The Most Dangerous Game (The Criterion Collection)

Grand movie from the days when Hollywood actually made movies, instead of putting video games into video...Great cast...Leslie Banks as the creepy Count Zaroff, Joel McCrea as our intrepid hero, and the ever lovely Fay Wray. I read the short story when I was about ten (I think it was reprinted in Boys' Life?) and was enthralled with the entire theme...shipwrecked on a desert island, a crazy Cossack trying to hunt you down, using your wits and fieldcraft to outsmart him and survive...great stuff for a boy' active imagination. No, the movie doesn't follow the short story very well, but they are different works...the cinematic work develops on the literary work, taking themes, direction, and inspiration from it, but seldom are they, or intended to be, copies of each other...but I digress. This was made when matinee idols did their own stunts, when actions spoke louder than words, when being hunted by a madman meant you went into action instead of looking for a safe space...a rollicking good time from Hollywood's Golden Age...I would give this one more than five stars if I could...as an aside, this movie was shot on the same set as another Fay Wray vehicle, King Kong...in fact, the two movie shootings overlapped, often filming on the same days...one shooting in the morning, one in the evening. Most Dangerous Game was released first, in 1932, as Kong went longer in post production

The folks who made this did King Kong next and there’s some familiarity between the two from the cast to a running through the jungle scene. The quality for a 30’s movie was pretty decent and the colorization was actually one of the better ones and was a real asset to the movie. At about an hour long it gets to the point fast with a decent script and some good acting along with some action scenes reminiscent of those from the early Tarzan movies. Movies are a vehicle of escape from reality so don’t look for everything to be believable or logical… just sit back and enjoy one hunter hunting another hunter because that’s a pretty common theme in a lot of more current films.

The cinematography and sets were fantastic - Mysterious castle on a isolated jungle island.The polite, refined gentlemanly occupant.The house where you can get a good drink and play the piano.Love the door knocker and the big globe.Good villain, intelligent story, well told.You can't even count how many times this story has been redone!

The entire movie was predictable, redundant, and too contrived.The trivia held that the movie was highly acclaimed. Also claimed that the actor who played the Russian Count was a very famous actor for many years.I was bored enough to keep pausing the video watch something else on YouTube. I decided to watch the second half, but I was so bored I ended up scrolling through it to the end.

I have a bit of experience with Legend Films including the original Harryhausen films and the "She"/ "Things to Come" double release and have always been pleased, if not totally amazed at the quality of their work. Their colorization process was light years ahead of the previous generations and close enough to the older color film processes of the era that their films could almost pass for real color. So it was with this optimism borne of experience that I ordered "The Most Dangerous Game". What a disappointment!! The sharp images and color I have come to expect simply aren't there. Blurred images and color bleed are prevalent and too many scenes have been partially colorized with large areas left in their natural black and white. This movie looks more like it was done by the old colorization process than the Legend quality I have come to expect. I hope this isn't an indication of things to come because I have greatly enjoyed Legend products and was looking forward to owning more. Now I'll just have to wait and see if "the Most Dangerous Game" was an anomaly or an indication of Legend's future direction.

I feel I'm being very "kind" in giving it a 3-star rating. I know it was made a very long time ago, and the colorized version (the DVD gives you both versions - B&W as well as color) was very well done and the film itself was sharp & crisp. Although the film was quite short (a little over 60 minutes), it was entertaining; but the very ending was totally stupid - General Zaroff, already mortally wounded by Rainsford, supposedly "falls to his death in a dog's den, housing his pack of wild dogs - dogs that followed him unquestioningly earlier in the film; so why wouldn't they "recognize" him at the end - mortally wounded or not...?? The value of this film comes from the original short story put into film format - had the producer(s) actually followed the original short story line, this would've been a superb film, albiet the lack of technology at the time this film was made. But, they screwed it up to a certain degree and made it a less enjoyable film compared to what it could've been. Still, it was a uniquely-made film for it's day and you have to give some credit there. I don't regret having bought it, but it's a film I'm not going to watch a lot, over and over again.

Very very atmospheric, and fay wray is as always an absolute treat!well worth watching

this movie was released in theaters when my late-dad was a youngster, that being said, i founded to be a terrific adventure movie which contained, great editing (only 62 minutes), and pretty good acting from joel mcrae..although you still can see the other actors showing the dramatic skills of the silent era still...alll in all not bad at all...enjoyed it very much...a precursor to kong perhaps?...with a dark hair fay wray..i wonder how the great kong felt about that?....

Insane hunter played by Leslie Banks is on an island and orders shipwrecks as so survivors will be stranded on his island. Here he 'beefs' them up so to speak before hunting them, because animal hunting has become so boring. Fay Wray and Joel McCrea play the humans being hunted in the jungle. It's quite tame stuff but with this movie being made in 1932 it was always going to be. However the bodycount actually doesn't come from any hunting at all but from the actual shipwreck at the beginning where we see a shark attack a sailor, blood n' all.The setting in the eerie castle is done well and Wray lets out her infamous screams KING KONG style, indeed many of the sets in this movie have been used from the same film. Banks as the hunter is usually good however his Russian accent wavers between a few countries, most notably a hint of Scottish. The chase scene is the outstanding segment and the movie was directed by two directors. The only real down side to the movie is that it all ends in very predictable fair, even though Zaroff the killer isn't one too lie down too easily.This edition comes with a great picture and we have the choice to watch in original black and white or colour. The colour is literally stunning. You would never know, trust me. Also included is a Ray Harryhusen very short interview, some documents on screen and a trailer.

Very poor quality picture, unwatchable!

Great price - fast delivery

Great

absolutely first class