Thanks for adding in the info about Scaramouche with regards to his feelings on it. You got in before I had a chance to get the question answered. I appreciate it.

Peter

I would love to see Eleanor Parker and especially Jean Simmons as Stars of the Month in the future, if possible–especially since those ladies are still here to, one hopes, enjoy the attention.

On reflection, it occurs to me that another reason that Stewart Granger may have had mixed emotions about Scaramouche was that he realized that he had reached his peak as an actor and movie star. There are several movies of his that I enjoy made after this one, but perhaps it seemed unlikely to him that he could ever hope to match the production values and good casting found in this film.

When King Solomon’s Mines was a big hit, Metro announced Granger’s future projects, including: Soldiers Three (which he did, unfortunately), Robinson Crusoe, Scaramouche and Ivanhoe. UA, not MGM, made Crusoe and Robert Taylor, not Granger, starred in Ivanhoe.

Regarding Scaramouche, MGM first announced that Granger would play a double role, both the part he played and the Mel Ferrer role. The next announcement was that Fernando Lamas and Ricardo Montalban – instead of Granger – would play the roles instead. Finally, Granger and Ferrer were assigned their parts. Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner were considered for the female leads; Janet Leigh and Eleanor Parker got them instead.

I like Scaramouche. But I am always intrigued by alternative casting – What Might Have Been. Imagine Scaramouche, starring Fernando Lamas, Ricardo Montalban, Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner. It might have been very interesting!

I’m not sure we know the truth, but think that the actor’s mixed feelings about the movie reflect some lifelong insecurity about his talent and career. I hope that if others have more info on this topic, they will post, but here’s what I’ve found–

In SG’s “Sparks Fly Upward” he was–as he so often seemed to be–in the midst of complicating his life quite a bit by arguing pretty much non-stop with powerful MGM figures such as Benny Thau just before Scaramouche began to be planned. Thau, the top casting man at the studio around the time of pre-production for Scaramouche, grudgingly mentioned to Granger that he was in the running for the part, but did not commit himself to this final casting choice. Granger knew that the role was particularly suited to his strengths as an actor, and expressed fear that it would be a musical. He knew that this meant that he might find himself competing against powerhouse Gene Kelly, whose highly successful The Three Musketeers (1948) had originally been planned as a musical. (Granger also felt obliged to mention more than once that the Irish-American Kelly was shorter than he–and was perhaps too American to convincingly play a secret aristocrat of French blood in the Sabatini story).

When he secured the role in Scaramouche, SG trained diligently with famed USC instructor Jean Heremans to perfect his fencing. The actor sustained injuries to his shoulder during a fall from a balcony during the long dueling scene, a knee injury, and had his eyelid slashed open as well during shooting. In later years he sometimes admitted these may have been caused because of his own insistence on performing his own stunts. He also described MGM budgetary and time pressures on his director, George Sidney as leading to the carelessness that contributed to these events. Granger claimed that after sustaining a twisted knee, he was crumpled on the floor of the set nearly unconscious. When an assistant called out impulsively, “the poor b*****d’s dead”, allegedly Sidney cried, “What the hell are we going to do? The picture’s only half-finished!.” Others who worked with Sidney over the years contradicted this report.

Director George Sidney gave an interview on the BBC to film historian Tony Sloman in 1993 in which the director mentioned that he had considered making this story into a musical. Yet, after running Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), he was so impressed with Granger‘s athletic “Apollodorus”, (playing yet another part the actor disparaged in his memoir), that Sidney knew he’d found his “André Moreau”.

During production Sidney reported that there were “grumbling moods” that came over his star at times. There were issues about the perceived slights experienced by Granger at MGM, a number of injuries he’d experienced during production, and frustrations with simply being thought of as tall, good looking and dashing rather than a serious actor. When Spencer Tracy visited the Sidney set, SG reportedly told the esteemed actor that all of his roles put together, including Scaramouche, did not amount to anything compared to one great Tracy performance. Taken aback, the aging, then non-athletic Tracy said he’d have given them all to play Scaramouche, since that was the kind of wonderful role that attracted him to performing in the first place.

Lastly, there were several times when the competitive Granger expressed resentment over his status at the studio, artistically and financially. He reportedly felt resentful because he had to occasionally audition for parts, even at MGM. I haven’t found evidence that he had to do so for Scaramouche, but when the film was released, it proved to be wildly successful critically and popularly. Despite this, there were some sniping articles that appeared in the press, saying that the current crop of British stars had failed to captivate Hollywood. Granger, again suspicious about his studio’s sometimes Byzantine inner workings, suspected that MGM had planted the articles. That seemed to leave a bad taste in his mouth about the period of his career too.

Having seen the down-to-earth, if perennially self-critical Granger, interviewed over the years on television once or twice, I do recall that when asked about the film, he always seemed to mention the memories of his lifelong injuries sustained to his shoulder and knee during production more than the literate, visual extravaganza that resulted from the work.
He also seemed to have been dissatisfied with his performance, even decades later, which seems a shame. As Granger mentioned in his above interview with Peter, it might be a case of ‘Why the hell didn’t I know I was happy then?’

Some of the sources for the information in this response were:

“Sparks Fly Upward” by Stewart Granger (Granada, 1981)
“Stewart Granger: The Last of the Swashbucklers” by Don Shiach (Aurum, 2006)
The British Journalism Review
BBC Radio

Please allow me to mention a couple of Stewart Granger items I came across while recently re-reading A Life on Film by Michael Powell (as in Powell and Pressburger). Granger heard that the director was preparing a film about the ballet and needed a “girl who could talk and dance.” The newly successful actor, who in Powell’s words was “a guy who knew all the girls”, told him there was “a Scottish girl in the Sadler Wells [ballet]..with red, very red hair. You have to see her!”

One legendary film later, and Moira Shearer will be immortal as the star of one of the best ballet films ever, The Red Shoes (1948).

Another story Powell told about Granger just before Stewart was leaving for Hollywood. On one hectic, rainy late night on the streets of London when Granger was futilely attempting to hail a taxi, his suitcase popped open and his clothes were strewn in the gutter. A passing group of revelers paused to laugh at his plight. Sputtering with rage, he shouted oaths at them, ending with the admonition “Don’t laugh at me! I’m a movie star!”

I honestly don’t know if he was kidding or not. I like to think so.

Btw, I recently came across another interview of Stewart Granger‘s in 1970. Perhaps he was trying to mollify an insistent reporter, but he mentioned that perhaps there was one film in which he thought he was passable as an actor: Waterloo Road (1944), in which he played a bounder, but a modern, realistic one who’s a Cockney sweet-talker in a story set during WWII. The BFI tells more about this Sydney Gilliat feature here

Great interview! I really enjoyed it as Stewart Granger was always one of my favorites. Would love to see more of your interviews in the future!

M- thanks for allowing Peter to share this with all of us!