O Rugido da Morte

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.

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.

During a hunt for a carnivorous tiger , the two-fisted white hunter Harry Black , Stewart Granger, comes across his prior wife , Barbara Rush , now married to Tanner , Anthony Steel , an old friend of Harry . Both of whom met long time ago at a POW concentration camp during WWI where they attempted to escape .The motivation grows with each intent to catch the man-eating tiger, but things go wrong when the son , Martin Stephens , is lost somewhere in the perilous jungle. And to make matters worse the dangerous beast goes on attacking .

This is an adventure/drama movie , though I think of being more a loving drama than an adventure film . This is a passable jungle drama of acceptable quality , including a cracking final highlight with the ferocious tiger terrorizing people and other bonus attractions . Decent cast as Stewart Granger as a tough white hunter and ex-army Major , a role that sits easily on his shoulders .Barbara Rush gives one of his best acting as the figure from Black's past .Anthony Steel plays the old friend who teams up with the ex-war buddy . Support cast is pretty good, such as the sympathetic IS Johar who played in Lawrence Arabia , Kamala Davi who performed in Jeronimo , and Martin Stephens , the prodigy boy who acted in such classic movies as The innocents, Village of damned, and A touch of larceny .

Colorful cinematography shot on location in India by John Wilcox, though a perfect remastering being really necessary . Wilcox was a prestigious cameraman and Hammer regular , including known titles as Hound of Baskerville, The last valley , Kung Fu against 7 gold vampires, Chairman , Express Bongo , Zarak , Safari , Black Knight, Secret agent SZ , Operation Robinson , High below Zero , Hysteria, Judith , and Craze. Atmospheric musical score by Clifton Parker , including India sounds , and musical director by habitual Muir Matheson .

Interesting though a little boring script by Sydney Bohem , a prestigious writer who wrote notorious films such as : The big heat , The tall men , The savage, When worlds collide , Branded , Side street and Shock treatment . The motion picture was profesionally , though with no enthusiasm made by Hugo Fregonese and it won a Bafta film award . He was a good Argentinean craftsman who worked in his country Argentina : Pampa Barbara , Hollywood : Wind blow , Man in the attic , Apache drums , Untamed frontier , Decameron nights , Mark of the renegade and directed great stars as Gary Cooper , Barbara Stanwick , Anthony Quinn , Cesar Romero ,Cyd Charysse, Jack Palance. And also worked in Europe in films as Marco Polo , 3 Musketeers , Pampa Salvaje , Old Shatterhand , Dracula vs Frankenstein .Rating : 5.5/10 . The flick will appeal to Stewart Granger fans .

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!

When a tiger takes a penchant for snacking on the locals, it falls to the intrepid "Harry Black" (Stewart Granger) and his sidekick "Bapu" (I. S. Johar) to stop it in it's tracks. Now were that to have been the thrust of the film then it could have been quite a decent adventure movie. As it is, though, it is really only a guise for a rather tepid melodrama that revolves around him and "Christian" (Barbara Rush). She is married to the high-flying "Desmond" (Anthony Steel) and have a young lad "Michael" (Martin Stephens). As the yarn develops, we discover that they have some history and the tin-legged "Black" is turning, increasingly, to the bottle to deal with his frustrations given that she is married to another. Luckily, the tiger is still munching away with impunity and when the young boy might be it's latest meal, there must be renewed focus! Barbara Rush just reminded me of Jean Simmonds the whole time, the young lad was seriously annoying and Steel features only sparingly in what is really just a vehicle for Granger to offer us something of his "Allan Quartermain" from 1950 - when he was on both better form and in better shape. Lots of rather obvious greenscreen - especially when they are driving - and some jungle scenes where you can almost see the cue dots on the studio floor don't help this much, either. Though it is my kind of film, and Granger does have charisma in spades, this is a rather lacklustre romance masquerading as an action film that need only be watched the once, and left me completely in agreement with the tiger!