Ship wrecked Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) crawls ashore on a mysterious island and finds his way to a creepy castle inhabited by a Russian Count named Zaroff (Leslie Banks).

There he meets the lovely Eve (Fay Wray) and her drunken brother Martin (Robert Armstrong), who were also ship wrecked.

It turns out that the "Game" of the title is the mad Count hunting down and killing human prey.

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Reviewer: trumpetrousers - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 20, 2019

Subject: Possibly the finest chiller. From the first wonderful opening credits is seen the same creative force that continues throughout this remarkable film.

At the time this was made the audience must surely have had their meagre expectations blown in a big way.

For me this is the pinnacle of filmmaking. - November 20, 2019Possibly the finest chiller.

Reviewer: Susy Hendrix - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 14, 2018

Subject: Still suspenseful and engaging Words cannot express how much I love this movie. I've rewatched it often since I first saw it in college a few years ago. The cast is perfect, the pacing tight, the thrills intense even eighty-plus years later. I love the suffocating, gothic atmosphere. I love the camerawork. I love Leslie Banks' arrogant, hammy, yet chillingly insane villain. - August 14, 2018Still suspenseful and engaging

Reviewer: Geek Attitude Games - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 27, 2016

Subject: Excellent. I like it very much and I would like to release a board game based on the movie. Where can I find the official confirmation that the movie/the short story is free of rights ? Any help would be very welcomed. Thanks - January 27, 2016Excellent.

Reviewer: TSNL - favorite - June 8, 2012

Subject: INCLUDE VIOLENT, AND valuable educations. INCLUDE VIOLENT, AND valuable educations.

...so not recommended. - June 8, 2012INCLUDE VIOLENT, AND valuable educations.

Reviewer: Media Lover - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 4, 2012

Subject: Still gives me the goosebumps! This movie still gives me the goosebumps... even after all these years and after several watchings. Though done with a low-budget - since the producers used the same set as "Skull Island" from the classic KING KONG movie. Fay Wray, the original queen of screams, does a great job. The story is great and is enough to conjur up terror without all the gore and blood. Watch it!



Also, if you get the chance, you have to listen to the radio show from the Suspense series (there were several versions made though) starring the legendary Orson Welles. - April 4, 2012Still gives me the goosebumps!

Reviewer: batatari - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 17, 2012

Subject: Most dangerous movie I love this movie. But the stories true ending is better. - January 17, 2012Most dangerous movie

Reviewer: luluwan - favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 3, 2012

Subject: Good action!! The whole Nimrod idea of man hunting man for sport is a grizzly one but this film grabs your attention from beginning to end, and the fight scene at the end does the movie justice.

I this think the hunter got off pretty easy. - January 3, 2012Good action!!

Reviewer: Captain Kronos - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 6, 2011

Subject: Splendid, Scary, and Satisfying I sat and watched this of an evening with a friend who has had little experience of the thirties-type horror movie /terror flick/ whatev. She was really impressed, enjoyed it, was creeped out but not sick to her stomach like, say, Saw or the like, and has been converted to the classic horror film. Praise be to Schoesdack & Cooper.



And that is what I have to reccomend this film on. It is terrifying, it is well-put together, the characters were engaging--including a brunette Fay Wray figuring out most of the plot and only then screaming--and it manages all this on little budget and few actual 'shocker' images. Implied and believable sex and violence make for a thriller with dramatic flourish. - August 6, 2011Splendid, Scary, and Satisfying

Reviewer: bluemax0 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 27, 2011

Subject: good film good film i loved it. would recommend it - June 27, 2011good film

Reviewer: admario - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 25, 2011

Subject: Escapist, yeah, but still amazing Really worthy seeing. Very good image. But most of all, evocative of the good and simple old stories put to the screen. - June 25, 2011Escapist, yeah, but still amazing

Reviewer: lottakatz - favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 19, 2011

Subject: This movie was filmed 8 years after the short story by Richard Connell was published, 1924. There have been a couple of authorized remakes but none of the movie treatments captures (for me anyway) the full impact of the written work.



The short story only has three characters, not five. I checked Wikipedia to make sure that this was in fact the first movie of this storyline and found out that this movie was made using the sets for "Skull Island" from King Kong; King Kong was filming during the day and Most Dangerous Game was filming mostly at night! - May 19, 2011This movie was filmed 8 years

Reviewer: mossiemkvi - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 28, 2010

Subject: Most wonderful film Not seen this film for nearly 20 years but not disappointed.Terrific sets and some hammy performcences. What more can you ask for in a 30s escapist thriller?.Fay Wray never looked better while i doubt Joel Mcrae ever took a role more seriously, which balanced perfectly with leslie banks's over the top Zaroff.A film you can watch again and again. - March 28, 2010Most wonderful film

Reviewer: Albert Schlef - favorite favorite - January 15, 2010

Subject: Well, There's no surprise or suspens in the plot (for me, at least). I couldn't quite find something of value in this film.



The picture quality is excellent, for which I give it two stars. - January 15, 2010Well,

Reviewer: Freebmovies - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 10, 2009

Subject: Well Worth The Time! A great cat & mouse movie(probably one of the first in cinema)

If you enjoyed this then you might like Fritz Lang's 1941 thriller "Man Hunt" about a man who tries to assassinate Hitler! - July 10, 2009Well Worth The Time!

Reviewer: mesiw - favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 9, 2009

Subject: Enjoyable danger Of course, we already know good will win over evil but this film made me forget the formual.

I was rooting for Joel Grey to out smart the count. Great film. Thanks for a good oldie. - July 9, 2009Enjoyable danger

Reviewer: jammyb"stard - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 22, 2009

Subject: The most dangerous game? Now this is more like it. Its hard to believe that its just over an hour long. Leslie Banks is hammy as hell ,his accent is all over the place(at one stage he sounds Scottish)but its a bloody great performance despite or maybe because of this. Zaroff reminds me of Kraven from the Spiderman comic and i think hes the Russian with the Tartar bow in Kim Newmans Anno Dracula I read as a teen. I agree with the previous reviewer about Armstrongs drunk hes very convincing. The speech Zaroff gives about after the hunt coming home to a spot of sex is very similar to the vampire Count Mitterhouse in Hammers Vampire Circus. After killing a young girl he proceeds to have sex with the woman who brought the child to him saying "One lust feeds the other". Great stuff. I think watching this movie has awakened my latent homicidal tendencies and right now I wanna fart around on an island with a cod Russian accent, wear a black polo neck sweater guzzle the best cognac smoke filterless cigarettes wear kinky knee high leather boots and hunt square-jawed all American heroes,and im gonna start right now. jammyb"stard -- February 22, 2009The most dangerous game?

Reviewer: Fireball Steve Zodiac - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 5, 2009

Subject: What's the term when 2 people or more have the same idea at the same time? When I was in high school for creative writing I wrote a deathtrap-human hunt storyline like this. My classmates thought the story was trite and predictable. When I look at this film I can say to myself, yes trite and predictable, fun though. And Arnold Schwarzenegger's Predator has a variation on the log trap, riverlet culverts dug into the sides of dirt mountainsides, dense rain forest like atmosphere, lots of predators, water plays an important part in both movies, 'makes me believe Predator wasn't an original idea. Or was it like it was for me, I had never seen this movie until now, yet came up with this same storyline in the mid 1970s, was Predator also a spontaneous thought, or was it a mimic of this film that had gone before and was merely updated and redone. Joel McRea is great as the out-smarting hero, Faye Wray is great as the heroine watching his backside after her brother is nixed by this crazed killer madman. Robert Armstrong plays her brother, a soused intoxicate, black and white shoes and suit, looking upper class, yet affable, and is the first "pawn" to be spent as prey. You will think of him as easy prey. He's very believable, I find people who try to play drunk don't get it right often. The end death scene was a tad , ahem, "over the edge" (sorry) in its mellow dramatic approach but it doesn't last and doesn't have any adverse effect overall on the film. Join them in smoking one of your own 10 inch long cigarette. I think I did. - January 5, 2009What's the term when 2 people or more have the same idea at the same time?

Reviewer: billbarstad - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 21, 2008

Subject: Well worth the time This is a well-made film, befitting a David O. Selznick production. There's no mystery as to how it will turn out of course, but the story is engrossing nonetheless. Terror is used masterfully, from the early scenes of the shipwreck, to Fay Wray's understated dread as she explains her suspicions to Joel McCrea in the castle, to the sights in the trophy room, and finally climaxing in the hunt.



The acting is fine, with Leslie Banks maybe hamming it up some. The Russian he and others spoke didn't sound like Russian to me, but it's been 35 years since I studied it. The directing and writing are top notch. Max Steiner's music is just perfect.



I downloaded the misnamed DivX file. It's actually a XviD-encoded MPEG-4 video and MP-2 audio AVI file. I noticed some compression artifacts in the opening titles and in a dark scene toward the end of the hunt, but it's good for the most part. - December 21, 2008Well worth the time