Filmed concurrently with the much-lauded (and rightly so) King Kong, and sharing cast members, crew, locations and a basic storyline this has become something of a lost film. Indeed, I happened across it in a pound shop and had never heard of it before. But it's great.
Joel McCrea plays a famous bounty hunter shipwrecked on a mystery island. He goes to a mystery castle where his host, the urbane but sinister Count Zoroff (Leslie Banks), introduces him to fellow shipwreck survivors Fay Wray and her boorish drunken brother Robert Armstrong. Helped in no small part by the music of Max Steiner the film switches easily from the opening character establishment to an exciting chase film through overgrown jungle and swamp-land as the hunter becomes the hunted. The performance of Banks as the maniacal Zoroff is a treat and it is also interesting to note the ahead-of-its-time critique on big game hunting with the trophy room stuffed with humans (apparently a better DVD version with a further ten minutes or more in the trophy room is available) and McCrea opining "now I know how the animals felt" refers back to the opening conversations on 'the inconsistency of civilization': animals hunt for food and are considered savage, we hunt for sport and consider ourselves civilized.
All in all this is a great film- albeit on a shoddy DVD transfer- exciting, pacey, insightful and with a great climax (notwithstanding a fight consisting largely of wild slaps to the upper arms). 7/10.
