As a boy growing up in the 1950's, I was totally fascinated by Great White Hunters and exotic locations such as Africa and India. Stewart Granger was also one of my favorite actors, so this movie quickly became one of my most well-liked. Granger's character of Harry Black is far from infallible. Instead, he is a man who survived WWII, but is still at war with his personal demons as well as a man-eating tiger. Not quite as exciting as some of Granger's other action/adventure efforts (i.e., King Solomon's Mines), it still has the ability to transport the viewer away to a different time, country and culture in such a way that I actually felt as if I was there. My son was a missionary in India, and he felt the same way. Although some of the flashbacks seem to drag a bit (and were much less interesting to a boy of ten than the action scenes), they are nonetheless integral to the plot, and the sexual tension between Harry (Granger) and Christian (Barbara Rush) is palpable. The landscape and wildlife photography is exquisite, and the movie does a fine job of showing the people of India and their culture in a non-prejudicial way. I particularly enjoyed the depiction of the relationship of Harry and his gun-bearer, Bapu (I.S. Johar), which appeared to be built on mutual respect and admiration in spite of the racial prejudice that I'm sure existed at the time between many of the British and the native peoples. This has been a strong point of the characters Granger has played in other movies such as King Solomon's Mines. The only weaknesses I noticed were in some of the scenes where Harry and Bapu are riding along in a jeep or Harry and Christian are riding in a buggy and they are obviously superimposed on stock backgrounds. I'm not sure why the director felt this was necessary after going to the trouble of filming on location in India. All in all, I think this movie is definitely a "must see" for fans of classic action/adventure films.
Review of Harry Black and the Tiger
