Waste of time

One of my all time favorites.

Great Film overall

Fresh and Exciting

Mike Latimer (Richard Widmark) is a famous novelist who's dropped out of circulation. A reporter (Jane Greer) is undercover--trying to wrangle an exclusive interview with this mercurial man. However, although she is able to make contact with him and befriend him, he doesn't know she's a reporter. What they both don't know is that the plane he's flying them in across the Central American jungle is going to conk out...and leave them stranded in the middle of no where. Does it sound like it couldn't get any worse? Well, it can. Although they are saved from the wreckage, their benefactors turn out to be Nazis hiding out in the jungle and they're not about to let the pair escape if they can help it. Soon, it's a long and torturous trek through the unforgiving jungle...with these nasty jerks in hot pursuit.While this isn't one of Widmark's very best films, it is quite good and the Nazi theme worked since it was only about a dozen years since the war ended. Tense, well crafted and well worth seeing. Besides, Greer nearly died making this film....so don't you owe it to her sacrifice to see the movie?!I originally planned on giving this film an 8...it's really good. But near the end, Latimer takes out one of the baddies and then doesn't bother picking up the guy's gun as he makes his escape. This simply makes no sense and annoyed me.By the way, early on you see the reporter looking through a magazine with a cover story about Latimer. While the magazine looks a lot like LOOK magazine, its name is SIGHT....a rather clever little play on words.

No need to recap the Most Dangerous Game and Five Came Back plot. Now I have as much respect for stars Widmark, Greer, and Howard as the next old movie buff, but the set-up to the chase goes on too long and too mildly to create a suspenseful whole. I suspect the drawn-out preliminaries were to justify that marquee cast. Yet, the on-again, off-again romantic interludes, plus Howard's non-menacing menace, undercut that impact. Then too, director Boulting films in impersonal and impassive style that fails to create the expected intensity—just count the close-ups (I stopped at zero). Thus, the narrative remains at the mercy of a padded script.Of course, the jungle locations lend eye-appeal and stimulating exotica. However, Boulting largely fails to exploit that menacing strangeness. The chase sequence, the movie's centerpiece, remains little more than an implausibly executed slog through the mud that again fails to generate needed suspense. To me, the pursuers appear in greater danger than the pursued; plus, how easily the dogs are thrown off track and then inexplicably regain it. I realize these gripes go against majority opinion. Still, I found the result disappointing given the promising ingredients. Say what you will about the old studios, sound stages, and b&w filming, but RKO really knew how to orchestrate the same elements back in 1932. Above all, this updated version needs a more focused rewrite and a more apt director.

At first viewing, I barely noticed the «special pen» that belonged to Miss Greer. And then, I started asking myself the following questions -- which I put to you, dear reader. Did you ever wonder what may have caused the plane's compass to go astray -- which, in many ways, could have provoked the forced crash landing in the middle of the jungle ? Did you notice how, when they first sat in the plane, Mr. Widmark promptly moved away from the top of the dashboard his gun -- which Miss Greer had just put there ? Did you notice the magnetic pen with which Miss Greer took notes in her leather-covered note-book -- that pan that automatically jumped and glued itself on the side on the note-book, as soon as it was placed near it ? My theory is that the plane forced landing was due to.... that magnetized pen ! By putting her hand-bag, with that pen in it on the dash-board, Miss Greer inadvertently caused the compass to malfunction.... And that's why Mr. Widmark displaced his gun from the top of the dash-board... NEAR the compass ! Both the gun and the pen contain METAL (easily magnetizable) which may have affected the good functioning of the compass ! «Elementary ?»....Indeed, yet... after the fact, since I admit having not noticed that, at first. And so, if YOU DID notice all that, upon your first viewing of the movie, then.... my most sincere congratulations !

Movie talks upon a beautiful woman reporter (Jane Greer) , she is looking for an adventurer novelist(Richard Widmark) in a solitary South American location . They fall in love and aboard a plane are crashed on jungle . There find shelter in an inhospitable mansion inhabited by strange people (Trevor Howard and Peter Van Eyck) . The picture gets adventure action , a love story , thriller , exciting pursuits with numerous odds , risks and perils and results to be pretty entertaining . Richard Widmark as the stalwart and brave hero is nice . Enjoyable Jane Greer (Out the past) as a genuinely moving heroine is fine . Secondary cast is excellent with a terrific Trevor Howard and a crafty Peter Van Eyck . The tale was compellingly developed in this second of several versions using Richard Connell's famed novel . It's a remake to ¨The most dangerous game¨(Ernest B.Schoedsack with Joel McCrea and Leslie Banks as count Zaroff), the classic and black and white adaptation was creepier and darkest , this version is glimmer (spectacular cinematography by Joseph LaShelle) and an adventure film . Recent version titled ¨Surviving the game¨(Ernest Dickerson with Ice T and Rutger Hauer) is more violen t. Motion picture was well directed by British director Roy Boulting . The flick will appeal to Richard Widmark fans and adventure cinema-goers . Rating : Good , if you haven't seen it , you don't miss the chance the next time .