Stewart Granger, the TCM Star of the Month for July, was always the first to admit he owed a great debt to Errol Flynn. Not only did Flynn, like Doug Fairbanks Sr. in the silent screen days, give moviegoers a lusty appetite for swashbuckling adventure tales on screen, but Flynn's virtual exit from mainstream filmmaking in the early 1950s left a vacancy Granger basically had free reign to fill. But Flynn's gift to Stewart G. was even more specific; in the late 1940s, Flynn signed a two-picture deal with MGM, one costarring in a predetermined  script (That Forsyte Woman), the second of Flynn's choice. He could go to Africa to do an adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, or go to India and do a movie version of Rudyard Kipling's Kim. Flynn picked the latter for the most practical of reasons, at least in his estimation. Shooting on location in Africa he'd be working on safari and have to sleep in a tent. In India, he'd be able to nightly bed down in a luxurious hotel. Further, the Kim role was, despite star billing, basically a supporting role, hence he'd have more free time to party. Goodbye, King Solomon's Mines.

MGM filled the vacancy with the dashing Granger, who had exploded on screen five years earlier in the British-made epic Caesar and Cleopatra, virtually stealing the show in the secondary role of the beef-cakey Apollodorus. Hollywood soon came calling, and did  so with  the perfect calling card - that exciting tale of the hunt for the mines of King Solomon. Voila! The film was a mega hit and, suddenly, Granger was a huge international star. Admittedly, MGM made a weak choice in choosing his second film (1951's Soldiers Three) but otherwise showcased him spectacularly for the next several years in such films as 1952's Scaramouche and The Prisoner of Zenda, 1953's Young Bess and All the Brothers Were Valiant. 1956's Bhowani Junction, 1957's The Little Hut, plus an occasional loan-out for prize endeavors such as Columbia's ambitious Salome (1953). His leading ladies were some of the screen's greatest beauties: Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, Ann Blyth, and Granger's wife from 1950-60, Jean Simmons.

We'll be showing all the aforementioned Granger films this month, as well as some of his lesser known outings like a nifty British mystery chiller he and Simmons made in 1955, Footsteps in the Fog. We'll also have several samplings of Granger in his post-MGM days, including two surprisingly first-rate German-made westerns, 1966's Frontier Hellcat (Unter Geiem) and Ramage at Apache Wells (Der Olprinz), both of which have him playing a crusty frontier sage named Old Surehand. Like Fairbanks and Flynn, Granger was well aware that being a movie swashbuckler was a profession which, like a milk carton, had an expiration date. Also like his esteemed predecessors, this man who was born James Stewart (changing his professional name for obvious reasons) made the most of it when he was dashing about, sword or rifle in hand. We're pleased to  show you glowing samples all month long.

by Robert Osborne