Almost 30 years prior to our film being released, the Fay Wray classic "The Most Dangerous Game" was released. The shocking pre-code horror film set a standard which has been copied every few years, it seems. Pre-code or not, the 1932 Fay Wray classic is mild horror to modern audiences. This 1961 version is incredibly unsettling and if you do not like leeches, this is not the film for you. The images in 1961's "Bloodlust!" are disturbing and definitely would not have been allowed in 1932. Let us take a closer look at "Bloodlust!" starring the dad from "The Brady Bunch," and directed by Ralph Brooke.
Hunks and babes on a ship row to an island to investigate. Uncharted. Never a good idea. Johnny (Robert Reed) is the head hunk, and his gal is the Fay Wray lookalike, Betty (June Kenney). Betty regularly beats up Johnny as she is a maven with Judo. Also on board is the dweeb Pete (Eugene Persson), and his gal, the sultry brunette Jeanne (Joan Lora). Never mind the boat captain, the drunk Tony (Troy Patterson). Almost immediately, on the island, they meet Dr. Balleau (Wilton Graff). He has a sultry wife, Sandra (Lilyan Chauvin). Sandra is having an affair with an existing prisoner, Dean (Walter Brooke). The four new castaways feel something is wrong and see many of the taxidermy trophies bagged by the maniacal doctor. Sandra and Dean think they have concealed their affair from the doctor, but, of course, have not.
It gets worse. The four sneak around at night and find the doctor's secret laboratory filled with body parts, human skin, and a brunette in a fish tank. Yep, Dr. Balleau hunts anyone who washes up on the island. He uses crossbows, rifles, pistols, and spears. In one heartbreaking scene, Sandra clad in a smart white swimsuit and Dean are skewered in an embrace by a spear. Now the four realize they are next. Dr. Balleau believes he is being fair by giving the team a weapon. Now the hunt begins and Johnny and Dean are set out into the jungle to be hunted. Betty and Jeanne? Having just murdered his sultry wife, the doctor keeps them locked up for future intimacies. Now Betty and Jeanne try to escape before the doctor can make them into his personal sex-toys. Johnny and Dean battle quicksand, leeches, crazed convicts, and the pursuing Dr. Balleau.
Will Betty and Jeanne manage to escape the mansion of Dr. Balleau, and the uncharted island? Will Dr. Balleau stuff his wife and pose her as his latest trophy clad in that hot swimsuit? If Betty can beat up "The Brady Bunch" dad with her Judo, can she also beat up the psycho doctor? This is almost a carbon copy of the earlier Fay Wray film, though, I'll repeat, the gore and ominous images are far greater than the 1932 film. For one of the grossest leech-scenes in movie history, and babes who know how to fight, see "Bloodlust!"




















