Much ado about a cannon in this overlong piece of historical hokum. British naval officer Cary Grant works with Spanish guerrilla fighter Frank Sinatra (!) to retrieve a huge cannon thrown away by the French. Sinatra and Grant want to transport the big gun across Spain to give it back to Napoleon, only not the way he might like. Speaking of big guns, sexy Sophia Loren plays Sinatra's woman. Grant naturally falls for her. Who can blame him? Grant seems bored most of the time. He only comes to life to smooch Sophia. Even his many scenes yelling at Frank are lifeless. Sinatra is badly miscast in one of his worst roles. His hair! Oh lord his hair! Loren looks ravishing and has a memorable dance scene. It's a good looking movie, with lots of nice Spanish scenery and a fine score by George Antheil. But the script is terrible and the limited premise doesn't support a film this long. I mean really how much footage of people pulling a cannon do you need to see?

The huge, ponderous canon is an apt metaphor for a lumbering, ponderous movie with almost nothing going for it despite a trio of 'stars' who were also accomplished actors - when they put their minds to it - spectacular scenery and, on paper, a 'bowy own paper' adventure story just made to put bums on seats. Alas, Edward and Edna Anhalt, the husband-and-wife writing team failed to add any flair to C.S. Forrester's staid novel, The Gun, least of all believably dialogue and the lack of chemistry between all three leads has to be seen to be believed, especially since the woman in question was Sophia Loren, who enjoyed a passionate off-screen romance with Grant but incredibly brought none of the fire onto the set. Sinatra more or less phoned it in and I speak as a lifelong admirer of both his singing and acting. In sum: one to miss.

There are two big reasons to watch this film. The giant cannon which is the real star of the movie and Miss Loren's bosoms. No make that three reasons. Cary Grant, after his dreadful performance in The Howard's of Virginia seventeen years earlier, had vowed never to make another costume drama but was lured back to the genre perhaps because of the proximity of Sophia. Unfortunately his role in TP&TP was just about as ludicrous. Cary prances around Spain in a costume that made him look like Gainsborough's Blue Boy. Sinatra was woefully miscast as a Spanish revolutionary and he is laughable in the role. The movie should be watched, not purchased, for the laughs and Miss Loren's considerable physical attributes.

I was a bit more than a kid when I saw "The Pride and the Passion" for the first time in theatres back in the late 50's and I remember I thought it was kind of slow and even boring at times. But then I saw it again not long ago and surprisingly -because it usually goes the other way around- I found it a watchable and sort of interesting epic spectacular in the times when Napoleon ruled in Spain.Though "The Pride and the Passion" doesn't match in my opinion other directing works of Stanley Kramer such as "The Defiant Ones" or "Judgment at Nuremberg", this film has a sort of heroic and epic that reaches a reasonable level. It has well dosed and skillfuly handled action sequences, wide open sceneries in Spain, good color photo and a very appropriate musical score that gives it a sense of greatness. However I still think it could have been a bit shorter and that would have improved the product.Cary Grant renders a very convincing performance as the British officer that knows how to shoot the huge cannon; Sophia Loren is good too and Frank Sinatra, if not brilliant whatsoever, comes out acceptably as an Spanish "guerrillero" leader and by the middle of the film you get used to him.Not a classic or even a classical late 50's or early 60's epic spectacular "The Pride and the Passion" is an acceptable historical action film worth a watch.