STEWART GRANGER’S SWASHBUCKLER MOVIES

Stewart Granger was a major star for a time and led the cast of several swashbucklers.

SWORDSMAN OF SIENA (1962) – In the Spanish-controlled Italian states of the 1500s, English mercenary Thomas Stanswood (Stewart Granger) is currently employed by the Italian nobles of Siena. The resented Don Carlos (Riccardo Garrone), Imperial Governor of Siena, is forcing a political marriage between himself and the beautiful Orietta Arconti (Sylva Koscina).

The Imperial Governor hopes to quiet the local rebels by marrying into the revered Arconti family. Because rebels have tried assassinating Orietta to prevent the marriage from taking place, Thomas gets assigned to be Orietta’s bodyguard. She feels she does not need protection and constantly bickers with Stanswood.

Meanwhile, Orietta’s younger sister Serenella falls in love with the mercenary and can tell his sympathies really lean toward the rebels, like hers do. Amid action and intrigues in which Thomas saves Orietta from the rebels called the Ten, Serenella gets killed by Don Carlos’ men.

This pushes Stanswood firmly into the rebel camp, leading him to learn that Orietta also sides with them. The two fall in love. On the day of an exciting horserace between Thomas and one of Carlos’ men, our hero leads an uprising against the Spanish occupiers and Siena is free. 92 minutes.

SCARAMOUCHE (1952) – StewartGranger stars as the hero of this adaptation of Rafael Sabatini’s novel set in 1780s France. Tensions run high between the callous aristocrats and the suffering commoners as the French Revolution draws ever nearer.

Andre Moreau (Granger), a deadly swordsman, lies low in the role of Scaramouche for an acting and comedy troupe. Meanwhile, he fights the aristos to avenge the murder of his outspoken friend, hiding out with the troupe after each strike.

We get derring-do from the false Scaramouche as he is fought over by two beauties – fellow “thespian” and bad girl Lenore (Eleanor Parker) and good girl Aline (Janet Leigh). Naturally our hero triumphs and ends up with Aline.

Nina Foch appears as Marie Antoinette and Mel Ferrer plays chief villain the Marquis de Maynes.

Also with Richard Anderson and John Dehner. 115 minutes.   

MOONFLEET (1955) – THE Fritz Lang directed. In this movie Granger stars as the roguish smuggler Captain Jeremy Fox in 1757 England.

His life of lawbreaking, boozing, and bedding ladies is disrupted by the arrival of John Mohune (Jon Whiteley), a newly orphaned boy sent to Jeremy by the lad’s mother – a former love interest of our hero.   

Fox wanted to marry her years earlier, before his criminal career, but her father refused to let her because he felt Jeremy was too poor.

The unwanted responsibility of raising the boy sobers the smuggler a bit but before too long double-crosses from some of Fox’s shady associates plunge Jeremy and the young man into a dangerous adventure.

High seas action, tomb raiding and the quest for a priceless diamond follow as Jeremy and John bond amid the chaos. An added danger comes from the betrayal by one of Fox’s string of ladies. Other stars are George Sanders, Viveca Lindfors, Joan Greenwood, Alan Napier, John Hoyt and Jack Elam. 87 minutes.

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1952) – This slavish remake of the 1937 film stars Stewart Granger as Englishman Rudolf Rassendyll, identical cousin of the soon to be coronated King Rudolf V of the fictional Balkan country Ruritania. 

Delighted at their uncanny resemblance, the royal lets Rassendyll party with him and his two closest friends at his private lodge. The villainous Duke Michael drugs and abducts Ruritania’s Rudolf in hopes of launching a coup when he fails to show up to be coronated. Rudolf’s confidants prevail upon Rassendyll to impersonate the king at the coronation and beyond while they try to find and free the real monarch.

While carrying out the impersonation, Rassendyll interacts with Rudolf V’s betrothed Princess Flavia (Deborah Kerr) and the two fall in love.

At length, Rudolf V’s friends learn where the missing king is being held. Rassendyll must swim the moat to covertly enter the castle where the king is located and keep him alive against Duke Michael and his men while soldiers loyal to Rudolf launch a frontal attack on the stronghold.

The finale provides action galore including a lengthy swordfight between Rassendyll and Duke Michael’s stylish cohort Rupert of Hentzau (James Mason). The good guys win and our hero returns to England after a bittersweet goodbye with Princess Flavia. 96 minutes.   

SOLDIERS THREE (1951) – Let’s get this out of the way. This movie is NOT a ripoff of the 1930s film Gunga Din. That Cary Grant & Douglas Fairbanks Jr. movie was Gunga Din in name only and basically adapted Kipling’s Soldiers Three with the character Gunga Din tossed in.

That being said, the 1930s film is a superior swashbuckler to this 1951 effort. Soldiers Three still has a certain appeal, though. Stewart Granger, Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack play the title characters – bawdy, carousing, but hard-fighting British soldiers in 1880s India.

Our buddy film heroes are sent on a sort of Special Forces mission to eliminate an evil cult in order to prevent another war from breaking out. Granger’s character Archibald Ackroyd leads his comrades and also gets Greta Gynt as his romantic interest.   

Everybody tries a little too hard to recapture the high spirits of the 1930s production, but Soldiers Three is still worth a watch or two. With David Niven, Walter Pidgeon, Dan O’Herlihy and Michael Ansara. 92 minutes.