A Game of Death *** (1945, John Loder, Audrey Long, Edgar Barrier, Russell Wade) – Classic Movie Review 3523

‘A RACE FOR LIFE IN A CHASE AGAINST DEATH!’ Director Robert Wise’s 1945 low-budget RKO Radio Pictures thriller is based on the famous short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell and stars Edgar Barrier as Erich Kreiger, a crazed game hunter who chases a couple, Don Rainsford and Ellen Trowbridge (John Loder and Audrey Long), to the death.

This remake of 1932’s The Most Dangerous Game (aka The Hounds of Zaroff, remade as Run for the Sun and Hard Target) is intriguing, eerie and macabre though perhaps it sometimes fails to involve or thrill quite enough. Despite boasting a retelling of the famous story and having renowned director, this is the least well-known of all the versions of Richard Connell’s prize-winning short story The Most Dangerous Game, which was first published in Collier’s on January 19 1924.

Though not starry, an interesting cast helps to liven up Norman Houston’s sometimes rather flat and unpersuasive re-write of the famous material.

The performances of Barrier and Loder certainly hold the attention, and director Wise handles it crisply and tautly, and overall provides a considerable degree of the required tension. J Roy Hunt’s atmospheric black and white cinematography is a big asset.

Also in the cast are Russell Wade as Robert Trowbridge, Russell Hicks as Mr Whitney, Jason Robards Sr, Noble Johnson, Robert Clarke and Gene Roth.

A Game of Death cheekily re-uses the hunting dogs footage from The Most Dangerous Game (1932). Noble Johnson plays Kreiger’s servant Carib and also appears as Count Zaroff’s servant Ivan in that stock footage controlling the dogs.

Connell’s short story The Most Dangerous Game has often been filmed, including The Most Dangerous Game (1932), A Game of Death (1945), Run for the Sun (1956), John Woo and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Hard Target (1993) and Surviving the Game (1994) with Rutger Hauer.

Audrey Long, Hollywood leading lady in around 30 film noir B-movies and Westerns between 1942 and 1952, and widow of The Saint author Leslie Charteris, died on September 19 2014, at the age of 92.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3523

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