Graf Zaroff - genius of evil

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Movie
German title Graf Zaroff - genius of evil
Original title The Most Dangerous Game
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1932
length 63 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Ernest B. Schoedsack
Irving Pichel
script Richard Connell
James Ashmore Creelman
production Merian C. Cooper
David O. Selznick
music Max Steiner
camera Henry W. Gerrard
cut Archie Marshek
occupation
synchronization

Graf Zaroff - Genie des Evil (English: The Most Dangerous Game ) is an American adventurer and horror film from RKO Pictures , which is about the devilish hunting fanatic Graf Zaroff, who provokes shipwrecks on a lonely island and then chases on the survivors. The feature film was based on the short story The Cruelest Game by Richard Connell and was released on September 16, 1932.

Graf Zaroff - Genius des Evil was created parallel to King Kong and the White Woman , in which not only director Schoedsack and producer Cooper, but also some of the actors participated. Parts of the jungle setting were used for both films.

action

A company with the big game hunter Rainsford is on a sea voyage that ends in a shipwreck , triggered by false signal lights set by Count Zaroff, who lives on a lonely island with his sinister Cossack servants. The bored Russian aristocrat with a weakness for hunting finds his thrill only in the hunt for people ( the most dangerous game - "game" means both "game" and "game"). When the shipwrecked Rainsford knocks on his castle, he first greets him politely and introduces him to two other castaways, Eve Trowbridge and her brother Martin.

Eve reveals to Rainsford that two other survivors of the shipwreck have since mysteriously disappeared. When the two are in bed, the drunk Martin becomes the Count's next victim. Rainsford and Eve, already suspicious, search the castle and find the trophy room with the heads of his human victims just as the dead Martin is brought in. Zaroff explains the rules to them: They get a few hours head start and a hunter . Zaroff will hunt them down. If they survive until dawn, he releases them. Zaroff initially hunts with a bow and arrow, but when he barely escapes a trap and the two escape into the misty marshland, he follows with the rifle and his pack of dogs . At a waterfall he seems to meet Rainsford and now turns to his female victim, whom he had already announced that love would come after the hunt.

Rainsford reappears at dawn, but Zaroff does not want to award him the victory as agreed. A fight ensues in which Zaroff is wounded. Eve and her boyfriend escape by boat. Zaroff still lays the bow on her, but then falls headlong into his dog kennel, where he is torn up.

Others

  • The (blackened) Great Danes used in the hunt come from the silent film comedian Harold Lloyd .
  • The English theater actor Leslie Banks (1890–1952), who played Count Zaroff, had his first major film role here. During the First World War he suffered a facial injury that made him look striking.
  • An obscene wall painting in the Count's castle, which shows a bloodthirsty Centaur carrying a woman in his arms, and which suddenly reveals her true character, indirectly refers to the later film King Kong .
  • There were some remakes or films with the same topic: A game of death 1945 by Robert Wise is a remake of the RKO Studios with Edgar Barrier in the Zaroff role, here as German Erich Kreiger. Towards the Sun from 1956 by Roy Boulting : Here, the passengers Richard Widmark and Jane Greer of an airplane that crashed in the jungle fall into the hands of two men who turn out to be an English Nazi collaborator Trevor Howard and a German war criminal Peter van Eyck and try to close to flee. A film with a similar theme is Surviving the Game - Hetzjagd durch die Hölle (1994) in which a homeless person played by Ice-T is invited on a weekend trip, followed by breakfast by the hunting party around Rutger Hauer , Gary Busey and F. Murray Abraham is released for shooting. The Spanish film "King of the Hill" by director Gonzalo López-Gallego also deals with the subject of manhunt. In the 2007 film, young people armed with hunting weapons hunt down travelers who have lost their way.
  • A detective novel with this topic is Jagdzeit (Open Season) by David Osborn . Here a couple is kidnapped and released to hunt after a period of torture. But there is also a third person whom the hunters do not expect and who is now hunting them down. The story, which was slightly modified from “Jagdzeit” (published by Osborn as The all americans ), was filmed as Open Season - Jagdzeit 1974 with Peter Fonda , directed by the Briton Peter Collinson (1936–1980).
  • The film plays a role as a possible role model for the Zodiac killer, for example in the 2007 film adaptation of Zodiac - The Trail of the Killer .
  • In the Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XVI", Mr. Burns hunts down his employees (Survival of the Fattest).
  • In the Dollhouse episode "The Target" (01x02), the psychopath Richard chases the "doll" Echo, which was shaped with out-door skills.

synchronization

The German synchronous processing was only created in 1976 at Profilm GmbH. The dialogue book was written by Eberhard Storeck , who also directed the dubbing. For Joel McCrea said Berno von Cramm , for Leslie Banks Christian Marschall , for Robert Armstrong Erich Ebert , and Fay Wray is Kerstin de Ahna heard.

criticism

Lexicon of international film : Famous work from the early days of the sound film, recognizable by painted brochures and the jungle of studios. A captivatingly staged horror story with melodramatic accents that are exaggerated for today's taste.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cynthia Erb: Tracking King Kong: A Hollywood Icon in World Culture . Wayne State University Press, Detroit 2009, ISBN 978-0-8143-3430-0 , pp. 29-31.
  2. ↑ Graf Zaroff - Genie des Boesen (1932) in Arne Kaul's synchronous database ( Memento of the original from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved August 22, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.synchrondatenbank.de
  3. ↑ Count Zaroff - Genius of Evil. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used