Summer Under the Stars: Joel McCrea

Star of the Day: Joel McCrea

The Most Dangerous Game (1932): "Psychotic big game hunter, Count Zaroff, deliberately strands a luxury yacht on his remote island, where he begins to hunt the passengers for sport."

gif by me

Oh boy, Joel McCrea Day. How I was looking forward to this one (/sarcasm). At least they took mercy on me and didn't also schedule a Kirk Douglas Day and a Fred MacMurray Day, eh? They knew John Wayne and Joel McCrea was more than enough for this soldier... Anyway!

Colour me shocked that The Most Dangerous Game is in the Criterion Collection! I was scrolling through the catalog looking for a 1930s film that satisfies that category of the 2026 Criterion Challenge over on Letterboxd, and recognized the title from Joel McCrea's schedule. So this watch was more out of necessity for that challenge and less about wanting to see more Joel McCrea (who I'm sure was lovely in real life but has the personality of a cardboard cutout on screen, in my opinion). 

My review: this freaks me out, and is the exact kind of horror that would have worked on me if I were of the time but my eyes are awake to the horrors of the modern world so this is nothing by today's sensibilities. As ever, not a fan of Joel McCrea but I doubt I'll ever find a film that changes my mind on that, so the hunt continues (see what I did there?).

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Log line from IMDb