The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

An internationally famous big game hunter (Joel McCrea), the only surviving passenger of a shipwreck, washes up on the shore of a mysterious island. A Russian count (Leslie Banks, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH), who owns a fortress on the secluded island, offers him the hospitality of his castle. But the Count's other guest, a pretty waif (Fay Wray) who was also shipwrecked warns the hunter that something is terribly wrong about the Count. The classic 1924 Richard Connell short story has been adapted many times for film and TV but often without crediting the original source material but this tight (it runs a little over an hour) adventure remains the definitive version. With its lush island set, the Max Steiner score and Wray as the terrified damsel in distress, the movie almost seems a dry run for the next year's KING KONG. The directors Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack zip the action along and Banks' affected yet batty villain is quite entertaining. With Robert Armstrong (also in KING KONG) as Wray's brother and Noble Johnson.