The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
Sportsman Joel McCrea ends up ship wrecked on the island home of Leslie Banks who hams it up as the moustache twirling Count Zaroff, who hunts humans as prey and collects their heads as wall displays.
Filmed by many of the team behind King Kong, using the same jungle sets and Fay Wray, The Most Dangerous Game looks teriffic and is a sprightly affair. Banks may seem like a cliche but he's actually very good, forever scratching a dueling scar on his face as he concocts his nefarious safari. It's just a shame he played basically the same lip smacking role in the British thriller The Door With Seven Locks a mere eight years later.
The young Joel McCrea initially seems out of his depth, maybe it's with not having Randolph Scott alongside him, but steadily grows into the role but Wray, who starts off delightfully resorts to screaming once the action hits the island forest.
The Most Dangerous Game isn't a film i've watched many times, but it was one that on this occasion i thoroughly enjoyed.
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