''A Game of Death'' is a 1945 American
adventure film directed by
Robert Wise
Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American film director, producer, and editor. He won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of ...
and starring
John Loder and
Audrey Long
Audrey Gwendoline Long (April 14, 1922 – September 19, 2014) was an American stage and screen actress of English descent, who performed mainly in low-budget films in the 1940s and early 1950s. Some of her more notable film performances are in '' ...
. It is a remake of
Richard Connell
Richard Edward Connell Jr. (October 17, 1893 – November 22, 1949) was an American author and journalist. He is best remembered for his short story "The Most Dangerous Game" (1924). Connell was one of the most popular American short story wr ...
's 1924 short story "
The Most Dangerous Game
"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 ...
" 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.
Cast
*
John Loder as Don Rainsford
*
Audrey Long
Audrey Gwendoline Long (April 14, 1922 – September 19, 2014) was an American stage and screen actress of English descent, who performed mainly in low-budget films in the 1940s and early 1950s. Some of her more notable film performances are in '' ...
as Ellen Trowbridge
*
Edgar Barrier
Edgar Barrier (March 4, 1907 – June 20, 1964) was an American actor who appeared on radio, stage, and screen. In the 1930s he was a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre and was one of several actors who played Simon Templar on '' The Saint'' ...
as Erich Kreiger
*
Russell Wade
Russell Wade (June 22, 1917 – December 9, 2006) was an American actor.
Life and career
Russell Wade was born on June 21, 1917, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. He signed an RKO contract in 1942. Having appeared in 80 films, his last one was ' ...
as Robert Trowbridge
*
Russell Hicks as Mr. Whitney
*
Jason Robards Sr. as The Captain
*
Noble Johnson
Noble Johnson (April 18, 1881 – January 9, 1978), later known as Mark Noble, was an American actor and film producer. He appeared in films such as '' The Mummy'' (1932), ''The Most Dangerous Game'' (1932), ''King Kong'' (1933) and ''Son of ...
as Carib
*Edmund Glover as Quartermaster (uncredited)
Production
The film was originally called ''The Most Dangerous Game''. Audrey Long was signed in January 1945, and Edgar Garrier joined shortly afterward.
News of the Screen: Bogart and Stanwyck Will Star in 'Fountainhead'-- 'Moscow Skies' Due at the Stanley Today
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''. January 20, 1945: 16. The film uses outtakes from RKO's 1932 production of ''The Most Dangerous Game
"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 ...
'' with Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...
and Fay Wray
Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004) was a Canadian/American actress best known for starring as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Through an acting career that spanned nearly six decades, Wray attained international r ...
.
References
External links
*
*
Review of film
at ''Variety''
1945 films
1945 adventure films
American black-and-white films
1940s English-language films
Films based on short fiction
Films directed by Robert Wise
Films about hunters
Films set on fictional islands
RKO Pictures films
Films about death games
Films based on thriller novels
American adventure films
Films scored by Paul Sawtell
1940s American films
{{adventure-film-stub