The Most Dangerous Game

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No, not screenwriting. I'm talking about the 1932 adaptation of the classic story.
You've all read the story, right? If so, you know damn well that a chick just doesn't belong in this tale, even if it's Fay "Get your hands off me, you big ape" Wray. It's a pre-Coder, but as such it manages to be lurid and silly at the same time... and not just because of one superfluous character, either.
It's not actually a bad movie, but it's a pretty good example of how old- school Hollywood really didn't get everything right, despite what some people seem to think. Between this and the 1915 short The Raven a silly and very dull biopic of Edgar Allan Poe I'm starting to rethink the idea of giving up on contemporary films.

alt.flame Special Forces
"The Panama Canal is actually a thing of the past, and Nature in her works will soon obliterate all traces of French energy and money expended on the Isthmus." Scientific American, 1891

Usenet · Accepted Answer

On Nov 1, 12:20 pm, "Avoid normal situations."
[nq:1]No, not screenwriting. I'm talking about the 1932 adaptation of the classic story. You've all read the story, right? If ... very dull biopic of Edgar Allan Poe I'm starting to rethink the idea of giving up on contemporary films.[/nq]
You point out the inclusion of a woman character as a flaw in the original version and yet what is interesting to note is that, so far as I know, every single remake of the movie and there have been many versions, though they have changed countless things, all have kept this single element that is, of incorporating a woman character into the proceedings (some simply jettison the male altogether and let the bad guy just hunt a woman, making the whole thing even more lurid altogether).
The only version of the story that comes to mind and it's not really a remake, just something along the same lines of a "hunted man" story, that doesn't include a woman, is "The Naked Prey" which is simply a man who's hunted by a bunch of relentless African trackers for the entire length of a movie.
It's one thing to have one man hunted by another man for the course of a short story but to draw that out for an entire feature, where they're stuck on an otherwise deserted island and there is no other interaction between them other than one hunting and the other escaping makes for real story problems. Introduding a third character essentially someone else over whom the two characters contend and someone/something that is at stake for the hero other than simply his own life, raises the stakes, gives him somebody to talk to, to worry about, adds an additional complication, since now he has to worry about her, who obviously is not nearly as adept at surviving in these extreme circumstances as he is.
Honestly, as a story decision when the adapters are looking to expand a short prose story into a motion picture feature, I think that it makes perfect sense, and has continued to make perfect sense in all of the subsequent adaptations.
NMS

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Made on the same sets as KONG at the same time as KONG. RKO was about to go out of business and needed a big hit, made bith films as their last ditch effort to stay alive. So may the real most dangerous game is making movies.
- Bill

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[nq:1]The only version of the story that comes to mind and it's not really a remake, just something along ... is simply a man who's hunted by a bunch of relentless African trackers for the entire length of a movie.[/nq]
Not only the best movie ever made using the "man-hunts-man" plot, but one of the best adventure movies ever made, period. I watched this again recently after seeing Mel Gibson's APOCALYPTO (which is similar enough I'm tempted to call it a remake of THE NAKED PREY) and was amazed by how well it holds up. Also, probably the only film I've ever seen that actually makes decent use of stock footage.

Cheers,
B

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]You've all read the story, right? If so, you know ... time... and not just because of one superfluous character, either.[/nq]
[nq:1]You point out the inclusion of a woman character as a flaw in the original version and yet what ... there is no other interaction between them other than one hunting and the other escaping makes for real story problems.[/nq]
They could have spent more time with Count Zaroff before the hunt started and established him as what he is in a less silly and contrived way than they did. A bit more grace and subtlety would have made this less dopey and more exciting.
[nq:1]Introduding a third character essentially someone else over whom the two characters contend and someone/something that is at stake ... I think that it makes perfect sense, and has continued to make perfect sense in all of the subsequent adaptations.[/nq]
Hmmm.
I believe you have a point. (You usually do.) I maintain, however, that the inclusion of a woman in such a classic guy story feels like an interjection of lovey-dovey subplot that just doesn't belong in this kind of movie. You wanna add more elements to flesh out a short story to a feature's length, OK, fine. Extra characters make sense, but having a damsel in distress just seemed so forced and obligatory.

alt.flame Special Forces
"The Panama Canal is actually a thing of the past, and Nature in her works will soon obliterate all traces of French energy and money expended on the Isthmus." Scientific American, 1891

The Most Dangerous Game

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