The Pride and the Passion (1957)

So much average

Instant Favorite.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This spectacle movie is packed with noisy action , fights , uncomfortably cast , breathtaking Spanish outdoors and epic happenings . It deals with a small group of resistance fighters who form a vintage Spanish guerrilla led by an illiterate peasant called Miguel (Frank Sinatra who replaced Marlon Brando) battling for Spanish independence in 1810 and all of them must struggle a 6 ton cannon across the rugged terrain of Spain in order to help the British defeat the French commanded by General Jouvet (Theodore Bikel) . This enormous gun , perhaps the largest in the world at that time , to be destined to pull down the Avila walls . Meanwhile , along the way a British officer , named Anthony (Gary Grant who was utterly in love with Loren) joins the bunch , but then the protagonists have an affair and he falls in love for Juana (Sophia Loren in his first English-speaking role and she obtained $200,000 for her work on this big production) , the leader's sweetheart and the woman who get them both on fire . In this spectacular but silly flick there are epic events , battles , a love triangle , historical events and a cast of thousands . The flick describes the efforts , sacrifices and hardships to transport such a gigantic cannon throughout Spain and how it must be covered from the Bonaparte army . Based on a novel titled ¨The Gun¨ by CS Forester's about Napoleon's Iberian campaign in which Guerrilleros have to move a huge cannon chased by the Napoleonic forces . This is still a slog through an overlong , and tiring script by the prestigious Edward Anhalt ; however , the film results to be epic , thrilling , overwhelming and impressive , especially on Avila's final battle . Miscasting actors , specially of Frank Sinatra as a Spanish countryman hurt the movie . As Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra are a passable but uncomfortable duo , playing as two heroes struggling to lug a vast cannon within range of the Napoleonic wars , they considered themselves to be miscast in this film . Cary Grant had sworn never to make another historical film after the disastrous The Howards of Virginia (1940) , he made an exception for this film to star with other tower-box office actors as Sinatra and Loren . In fact , Sophia Loren got a great amount of money for her work in this big-budgeted super-production . This was one of two films Sophia Loren and Cary Grant starred in together , the other was Houseboat or Cintia (1958) by Melville Shavelson . As Sophia Loren is gorgeous as the rebellious girl providing the love interest on both , Grant and Sinatra . Support cast is frankly excellent , plenty of notorious Spanish secondaries as José Nieto , Carlos Casaravilla , Carlos Larrañaga , Xan Das Bolas , Emilio Rodríguez , Julian Ugarte , Barta Barri , Felix De Pomes , and Spanish ex-president Adolfo Suarez as extra and many others . Colorful cinematography in Technicolor by Franz Planer supported by Spanish cameraman Manuel Berenguer , being shot on location in Ciudad Encantada , Cuenca , Castilla-La Mancha , El Escorial's monastery , El Escorial, Madrid , Santiago de Compostela , A Coruña , Galicia , Segovia Roman Aqueduct , Segovia , Castilla y León, and Toledo and Valdemoro Madrid . Furthermore , it contains a rousing , evocative and sensitive musical score by George Antheil .This spectacularly solemn film and full of sound and fury was well produced/directed by Stanley Kramer but flopped in box office . By that time to be said that this producer Stanley Kramer himself wants really to pull down the Avila walls to make more realist the finale scenes . He was a successful filmmaker who had several hits , such as : Fugitives , It's a mad , mad mad world , Inherit the wind , Judgement at Núremberg , On the beach , Ship of fools , The secret of Santa Vittoria , The Domino Principle , Guess who's coming to dinner , among others .

Anyone who thinks Cary Grant is always worth watching should tune into this. Grant starts out fine (doing a bit of business in a coach) but he either was not allowed to continue in that vein or . . . well, whatever the reason, he quickly becomes as boring as all the flat Spanish scenery.Set during the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, "The Pride and the Passion" takes a story of Horatio Hornblower's creator C. S. Forester called "The Gun" and blows it up to an epic scale it doesn't deserve (I suppose calling the movie "The Gun" might have made moviegoers think it was a gangster flick--too bad, the film flopped at the box office when a gangster flick might have drawn them in).Sinking with Grant is the woefully miscast Frank Sinatra. Gossip had it Sinatra had, and gave, problems behind the scenes. Who cares? What ends up on the screen is all that matters, and sometimes movies enduring the worst tensions produce sprightly results (cf the "Pink Panther" films of Sellers and Edwards, who had a legendary hate affair). Here Sinatra, who can bring incredible energy to a part, is just awful with his dreadful Spanish accent and his even more dreadful toupee. It would be interesting to know how the film makers got stuck with him rather than, say, Anthony Quinn; or even Ricardo Montalban. And he says such clever things, like "I will only let him kill him a little." Ha ha ha.To break up the tensions between two miscast male actors is male eye-candy Sophia Loren. With a chestnut-red hair color Loren, a Spanish peasant by way of Italy who says lines like, "Nobody knows him better than I," is stuck in a totally thankless role where her two best parts are in her cleavage. Sorry to be frank but that's the size of it--so to speak. In a tight bodice always just about to slip off her shoulder, Loren provides wonderfully statuesque poses that show off figure, and little else. She's not as tiresome of Liz Taylor, in full histrionic mode in "Cleopatra." But she isn't on screen as long, either.As far as the actors go only the always reliable Jay Novello, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-him part, brings any life to the movie.Even exciting parts (we know they're exciting because the music cues us), such as when a Napoleonic camp is destroyed by fireballs, or when Grant gets involved in a knife fight, are yawn inducing. Grant's knife fight is so drab they have to shoot it through a windmill to give it any sort of interest at all (which isn't much).Spectacles can be made so that it's impossible to tear your eyes away from them (see the best of David Lean). But "The Pride and the Passion" is horribly written, incompetently structured; it's full of tiresome tropes (even by 1957 standards), performed by a cast of usually good but miscast actors, stodgily directed. Who needs it?

See it - This big sweeping epic has gotten a bum rap over the years. Most people want to focus on the improper casting of Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. But its time to look past that. This is a pretty good movie. I like it because it is one of the few major motion pictures that was made about the Napoleonic Wars. At the heart of this movie, it's a drama. But it's hard to find a drama with this much action. It's the story of Spanish soldiers who transport a huge cannon halfway across the country to lay siege to a castle held by the French. Along the way they attack a French camp, blow up a bridge, and we even get to watch a knife fight amongst windmills. All of this leads up to the final crescendo at the enemy castle. This film is old school, but its time we brought this larger than life war movie into a new light.

Really, you know; you lot are a hard crowd to please.Yes; the stars are miscast. Yes; they're often unbelievable. And yes; the dialogue is crass and wooden.But c'mon; it's still good for a laugh. There's some wonderful filming of the Spanish countryside. We have a cast of - well - several, if not thousands. And there's plenty of fun, if rather campy, high drama. There's Frank Sinatra in his prime. There's Cary Grant ageing gracefully. And there's Sophia Loren, arguably the most beautiful women in Hollywood history, at her ripest and most voluptuous. Now; whaddaya want? Yet the real star is mute. And that is the big, big siege-gun. We almost take it for granted because it's a bit of equipment that has no lines, yet it steals every take in which it is featured. The interesting conflicts of logic that it will be heavier descending a hill than going up is eloquently conveyed when it breaks loose and goes hurtling down and across fields, flattening everything in its path.The intrigue between this colossal cannon and its elusive nature, and the French inability to trace it is one of the fun issues of the movie.Gradually, a peasant army is attracted to the thing and the symbol of freedom it represents. Their gun assumes a personality cult as real as that of Lenin or Che Guevera. Simply by existing it generates resistance.World-weary 'Anthony' played by Cary Grant knows what's in store for these tragic idealists. Despite their huge weapon they'll be slaughtered en-masse. But they're idealists, and must take what comes.What comes is victory. Though as was evident to viewers all along, it's a very Pyrrhic one. The competition for the heroine is not only resolved by the death of a hero, but also the death of the heroine.If I have a gripe with the movie, it is with the depiction of the siege itself. Instead of firing directly at the wall, the gun is aimed obliquely, and the breach requires the attackers to run the gauntlet of the whole side of the undamaged facade with its cannons and marksmen. That's quite absurd. It should have been a head-on attack. Still, it provides plenty of red drama, which is undoubtedly its absurd purpose.There's an inspiring, equally melodramatic theme music pitched somewhere between 'March Of The Torreodores' and 'Bolero' that pipes it along, and despite the corn you can't help but get caught-up in this wonderful costume-drama. With Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, and one of the most phallic props in movie history, how could you do otherwise. This is the perfect mush for rainy Saturday afternoons.Wish for a wet weekend and cheer 'em along.