Today's Recommendation Is A Classic Adaptation Of One Of My Favorite Short Stories From When I Was A Child

When I was little, one of my very favorite books in the whole world was "Great Adventure Stories," edited by Louis Mirris and (superbly) illustrated by Earle Winslow. It contained Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug," Robert S. Lemmon's "The Bamboo Trap," Michael Gilbert's "The Unstoppable Man," Carl Stephenson's Leiningen Versus the Ants, and Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game."

They were all incredibly exciting to my 12-year-old self—I have incredibly vivid memories of each and every one even to this day—and my judgement was further confirmed by the fact that they were all adapted for the screen at one time or another. Today, though, I'm going to focus on the 1932 version of The Most Dangerous Game, currently appearing on AMAZON PRIME ("In Vibrant Color!," no less) and on TUBITV.

"When legendary hunter Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) is shipwrecked on the perilous reefs surrounding a mysterious island, he finds himself the guest of the reclusive and eccentric Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks). While he is very gracious at first, Zaroff eventually forces Rainsford and two other shipwreck survivors, brother and sister Eve (Fay Wray) and Martin Towbridge (Robert Armstrong), to participate in a sadistic game of cat and mouse in which they are the prey and he is the hunter.
Attribution(s): All images and stills are the property of The Criterion Collection and other respective production studios and distributors.