Just what I expected

Awesome Movie

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Here was Kramer's first chance to make a great motion picture and as a big classic-Hollywood-studio-epic-period-adventure he does a fine job: big, good looking, complicated crowd and action scenes. But...(Confidential!) The studio gave him Sinatra, who had no business being cast as a Spanish peasant and who only took the job (from a real actor) to be able to keep track of Ava Gardener while she was filming in Spain. In the meantime, Grant was distracted by heavy Sophia lust...(She says he never got any!) If you like the stars, if you like old fashioned Hollywood, if you like Napoleonic adventures, it entertains.

Where was Eli Wallach? Where was J. Carrol Naish? Where was anyone else the day Frank Sinatra was cast as a Spaniard in The Pride and the Passion? You know me, I love Frank Sinatra's acting career even more than his singing career, so if I tell you his performance was terrible, it really was. You don't have to waste two and a half hours of your time to find out if I'm right.Stanley Kramer, three years before his epic Spartacus, took on The Pride and the Passion, an epic Napoleonic war movie. Yes, there are thousands of extras, on-location filming, extensive battle scenes, and Cary Grant in a uniform. But the movie stinks. Sophia Loren, at only twenty-three-years-old, spent virtually the entire movie showing off her bosom to the audience, and despite their real-life affair, there were no sparks flying between her and Cary Grant. And given the choice between Cary Grant in a uniform and Frank Sinatra in schlumpy clothes and a laughable accent, is there really any suspense? So much for a love triangle. I can't recommend this movie, unless you really love tedious war epics.

From an old post:" 2) The Gun that's a huge fifty-foot cannon: There are two scenes that I have very vivid memories of. In the first the gun is suspended somehow a hundred feet up in the air over a wooded road, hidden from the French troops. It's night, the Frenchmen march underneath the gun and never look up. There's a line from one of the Spanish, "Why should they look up?" In the second scene, they're hauling the cannon up a mountain (!?) when the restraints break and the gun careens back down the mountain and crashes. "Those details are not from the movie, but from the comic-book version; I had that comic in addition to Forester's 'The Gun', both of which I purchased and read immediately after watching the movie when it first played in the theaters.I specifically remember that "up in the air over the road" comic-book deviation from the movie, it was the first of many details, and the one that I felt was most ridiculous, that disappointed me about the comic-book adaptation; and, I have the movie DVD now, and have watched it recently to confirm various details. In the movie, it's a gully, not a road, the only road is above. The comic-book deviated many times from the movie details.

The movie is set in the Napoleonic era.The British officer Anthony (Cary Grant) leads a group of Spanish guerrillas across Spain to help in the capture of Ávila and with them they're hauling a big cannon.Anthony starts having feelings for the leader Miguel's (Frank Sinatra) girl Juana (Sophia Loren).Stanley Kramer directed The Pride and the Passion in 1957.It's not the best example of historical movies but works OK.Cary Grant's charisma alone could carry the movie.Then there's Frank Sinatra opposite him.There may be a little problem with Sinatra playing a Spaniard and he did a better job in many other movies but was there really anything Frank couldn't pull off.Sophia Loren looks very appealing as Juana so no wonder men fall for her.There's some chemistry there at the kissing scenes between Grant and her.Theodore Bikel plays General Jouvet.This movie looks quite handsome with the scenery and all.This is a movie that's good to see if you don't have anything better to do.