Watch All The Movies, Part 5:Bloodlust

This week's movie is 1961's "Bloodlust", written/directed/produced by Ralph Brooke. It's yet another adaptation of "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell, which is the great-grandaddy of all those hunting humans tropes.

Four young people, while out on a boat, go to an island they shouldn't; one falls into a pit, and they're rescued by Dr. Balleau, the be-goateed, be-smoking-jacketed owner of the island, and his be-striped-shirted henchmen (who resemble rather tough French mimes). Back at his mansion he explains that he's developed a taste for trophy hunting, and brings exotic animals to the island with his pots of cash.

But are animals enough? No, they are not. Case in point: his wife and a drunken friend make an appearance during this explanation, and of course it turns out that they're having an affair. Knowing that their host knows that they know he knows they know, they decide to help the kids escape. Hijinks (by which I mean MAN HUNTING) ensue, but not before Dr. Balleau displays -- rather ostentatiously, I might add -- his human trophies, set up in an underground cave, to his horrified visitors. They get a chance to leave the island...if they can avoid being MAN HUNTED by Dr. Balleau. I won't spoil the ending, but that's because I did not finish it. Sue me.

Robert Reed, better known as the father from the original "Brady Bunch" series, plays one of the kids trapped the island. Wilton Graff played the be-smoking-jacketed hunter of humans; he did a crapton of TV roles as a character actor. Ralph Brooke did more than a dozen bit parts in movies, mostly uncredited, in 1945-1946; after that, he broke into B movies as a writer, producer, production manager, and finally director...then died at the age of 43, just two years after "Bloodlust" was released.

The DVD is from the good folks at Digiview Productions, which has a Tripod fan page (remember Tripod?) and a slightly more informative page on Wikia. Like a lot of other budget DVD producers, they released a lot of movies that were in the public domain...but they screwed up, and released a copy of the 1954 animated version of "Animal Farm", which was not in the public domain. They got sued, lost and promptly filed for bankruptcy.

Like I said, I didn't finish this -- but that's not reason for you not to give it a try! The Internet Archive has generously made this available to you; they do lots of good things, so please consider making a donation to support them.)