Carting that cannon again: Stanley Kramer's THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION hits Blu-ray

I had forgotten what a slough this 1957, star- and artillery-heavy movie actually is -- plot-wise and metaphorically speaking -- as Gary Grant,
Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren, with the help of multitudinous Spanish extras, drag the largest cannon in the known world from one spot in Spain to another to keep the weapon out of the hands of Napoleon's army and eventually do some real damage to that army and its leadership.

It has been nearly 60 years since TrustMovies (back then a Los Angeles-based high-school student not much interested in world history) saw the film upon its initial release. He remembered it as big and long and heavy and occasionally actionful. It still is. Based on the C.S. Forester novel, The Gun -- a title that is short, smart and on the nose -- the movie was re-titled in typical Hollywood fashion to THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION and then handed to the thinking-man's hack director Stanley Kramer to make "meaningful." Or money-making. The former didn't happen, and despite the starry cast, I don't think the latter did, either.

Watching it now on the good Blu-ray transfer from Olive Films, the first thing you may notice is that all those thousands of extras are actual people, not CGI effects. My, god -- how did they do it! (Despite some gorgeous architecture and scenery, some of the backdrops we see are noticeably hand-painted.)  The film's very weak screenplay (by Edna and Edward Anhalt is given over to either logistics about the movement of that cannon or to the almost completely uninteresting would-be triangle love story in which Ms Loren's character moves from rebel leader Sinatra over to British military man Grant.

You can see from the old still above, compared to the new one below, how color has come back into the film with its new transfer. Mr. Grant, dapper as ever and assuming a nicely upper-crust Brit accent, looks as good as usual,

but Mr. Sinatra, below and bedded down, looks particularly scrawny in these loose Spanish period costumes. He also appears quite unhappy most of the time, which he was said to be during the shooting of the film.

For her part, Ms Loren simply smoulders, while trying half-heartedly to make peace between her guys. Because the only real concern here is getting that cannon to its destination, the love story seems less and less important and more and more ridiculous as the movie drags on. Characterization is at a minimum, particularly concerning Loren's role -- which has no real place in the proceedings.

The actress wears cleavage-exposing blouses throughout (and why not, with a body like that!), but the fact that she is often the only woman we see along for this ride makes her role seem all the more pointless. There's a very long "dance" number about one-third of the way in that goes on and on (it may be the single longest scene in the film and it adds nothing to the plot), but it does make you wonder if shaking that beautiful body wasn't the entire reason for casting the actress. (This was only her second American movie, after Boy on a Dolphin, with her Oscar-wining performance in Two Women still three years away.)

Kramer handles some of the action scenes with enough skill to keep us interested, and the film's scenery, scope, and that enormous cannon (below) do the rest. The movie is a curiosity that might be worth a rental, but not perhaps a purchase -- unless you are overly smitten with the stars or the artillery.

From Olive Films and running two hours and twelve minutes, the new Blu-ray transfer of The Pride and the Passion, is presented in 1.78:1 and was created using the best materials available, with a slight modification of the aspect ratio to better fit the home viewing experience. The movie is available now, on both Blu-ray and DVD, for purchase or rental. (Unlike the recently-covered Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, Netflix actually offers this one for rental.)

Hairy Cary! The subtle pompadour is back, as BAM fêtes the one-and-only Mr. Grant

There's never been another male movie star like Cary Grant (that's he at right, as if you didn't know) -- a sexy romantic lead who was also funnier (and subtler) than most comedians. And so good looking. Yet rarely, if ever, did he change his hair style (nor, for that matter, his characterization).  He didn't need to: That barely-rising, pitch-black near-pompadour seemed to suit him to a T, as did every role he undertook. The hair, like his handsome face, was something you could always count on.

No one else has captured the Grant magic, though in our modern era, George Clooney's come closest in his ability to effortlessly combine romance and comedy. Still, there's only one Cary (there he is, above, center, in Once Upon a Time) and for those who want to see him in all his glory -- and on the big screen -- BAMcinématek will accommodate, starting this Friday, July 9, with a 21-day, 20-film salute, its second in as many years. Most of these are movies you'll have seen, perhaps in bits and pieces via television, so the chance to view them screened in a theater may be awfully tempting.

The characters Cary played rarely changed; instead, the actor simply expanded or retracted a bit now and again to show us another, slightly different quality belonging to the Cary Grant who might appear in a wartime comedy (above, center, in the somewhat over-rated I Was a Male War Bride, with Ann Sheridan, right) or a wartime drama (below, left, in Destination Tokyo).  His work for Hitchcock is legendary (and you've probably seen those four films maybe eight or ten times, right?), but what about his early comedies?  Those with Mae West and Ginger Rogers, probably. 

There's at least one film I wager you'll not have viewed: THIRTY DAY PRINCESS (below). One of Grant's earlier movies (from 1934: amazingly enough, this man acted in 14 films in the two years previous to this one!), it also features Sylvia Sidney (below, right) and Edward Arnold, while providing the opportunity to see the actor learning on the job.  His crack timing is still developing, and so, in fact, is his way around the romantic lead.  If he's a bit too hesitant, the actor seems to have innately understood that one simply does not push.  Instead, even if the timing is a tad off, he holds back and charms us -- and his leading lady -- with a sex appeal that's as reticent (and sometimes funny) as it is unstoppable.

If Grant is perhaps the least of this film, everyone else is aces. Thirty Day Princess is Ms Sidney's movie,  and she is simply wonderful in it, playing dual roles as a smart, appealing New York actress and the charming titular princess of a country called "Taronia."  From the mud bath scene that begins the film (don't get excited: the bathers are Edward Arnold and the wonderfully dapper Henry Stephenson), we're in early Hollywood's idea of a tiny foreign kingdom, and a dearer place it would be hard to imagine. The movie is one of those throw-away comedies that were probably produced in record time and left audiences happily contented in the knowledge that Wall Street and Main Street are in the same boat, helping each other like good troupers should.

Among the film's four writers is one, Preston Sturges (shown left), and that fact alone should have buff's salivating a bit. If Sturges, like Grant, has not yet mastered full dexterity here, the film still offers some verbal alacrity.  Visual, too: at one point there's a sudden, very funny roomful of look-alike coppers.  The movie's a little choppy, and the pacing is sometimes off, yet its charm and spirit, like Ms Sidney's, conquers all. Thirty Day Princess -- in a newly struck 35mm print -- open BAM's Cary Grant series this Friday, July 9, with screenings at 4:30, 6:50 and 9:15.

You can find the entire series here.  And getting to BAM is easier than I imagined.  Obtain your directions -- subway, bus, address, etc. -- here.

All photos are from the films themselves, 
except that of Mr. Grant, at top 
-- from 1940 by Scotty Welbourne, © MPTV Image 
and courtesy of mptvimages.com -- 
and the photo of Preston Sturges, 
which comes courtesy of Wikipedia.