This doesn't work. It should - the basic story is solid. There's location filming in Africa. Maybe Stewart Granger isn't up to the role - it's a meaty part: a hunter who lost part of a leg trying to track down a tiger that is tormenting a village.
Maybe he's too put upon - attacked by a tiger, crippled, he has a whimpy mate, he doesn't get the girl. He doesn't get a chance to kick ass. That Indian nurse seems a little into him - they should have developed that.
It's not that exciting. There's no real personal stakes in the tiger hunt until the end when a brat kid runs away and that's only a short time. The tiger should have killed Barbara Rush - to give Granger a reason to go for it. The tiger kills a kid but the Indian characters are given such little screen time it doesn't have much impact.
Steel has a different ish role - a coward, bit of an incompetent but not all that bad. He's not up to it. Can't convey emotion. Barbara Rush is too polite at the girl. Needed to be someone more obviously hungry for love.
They dub the voice of the kid. Bad move. I remember bad dubbing in Northwest Frontier as well. Something about poor dubbing of kids in late 50s movies shot in India. The stuff about protecting the kid's image of the cowardly father reminded me of Shane. But in Shane Van Heflin was a brave man who deserved respect he just wasn't a professional gunfighter; here Steel is this mediocrity in someone else's country whose incompetence causes Granger to be injured twice.
It is weird to see all these white characters acting as if its pre 1947 in India when it is set after World War Two. They should have just set it before the war and had another reason for the injury.
Nice location work. But dull. You can see why it wasn't a hit.
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