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The Most Dangerous Game

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This article is about the short story by Richard Edward Connell. For the novel by Gavyn Lyall see The Most Dangerous Game (1963).
"The Most Dangerous Game" (1924) is a short story by Richard Connell. It concerns a big game hunter trapped on the island of a fellow hunter who, bored with conventional prey, has come to see humans as the only quarry worthy of his skill.

Contents

Synopsis

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Sanger Rainsford and his friend, Whitney, and are on a boat headed for the Amazon Rainforest, where Rainsford intends to hunt jaguars. In the middle of the night, Rainsford falls off the boat and washes ashore on an island inhabited by General Zaroff, a Russian noble described as being similar to Count Dracula in appearance. At first Zaroff appears to be a generous host, but it soon becomes clear that he is a madman who has tired of hunting big game and has chosen to hunt humans instead. General Zaroff's experience as a Cossack gives him the perfect qualities for a dangerous, clever hunter. Rainsford is released into the island's jungle, where he is hunted by Zaroff, his deaf/dumb henchman Ivan, and their dogs. After a series of close calls, Rainsford kills Ivan and eludes Zaroff, who returns to his home to find Rainsford waiting for him. Pleased with the opportunity for a final showdown, Zaroff remarks that soon one of them will be food for the dogs and the other will sleep, untroubled, in Zaroff's luxurious bed. The scene then shifts to the aftermath of the fight, as Rainsford concludes that "he had never slept in a better bed."

Direct adaptations

The story has been adapted for film numerous times. The most significant of these adaptations (and apparently the only one to use the original characters) was released in 1932, having been shot (mostly at night) on sets used during the day for the "Skull Island" sequences of King Kong. It starred Joel McCrea as Rainsford (now named "Rober" instead of "Sanger") and Leslie Banks as Zaroff, and added two other principal characters: brother and sister Martin and Eve Trowbridge, played by King Kong stars Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray. The addition of the Trowbridges (stranded along with Rainsford when Zaroff lured their ship onto the rocks) was one of the film's two principal departures from Connell's story. The other was showing the final fight between Rainsford and Zaroff, rather than simply alluding to its outcome. Yet another difference is that Rainsford escapes the island rather than staying in Zaroff's bed at the end.

Running only 63 minutes, the 1932 film was a low-budget production probably intended to play as the lesser half of a double feature. Its tight pacing, accomplished actors, and famous source material have given it a longer life, however, than most B movies of the era.

The story was also twice produced as a radio play for the series Suspense, on 23 September 1943 with Orson Welles as Zaroff, and on 1 February 1945 with frequent Welles collaborator Joseph Cotten playing Rainsford. In these productions, Rainsford narrates the story in retrospect as he waits in Zaroff's bedroom for the final confrontation. The shift from third-person to first-person narration can, like the depiction of the final fight in the movie, be seen as a necessary adaptation to the storytelling conventions of a different medium.

A second movie adaptation, or a remake of the 1932 movie, was produced by RKO (the studio that produced the 1932 original) as A Game of Death, and released in 1945. Directed by Robert Wise at the very beginning of his long and distinguished directing career, the movie was regarded poorly. Footage from the original was recycled, and one actor from the original, Noble Johnson, was cast in this remake. In keeping with events of the time, A Game of Death changed Zaroff into "Erich Kreiger", a German Nazi.

Other adaptations

The basic man-hunting-man plot of "The Most Dangerous Game" has been recycled many times. The following list (which currently includes only English-language examples), is representative but not exhaustive.

Movies

Television

Television series that used the basic plot elements of "The Most Dangerous Game" include:

Print

Video games

External links

 

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