One of Cary Grant’s worst movies, The Pride and the Passion is a Napoleonic-era war film in Technicolor, produced and directed by Stanley Kramer and co-starring Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, and Theodore Bikel.
Grade: C- (* out of *****)
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Grant plays a British Royal Navy artillery officer, ordered to retrieve a huge siege cannon from Spain and transport it by ship to British forces.
But first, the leader of the Spanish guerrillas (Sinatra) wants to transport the weapon 1,000 km across Spain to help recapture of the city of Ávila from the occupying French.
The tale deals with the hardships of transporting the cannon to Ávila across rivers and over mountains, while also evading the occupying French forces.
A sub-plot concerns the struggle for the love of the Spanish woman Juana, played by the young and sexy Sophia Loren, by the two male protagonists.
The film’s story and screenplay by Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt are loosely based on the 1933 novel The Gun by C. S. Forester.
Earl Felton contributed an uncredited screenplay re-write, George Antheil composed the music score and Saul Bass designed the opening title sequence.
Credits:
Directed, produced by Stanley Kramer
Screenplay by Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt, based on novel The Gun by C.S. Forester
Music by George Antheil
Cinematography Franz Planer
Edited by Frederic Knudtson
Ellsworth Hoagland
Production company: Stanley Kramer Pictures
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: July 10, 1957 (U.S.)
Running time: 132 min.
Budget $3.7 million
Box office $3.5 million
