“Most Dangerous Game” Video/ Book Comparison

The written story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell has beautifully descriptive sets and scenes that help bring the story to life, along with excellent character structure and personality, which leads to interesting and unexpected conflicts that are not properly portrayed in the movie with the same name directed by Ernest Schoedsack and Irving Pichel.

The story has wonderful adjectives and vocabulary that really enable you to visualize the scene. Phrases like, “…Trying to peer through the dank tropical night that was palpable as it pressed its thick warm blackness in upon the yacht” (Connell 2), or,” …But the muck sucked viciously at his foot as if it were a giant leech” (Connell 23). These descriptions lure you into the story and help you feel the urgency of the matter, or help you see the scenery with a more definitive eye. The same moments in the movie, however are ruined by shoddy acting and horrible sets. In the movie, for instance, the boat is not seen from the outside until it is sinking, and when you see it sinking it looks like a little toy boat going around the bathtub drain. Not very convincing!

The characters in the written story also provide lots of interesting material that influence the plot like nothing else can. The descriptions are believable and thorough. For instance, “He was a tall man past middle age, for his hair was vivid white; but his thick eyebrows and pointed military mustache were as black as the night from which Rainsford had come. His eyes, too, were black and very bright. He had high cheekbones, a sharp cut nose, a spare, dark face- the face of a man used to giving orders, the face of an aristocrat” (Connell 8). This compelling description of General Zaroff makes us want to know more about his character because of the mystery and coldness with which the words have already painted him. General Zaroff turns out to be a very interesting character indeed, and twists the plot more than any other character. However, the same character in the movie, “Count” Zaroff, has no mystery at all and quite simply he makes people laugh with his dramatic expressions that would be better fit to the cartoon world. When the quality of a character goes down, so does the
quality of a story.

In conclusion, the written story of “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell is far more of a satisfactory story than the same titled movie by Ernest Schoedsack and Irving Pichel. I’m thinking these two directors should go into the comedy world!

Works Cited
Connell, Richard. The Most Dangerous Game. Collier’s Weekly. 1924. Print.