A Game of Death | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Robert Wise |
Written by | Norman Houston |
Based on | "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell |
Produced by | Herman Schlom |
Starring | John Loder |
Cinematography | J. Roy Hunt |
Edited by | J.R. Whittredge |
Music by | Paul Sawtell |
Production company | RKO Radio Pictures |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 72 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
A Game of Death is a 1945 American adventure film directed by Robert Wise and starring John Loder and Audrey Long. It is a remake of Richard Connell's 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game" about a madman who hunts human prey on his island. In the original story and in the 1932 film adaptation, the madman is Russian, but in the 1945 version, he is German.
The film was originally called The Most Dangerous Game. [2] Audrey Long was signed in January 1945, [3] and Edgar Garrier joined shortly afterward. [4] The film uses outtakes from RKO's 1932 production of The Most Dangerous Game with Joel McCrea and Fay Wray.
Robert Florey was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor.
Victor John Mature was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include One Million B.C. (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946), Kiss of Death (1947), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Robe (1953). He also appeared in many musicals opposite such stars as Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable.
"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell, first published in Collier's on January 19, 1924, with illustrations by Wilmot Emerton Heitland. The story features a big-game hunter from New York City who falls from a yacht and swims to what seems to be an abandoned and isolated island in the Caribbean, where he is hunted by a Russian aristocrat. The story is inspired by the big-game hunting safaris in Africa and South America that were particularly fashionable among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.
Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor and activist. Known for his portrayals of hardened cops and ruthless villains, Ryan performed for over three decades. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film noir drama Crossfire (1947).
Virginia City is a 1940 American Western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scott, and a mustachioed Humphrey Bogart in the role of the real-life outlaw John Murrell. Based on a screenplay by Robert Buckner, the film is about a Union officer who escapes from a Confederate prison and is sent to Virginia City from where his former prison commander is planning to send five million dollars in gold to Virginia to save the Confederacy. The film premiered in its namesake, Virginia City, Nevada. The film was shot in black and white (sepiatone).
Edward Small was an American film producer from the late 1920s through 1970, who was enormously prolific over a 50-year career. He is best known for the movies The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), The Corsican Brothers (1941), Brewster's Millions (1945), Raw Deal (1948), Black Magic (1949), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Solomon and Sheba (1959).
Robert William Armstrong was an American film and television actor noted for playing Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He delivered the film's famous final line: "It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."
Lady Luck is a 1946 American comedy film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Robert Young, Barbara Hale and Frank Morgan. It was produced and distributed by RKO Pictures. The picture tells the story of a professional gambler who falls in love with a woman who hates gambling and tries to reform him.
The Window is a 1949 American black-and-white film noir, based on the short story "The Boy Cried Murder" by Cornell Woolrich, about a lying boy who witnesses a killing but is not believed. The film, a critical success that was shot on location in New York City, was produced by Frederic Ullman Jr. for $210,000 but earned much more, making it a box-office hit for RKO Pictures. The film was directed by Ted Tetzlaff, who worked as a cinematographer on over 100 films, including another successful suspense film, Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946). For his performances in this film and in So Dear to My Heart, Bobby Driscoll was presented with a miniature Oscar statuette as the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949 at the 1950 Academy Awards ceremony.
Sinbad the Sailor is a 1947 American Technicolor fantasy film directed by Richard Wallace and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Anthony Quinn and Mike Mazurki. It tells the tale of the eighth voyage of Sinbad in which he discovers the lost treasure of Alexander the Great.
The Las Vegas Story is a 1952 American suspense film noir starring Jane Russell and Victor Mature, directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Robert Sparks and Howard Hughes with Samuel Bischoff as the executive producer.
John Loder was established as a British film actor in Germany and Britain before migrating to the United States in 1928 for work in the new talkies. He worked in Hollywood for two periods, becoming an American citizen in 1947. After living also in Argentina, he became a naturalized Argentinian citizen in 1959.
The Most Dangerous Game is a 1932 American pre-Code horror film, directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel, starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray and Leslie Banks. The movie is an adaptation of the 1924 short story of the same name by Richard Connell; it is the first film version of the story. In the United Kingdom, the film was released as The Hounds of Zaroff. In the film, Bob Rainsford is stranded on a remote island after a yacht crash. He discovers a luxurious house owned by a big game hunter, Zaroff, who is hosting two other shipwreck survivors, siblings Eve and Martin Trowbridge. Zaroff hints that he has rediscovered the thrill of hunting after pursuing "the most dangerous game." That evening, Eve and Rainsford find a trophy room with human heads mounted on the wall and they realize that Zaroff has been hunting humans. Rainsford refuses to accompany Zaroff hunting, and Zaroff says that Rainsford must become the next prey. Zaroff gives Rainsford a hunting knife and a day to explore the island before he starts to hunt him at midnight. Rainsford devises two traps to use against Zaroff, but both fail. Finally, Zaroff brings out his dogs, shooting at Rainsford as a dog attacks him. Rainsford falls over a cliff with the dog, but later returns and wounds Zaroff and escapes with Eve.
Run for the Sun is a 1956 American Technicolor thriller adventure film released by United Artists, the third film to officially be based on Richard Connell's classic 1924 suspense story, "The Most Dangerous Game", after both RKO's The Most Dangerous Game (1932), and their remake, A Game of Death (1945). This version stars Richard Widmark, Trevor Howard, and Jane Greer, and was directed by Ray Boulting from a script written by Boulting and Dudley Nichols. Connell was credited for his short story.
The Sun Also Rises is a 1957 American drama film adaptation of the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name directed by Henry King. The screenplay was written by Peter Viertel and it starred Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, and Errol Flynn. Much of it was filmed on location in France and Spain as well as Mexico in Cinemascope and color by Deluxe. A highlight of the film is the famous "running of the bulls" in Pamplona, Spain and two bullfights.
A Dangerous Profession is a 1949 American film noir directed by Ted Tetzlaff, written by Warren Duff and Martin Rackin, and starring George Raft, Ella Raines and Pat O'Brien. The film was one of a series of thrillers in which Raft appeared in the late 1940s, with decreasing commercial results.
Three Men on a Horse is a three-act farce co-authored by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. The comedy focuses on a man who discovers he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never places a bet himself. Originally titled Hobby Horse by John Cecil Holm, Three Men On A Horse was a property controlled and produced by Alex Yokel, who reached out to Warner Bros. for financial assistance; Warners agreed to provide financing on the condition Yokel find someone to doctor the script and direct the Broadway production. George Abbott, the director, who had since 1932 directed and produced each of his Broadway productions, immediately saw the potential and rewrote the script and agreed to direct if he received co-author credit and split the author's royalties with Holm. Abbott wrote a third act, resulting in a new three-act play titled Three Men on a Horse.
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The Petty Girl (1950), known in the UK as Girl of the Year, is a musical romantic comedy Technicolor film starring Robert Cummings and Joan Caulfield. Cummings portrays painter George Petty who falls for Victoria Braymore (Caulfield), the youngest professor at Braymore College who eventually becomes "The Petty Girl".
"The Most Dangerous Game" is an influential 1924 short story by Richard Connell. It tells the story of big-game hunter Sanger Rainsford becoming the hunted when trapped on a jungle island owned by General Zaroff, a Russian aristocrat who has turned to hunting man after growing bored of hunting animals.