Rating: 
Summary: Excellent early-talkie thriller
Review: If I were making an action adventure movie, I would study Irving Pichel's THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. Granted, it's almost eighty years old, but it has all the elements of a great thriller.
It begins with a shipwreck and Great White Hunter Joel McCrea swimming through shark infested waters (the hunter as prey) to the shore of a small island. On the island is a creepy old castle owned by Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks) and attended by bearded and cossacked fellows with names like Ivan (Ee-von) and Tartar. Zaroff has a nasty forehead scar, chronic headaches, and a bad case of the hams. Also in attendance are beautiful young Fay Wray and her souse brother Robert Armstrong.
The clock's running down on brother Robert and Wray and McCrea share a worried conversation. By the time act three opens brother Robert is missing, Wray and McCrea stumble across a spooky item in a vat of formaldehyde and Count Zaroff makes the couple an offer they can't refuse.
The last third of the film is pure chase and very well done.
THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME is one of those movies that is so well made, so lean and economical, that you can't find a scene or a shot that could be deleted without doing harm. The beautiful and vulnerable Wray and the handsome and virile McCrea are perfect as the endangered couple, Banks rightly goes a bit over the top as the eye-popping madman.
Good news for the budget conscious: the print quality on the Alpha disk is excellent, with rich blacks and a full range of gray tones. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Very amusing horror-adventure film
Review: "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932) aka (in Britain) as "The Hounds of Zaroff" was filmed simultaneously-and using some of the same sets and actors (Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Noble Johnson)-with "King Kong" (1933), although the latter's shooting took much longer, being a grade "A" Super production with a huge budget and awesome special effects (for its time).
At only 62 or 63 minutes of complete running-time, the film is obviously fastly paced & non-stop entertainment. It tells the story of the sole survivor from a shipwreck, hunting-expert Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea), who manages to arrive to a nearby mysterious island, which is only inhabited by Russian Nobleman, Count Zaroff (expertly played by british actor Leslie Banks in his talkie-film début) and his exotic servants, among them a very scary Noble Johnson, impersonating a Cossack. The Count lives in an intimidating fortress, built centuries ago by Portuguese navigators, where he meets the Trowbridge brothers (Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong), survivors from yet another shipwreck.
Leslie Banks gives the most notorious performance of the movie and is most effective as the villain of the story; Fay Wray confirms why she was the beautiful "queen of the screaming victims" during the early 1930s (other films include "Dr. X", "The Mystery of the Wax Museum" and the aforementioned "King Kong"); Joel McCrea is great (& youthful) as the the good-natured hero and Robert Armstrong (wearing a moustache) is quite annoying as Wray's drunken brother.
The film was released during the Pre-Code era, so there are aspects not to be found on horror or adventure films produced during the enforcement of the Production Code, especially related to Zaroff's somewhat indirect allusions to the effects of hunting in a man's sexual libido. I won't tell anymore about the story or these aspects in order not to spoil the surprises.
The film has a very good score by Max Steiner, which wasn't usual (film scores) in those days.
The Criterion Edition's transfer is excellent, beautiful, sharp and crisp, and the featured commentary is highly informative.
Rating: 
Summary: REALLY Slow Start Nearly Did Me In
Review: "The Most Dangerous Game" is one of those really inspired titles that works on two levels: this contest is surely to the brutal finish, and that's because the prey is that most dangerous of all because of cunning, man. When the actual chase is on, the movie is at its best, but my goodness, what a perfectly awful opening sequence of yachtsmen unknowingly floating to shipwreck on the shoals. And then, Robert Armstrong gives a perfectly awful rendition of a drunk once we and Joel McCrea arrive at the sinister hunting lodge/castle of the Creep. Of course, another guest of the Creep's is Fay Wray, looking a bit different in a dark wig instead of the more familiar gold in "King Kong".Before long the Creep tells Joel McCrea that isn't lucky Joel is a big game hunter, because so is the Creep. Well, I bet it won't take you as long as Joel to figure out what the Creep is thinking about, especially when he drops a line about how animals are much more ready for love-making after they've killed something else, casting sidelong glances at the nervous Fay. I must admit, though, that I had the impression that Joel was really the one more in danger of the Creep's unwanted advances than Fay, if you know what I mean. One thing leads to another, and the chase is on, right across the jungle set of "King Kong", which was made by the same folks and is a far superior film all the way round. But the photography in the swamp is wonderfully atmospheric, I'll grant you. All in all, "The Most Dangerous Game" gets off to a poor start and didn't win or place as far as I was concerned.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun but campy...
Review: ...but then again it was made 67 years ago. Widescreen wasn't invented there ain't much your missing. One thing though. It's a good movie and way ahead of it's time (even if it's only 62 minutes long) and I was pleasantly surprised. It's the first ever movie in which humans are hunted for sport. I reccomend you buy it. Seriously...it's cool
Rating:
Summary: MAN IS THE MOST SAVAGE OF BEASTS, AND CONNELL PROVES IT!
Review: A classic game of cat and mouse! The reader rides the edge of a precipice with the protagonist as the tables turn again and again. Psychologically modern in its examination of the battle between the ID and EGO. Great for students at the 7th grade level or above.
Rating:
Summary: Department of Morbid Details
Review: Apparently a favorite of the never-captured Zodiac Killer, who wore a costume based on the hunter's outfit in this film.
Rating:
Summary: Manhunt in Kong's Jungle.
Review: Bob, a big-game hunter shipwrecked off a remote island, encounters Zaroff (Leslie Banks). Typical of guys named "Bob," Bob (Joel McCrea) is handsome and rugged. Zaroff is wide-eyed and quite mad on the subject of hunting. Finding that animals are a lesser challenge, Zaroff moved on to hunting humans. Zaroff's houseguests, Eve (Fay Wray) and her drunken brother Martin (Robert Armstrong), were also shipwrecked. It seems that Zaroff keeps moving the buoys. Since Bob is a famous hunter, Zaroff finds particular pleasure in making him the prey. After Martin disappears, Bob and the delectable Eve get a head start. Zaroff releases the pack, and the grim fun begins. If nothing else, this old movie proves that it is possible to make a great action/suspense flick without fiery explosions, computer-generated FX, and stylized violence. Since some of the same people who made "King Kong" also made this flick, it has a familiar look, even for a first time viewer. For example, Bob and Eve race across the log bridge where Kong encountered the sailors, albeit from the opposite direction. Eve wears a tattered dress, much the same as the famous one in "Kong." Nobody looks better in revealing rags than Fay Wray. There aren't any giant monsters running through this murky jungle. Zaroff is monstrous enough. Finally, Zaroff gets the point of the real danger. The stone-faced Noble Johnson is around as one of Zaroff's menacing minions. The story races right along and doesn't waste time on subplots. Based on the often-anthologized story by Richard Connell, this little film is a good change of pace. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: fine adventure-thriller
Review: Fay Wray, Joel McCrea and Leslie Banks star in the entetaining adventure-thriller THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. Wray and McCrea are two people stranded on a lush tropical island, inhabited by the mad Count Zaroff who has a very strange hobby. He hunts humans, and proposes a dangerous mission in that if they survive, they will be free to leave the island. If not, Wray is his, and McCrea will be killed... A fast-moving finale makes up for the creaky, talky start. The story really gets going after the first forty mintutes. With Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson and Hale Hamilton.
Rating:
Summary: DEADLIER THAN THE HUNTER....
Review: Florid and exciting film of Richard Connell's famous short story stars Leslie Banks as the mad Count Zaroff, a Cossack big game hunter who has discovered a superior form of prey: humans. He resides in a castle on a remote island where he has arranged to alter the courses of ships passing nearby so that they inadvertantly wander into his domain. Inevitably, they crash and the survivors are treated to royal hospitality before they are hunted down on the island one by one by Zaroff. He then mounts their heads in his locked Trophy Room. Joel McCrea and Fay Wray are next on his agenda using a bizarre sex angle: the male of the species will be hunted down and killed and the female saved as the "prize" to be ravaged in bloodlust fury. A hideous prospect either way. Banks is magnificent as Zaroff, so demonically diabolic in his ultra civilized manner---not only is he the perfect host, he even plays classical piano. McCrea is blah in a handsome way and Wray the perfect damsel in very dire distress. Robert(R.G.)Armstrong is featured as Wray's soused braggart brother who winds up as human prey early on. He would team with Wray in "King Kong" also in production at the same time as "Game". In fact, this would be a perfect companion peice to "Kong". Criterion has "Game" restored in a beautiful print and sound. It's a must for collectors. Now when will someone get around to doing the same justice for "Kong"? We can only wait and hope.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most effective horror films of the 1930s
Review: I keep forgetting that Fay Wray made dozens of films before "King Kong," including this 1932 film which proves that you do not need special effects or lots of make-up to create a monster that will frighten audiences. Leslie Banks is Count Zaroff, a mad nobleman who has grown tired of hunting big game and decides to stalk human beings instead. Providence proves most accommodating when shipwrecked on the island are Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea), a famous big-game hunter, Eve Towbridge (Wray), and Martin (Robert Armstrong). After a few diverting attempts at hospitality, Zaroff sends the trio off into the jungle to try surviving until sunrise and the fun begins in earnest. I give high marks for the tense and atmospheric direction by Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack, but I must admit to be bothered by what Hollywood did to Richard Connell's classic short story of the hunter and hunted. Yes, the original has General Zaroff hunting a world famous big-game hunter (named Sanger Rainsford in the story), and there is certainly something compelling about the hunter now becoming the prey (not to mention the hunter's prey becoming the hunter of the hunter hunting the prey...if you know what I mean). But tossing two more characters into the picture is hardly cricket, the equivalent of hunting a lion and strapping a couple of manikins to its back. Of course with three people out in the jungle you can lose one of them (gee, you will never guess which one) and still have fun and a touch of romance. But while I am disparaging of these tacky Hollywood tack-ons, "The Most Dangerous Game" has a primal elegance that makes this one of the most effective horror films of the 1930s.
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