“He talks of wine and women as a prelude to the hunt. We barbarians know that it is after the chase, and then only, that man revels. You know the saying of the Ogandi chieftains: "Hunt first the enemy, then the woman." It is the natural instinct. The blood is quickened by the kill. One passion builds upon another. Kill, then love! When you have known that, you have known ecstasy."

The concept of hunting people for sport is hardly a new cinematic idea. Over the years there have been numerous movies that have explored the subject. A Game of Death (1945) Run for the Sun (1954) and Surviving the Game (1994) to name but a few. However back in 1932, this was a bold plot device. Cinema was still a relatively unregulated industry (the Motion Picture Production Code didn’t start being enforced until 1934) and as a result was under increasing scrutiny for its increasingly salacious tendencies. However, such issues did not dissuade producers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack who were quick to see the potential of Richard Connell’s short story "The Hounds of Zaroff". It offered an opportunity to examine the “sin of Cain” with its plot about a reclusive Russian aristocrat who hunted men for pleasure on a private Caribbean island. And then there was scope to explore some of the more “adult” elements of the story (as the above quote alludes to).