"The Pride and the Passion." Topic

A typical Bank Holiday in the UK with nothing worth watching on the telly. Having just bought some of the excellent Spanish Guerillas that Perry have recently released, I was minded to revisit the mid-50s epic starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren and Frank Sinatra in a very dodgy syrup. Very loosely based on Forester's "The Gun", it's a good story. Filmed in Spain (rather than a backlot in California) with a cast of many, many thousands, it looks great (especially on Blu-ray). Sure, the French are all wearing bearskins and the Spanish Army are probably in uniforms borrowed from "War and Peace" but the Guerillas really look the part. From memory, the gun of the novel was an 18pdr(?) but clearly that wasn't big enough for Hollywood. To their credit, the difficulties of dragging a huge cannon cross-country are actually quite realistic. There are some good set pieces and an excellent score so it's worth a watch.

The gun in the book was an 18pdr, but the real gun in the incident on which the book was based was only a 12pdr!

I do like the movie. Especially moving in a Religious parade with it slung under the Marian float IIRC

It,..uh, it WAS heavier on the way down.

A bit of fun admittedly but, if you read C S Forester's 'The Gun', the original source, the story is a lot better.

Always liked that movie, ever since seeing it on Saturday Night at the movies in the early '60s. Even to an 8/9 year old, Sophia was quite the attraction!!

Shot on location with the climactic attack filmed using the actual medieval ramparts of Avila, which the observant will notice have one more tower surviving than commonly recorded, generously contributed by the production's set builders in order to avoid destroying the historic fabric.

Presumably a Risk Assessment wasn't a thing in mid-50s Spain?

link

Thanks CR.

A great link. :-)