The Pride and the Passion 1957

The Pride and the Passion 1957

The Pride and the Passion is a 1957 American Napoleonic-era war film in Technicolor and VistaVision from United Artists, produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, and starring Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren. The film co-stars Theodore Bikel and Jay Novello

The film‘s storyline concerns a British Royal Navy artillery officer who has orders to retrieve a huge siege cannon from Spain and transport it by ship to British forces

But first, the leader of the Spanish guerrillas wants to transport the weapon 1,000 km (620 mi) across Spain to help in the recapture of the city of Ávila from the occupying French before he releases it to the British

Most of the film deals with the hardships of transporting the cannon to Ávila across rivers and over mountains, while also evading the occupying French forces that have been ordered to find it

A sub-plot concerns the struggle for the love of the Spanish woman Juana (Loren) by the two male protagonists

The film 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

The film industry loves romance. Love infiltrates every genre. It’s in big budget action and in small budget horror. It’s in comedies of all shapes and sizes (not just the ones with a “rom” tacked on front)

The near-universal applicability of this tango between two people isn’t surprising, or even a bad thing, as it’s key to most of our real life lives

The absence of love in fictional narratives would be to deny the emotional bonds that spin us through our own day-to-day existence

The Pride and the Passion has four stars – Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, and a massive cannon. And it’s the cannon that gives the best performance

Based on the 1933 novel The Gun by C.S. Forester, The Pride and the Passion is set in Spain in 1810, during the Napoleonic Wars

As the French Army advances, the retreating Spanish put their massive prize cannon out of action by pushing it into a ravine. Spain’s British allies come to take possession of the cannon, and when their representative, Royal Navy officer Captain Anthony Trumbell (Cary Grant) arrives, the Spanish guerillas agree to help recover the gun. But their condition is that it’s taken first to the town of Avila to use against the French

The Pride and the Passion (1957)

The Pride and the Passion (1957)