My newest article at Flashbak looks at the various TV adaptations of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game."
Here's a snippet and the url: ( http://flashbak.com/survival-of-the-fittest-ten-times-cult-tv-played-the-most-dangerous-game-31743/ )
"In
1924, author Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” (also
known as “The Hounds of Zaroff”) was published in Colliers.
This
literary work depicted the frightening tale of Sanger Rainsford, a hunter and
New Yorker who ended up stranded on the island home of exotic (meaning
“foreign”) General Zaroff and his mute-servant Ivan.
As
Rainsford soon learned, Zaroff was a hunter too, but one who had grown tired of
standard game. The hunt had come to bore him.
At
least, that is, until he sought new prey:
human-beings.
Ship-wrecked
sailors, in fact, became his the general’s new quarry. In an attempt to be sporting, Zaroff always
offered his human prey a fighting chance. If they could elude him on his wild island for three days, they would be
allowed to leave alive and well.
If
they didn’t…well, they would be killed.
And
as Rainsford learns as the story develops, no sailors have ever survived
Zaroff’s hunt.
The
Most Dangerous Game
became an RKO movei in 1932, starring Fay Wray and Joel McCrea,, and was
unofficially adapted in the 1960s (with Robert Reed) as Bloodlust (1961).
By
the mid-1960s, however, cult-TV shows of all stripes were deploying the Most
Dangerous Game template or trope -- hunted humans and an evil hunter -- all the
time.
Here
are ten memorable examples of the Most Dangerous Game adapted to
cult-television..." (Continued at Flashbak).
Great subject! Excellent episodes.
ReplyDeleteSGB