Review of The Pride and the Passion (1957) by Brittanie J — 27 Jun 2008
Seriously. Let's think about this for a moment. A period film about the Napoleonic wars starring and Italian and two Americans with notable ways of speaking. Oh, this is going to go well.
Cary Grant can *kind* of pass for English - he was negligible in Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion" where I don't think they really said specifically that he was English (I could be wrong). But in this film his beautiful way of talking becomes a joke trying to believe he is an officer of the Queen's navy.
Sophia Loren is easily the most talented of the group, and being Italian, her Spanish accent is far better than Frank Sinatra's, but it's as though she gives up at some points.
And Frank. Dear old Frank. Half the time, his Spanish accent is okay, but the other half he regresses into full blown New York, like he learned his Spanish accent from Mexican immigrants who've been living in the Bronx for ten years.
But enough about that. Apart from not knowing how to get anything good from good people, this film lacks in the plot department - trying to get a giant cannon out to storm a town? Oy vey. Love triangle? How tired. (But not as tired as the totally uninteresting directing choices.).
Still, it's not a total loss, and some of the scenery is quite lovely. Lovely but average score for the studio era, George Antheil's score is the middle of mediocrity. There are some clever maneuvers surrounding the cannon, though the 2 hr+ movie is hardly worth watching to see how they deal with an oversized gun.
This review of The Pride and the Passion (1957) was written by Brittanie J on 27 Jun 2008.
The Pride and the Passion has generally received mixed reviews.
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