Harry Black et le tigre

This is definitely one of Stewart Granger's better films following his departure from MGM. Ostensibly about the hunt for a man-eating tiger this is really about two people who, in an ideal world should be together but are not destined to be so. The best scenes by far are those between Granger and Barbara Rush. When they meet again she is married with a son but the chemistry is still there....... The hunt sequences are well-handled and there is a fine score by Clifton Parker. Granger is excellent, Anthony Steel is suitably stolid and I.S.Johar basically plays the same part he was to play in 'North West Frontier' the following year. The film really belongs however to the marvellous Barbara Rush. Both Granger and director Hugo Fregonese were Hollywood 'exiles' who were obliged to seek work in Europe, with decidedly mixed results! Although Granger was disparaging about most of his films he should not have been too unhappy with this one. The next time he was to play a white hunter was in 'The Last Safari' opposite someone named Kaz Garas. The less said about that one the better!

I won't cover the ground concerning the setting and the main conflict. This movie is about the theme, the importance of ethical standards in a man,the ability to make difficult decisions, personal sacrifices, moral choices, and confront danger with courage. Courage doesn't mean the absence of fear, rather the ability to suck it up when necessary.

Not unlike other movies with similar themes, such as, The Mountain, Zulu, The Ghost and The Darkness, Battle Los Angeles, and The Naked Prey, Harry Black and the Tiger deals with the personal traits inherent in the nature of men, and what separates them from adult males.

There's nothing phony in this story. The characters' true selves and motivations are laid bare like raw nerves. The tension is incredible for those who appreciate the essence of the interactions and inner struggles of the characters. If you think this movie moves too slowly, you don't get it.

Part Snows Of Kilimanjaro, part Moby Dick, Harry Black And The Tiger will never attain the literary ranks of those Hemingway and Melville classics. Still the book turned into a good movie with Stewart Granger giving a good performance in his first film after he was loose from his MGM Hollywood contract.

There's a tiger on the prowl in a remote corner of India and the government has contracted white hunter Stewart Granger for the job of killing it. There's not much you can do with big cats once they've gotten an appetite for human flesh. But the job gets personal with Granger when he discovers the tiger has chosen for its hunting grounds, the vicinity of a tea plantation run by Anthony Steel and his wife Barbara Rush who's always had a thing for Granger in any event.

There are some flashback sequences telling how the three main players have arrived to the point they are now. Steel did not go through with his part of an escape plan during World War II and as a result Granger lost a leg. And both are in love with Rush, but Granger bows out and now they're thrown together again.

Steel was weak during the war, but now Granger questions his own fitness for the job especially after getting mauled by the tiger. Still he has developed his own Ahab like fixation on the beast.

I have to say Stewart Granger sure looks the part, a carryover when he scored such a big hit in King Solomon's Mines. Later on he did a film called The Last Safari in the Sixties and it was hardly a success.

Look for I.S. Johar and Kamala Devi as Granger's guide and his Indian nurse when he is recovering from his encounter with the tiger. Devi has some really sharp observations about what she's around her.

Not the best jungle films, but the Indian cinematography is nice and fans of the leads will be pleased enough.

Needless to say,the star is neither Granger nor Rush, but India : the filming on location is absolutely wonderful ,with an effective sense of space of the wide screen and color, a good use of the natives and an Indian actor as the first supporting actor.

The screenplay blends adventure movie and melodrama with mixed results ;sometimes Granger recalls Gregory Peck in "the snows of Kilimandjaro" (1952):cured by Barbara Rush who plays the role of a married with child Susan Hayward ,he remembers his past during WW2,(Spanish civil war for Peck) , when her husband ,then a coward brother in arm costs him his leg. There are also snatches of 'the lost weekend" (1945)when Rush tries to get Granger out of alcohol hell.

The love affair is bland and not very convincing (the the absence of Jim ,a careerist with bright prospects ,does not help :however ,when the boy tells his daddy that a father's got to be a hero and urges him to follow Harry in his tiger hunt (where he dismally fails and shows his cowardice again) this is a good beginning.

The tiger ,as the film progresses,will become Harry's obsession ,even injured ,crippled and alcoholic , he does not renege on his task : the tiger claimed too many lives and love takes a back seat to this endless hunt.

This is strictly run of the mill stuff, but it passes the time if anything, filmed in India it has good photography and stars one of my favourite actors stewart granger, he looks like his character in 'king solomon's mines' - alan quatermain, he also has a faithful sidekick called Babu.

The story is about a killer tiger on the loose in a local community and the various problems it causes to its captors.In the film granger's character has a steel leg, he lost his real leg in the war, so we get a few exciting flashbacks of his war experiences which are done nicely, these scenes would have to be the best in the film.