a bunch of green shit thrown on top of each other? Anyway, this set seems really good but I donāt know how impressive that is, especially for black and white film?Ā
Bobās tactic is to create a deadly booby trap for Count Zaroff. They have been working on this forever because they both look rough. They finish the trap and see Zaroff approaching with a bow and arrow, so they hide. Zaroff is a smort lil gurl, though, and sees the trap almost immediately. He diffuses it and calls for the pair to appear: āIf you hide like a leopard, I will hunt you like a leopard.ā
He walks away and theyāre able to run. This ācat and mouseā game (what does that meaaannn) goes on for a while. Count Zaroff finds them again and tells them to look at their watch. They still have an hour left before Bob technically wins. Zaroff complains that theyāve made his rifle useless by hiding in the fog, sooooo he blows a horn and Ivan and Tartar run out of the castle with allll of his hunting dogs. Bob, hearing them, constructs a bamboo spike and puts it in the ground and he and Eve run away. Ivan, unable to see the spike in the fog, is impaled as he runs with the dogs.Ā
Eve and Bob are able to evade the dogs for a while by climbing up a tree. Up there, Bob says, āThose animals I hunted. Now I know how they felt.āĀ Ope!
The pair has to keep it moving, though, because Zaroff isnāt far behind the dogs.
Unfortunatelyyyyy they get stuck at a waterfall. Bob is attacked by one of the dogs while Zaroff watches on. Bob stabs the dog and throws him into the water. Zaroff sics another dog on Bob. Zaroff shoots him this time, and at 3:58 AM Bob and the dog fall into the rapids below.
Tartar captures Eve, who is cinematically weak and sexy, much like the woman in the door knocker and the painting, and the three of them return to the castle.
Sometime later, Zaroff plays the piano and demands Eve be brought to him. Oooohhh BUT while heās playing, guess who waltzes through the door! Bobbyyyyy. Apparently Zaroff shot the dog and not Bob.Ā
Count Zaroff is stunned and congratulates him for winning. He tells him he may leave with Eve. With one hand he throws Bob the boathouse key and with the other, he pulls a gun out of a drawer behind his back. They have a hilarious-looking fight which eventually includes Zaroff's lone helper, Tartar. Bob and this guy wrestle while Zaroff grabs a bow and arrow and aims. Bob is able to not only stop him, but turn the arrow on Zaroff and stab him in the back!
Eve appears and they haul ass to the boathouse. They are able to get in the boat (I'm not into boats at ALL but this one is so cute) while a mortally wounded Zaroff tries and fails to shoot them with a bow and arrow through his open window.
Instead, as they drive away, he falls into his balcony, into the middle of his hunting dog pack.
THE END
This movie was basically perfect. It was short and intense, much like the original story, and didnāt waste a single second to dilly dally. All of the larger themes were effortlessly worked into the dialogue and set and filming and I just loved it! I donāt know anything about the intended message or societal critiques of the original author, Richard OāConnell, but I like that he is not shy about painting big game hunting by the elite as extremely shitty and no one gets let off the hook. Count Zaroff, of course, must die as punishment for being a weird murderer, but Bob doesnāt get off easily either. He finally has to switch places with the animals he hunts, hopefully cultivating some empathy.
Next up is Insomnia, a 1997 Norwegian thriller that involves a murder, a cover-up, and a lack of sleep in the Arctic Circle! This is only the 4th movie from the 90s so far, so that feels like a treat! The only other thing I know is there is a Skarsgard in this movie so I...canāt wait. Join me??
XOXO,Ā
Steph