Pride and passion
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Pride and passion |
| Original title | The Pride and the Passion |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1957 |
| length | 134 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Stanley Kramer |
| script |
Edna Anhalt , Edward Anhalt |
| production | Stanley Kramer |
| music | George Antheil |
| camera | Franz Planner |
| cut |
Ellsworth Hoagland , Frederic Knudtson |
| occupation | |
| |
Pride and Passion (Original title: The Pride and the Passion ) is an American adventure film by Stanley Kramer from 1957 with Cary Grant , Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren in the lead roles. The novel Die Kanone ( The Gun , 1933) by Cecil Scott Forester served as a literary model .
action
When the Spanish army withdrew from the approaching troops of Napoleon in 1810 , a powerful artillery cannon was left behind. When she is found by locals, British naval officer Anthony Trumbull, who has arrived in Spain, plans to confiscate her. However, Miguel, the leader of the Spanish rebels, the so-called guerrillas , insists on using the cannon in the fight for freedom against the French and first and foremost to liberate his hometown Ávila from the occupying forces. Since Trumbull is the only one far and wide who knows how the cannon is fired, Miguel feels compelled to let Trumbull accompany him on the 1000 kilometer long way to Avila. In addition, around 200 farmers are needed to move the gun, which weighs several tons. A river soon becomes a particularly difficult obstacle. When trying to transport the cannon to the other bank with a huge raft, it is caught by the river and washed against rocks. To recover the cannon, Miguel goes to a nearby bullring and calls on the crowd to help him.
After the cannon could be recovered from the river with combined forces, the rebels encounter a French encampment. Since Miguel doesn't want to take a big detour and prefers to pass the French soldiers directly, fighting if necessary, even though they are in the majority, he and Trumbull get into an argument. In addition, Trumbull feels drawn to Miguel's companion Juana, which increases the tension between the two men, especially since Juana is also beginning to be interested in Trumbull. It is also she who finally persuades Trumbull to take part in the attack against the French. After their victory, Trumbull is appalled when Miguel has two captured soldiers executed. As a result, Juana tells Trumbull that General Jouvet, in command of Ávila, once wanted her and threatened to kill her family if she did not comply. Although she gave in, Jouvet still had her family executed. She then fled to the mountains and only began to live again when she met Miguel. Trumbull gives Juana a kiss and wants to continue fighting for the rebel cause to protect Juana's life.
At the next stop, the rebels raid a village and rob the inhabitants of all food supplies. As a result, there is a knife fight between Trumbull and Miguel's follower Carlos, in which Carlos finally dies. As a company of French infantry is on its march route, Trumbull and a young rebel named Jose blow up a bridge, incapacitating the entire company. Juana and Trumbull then get closer again. The rebels are shot at by French troops on a narrow mountain pass, whereupon the cannon rolls down a mountain and is damaged. In a nearby village they hide the cannon in a church so that it can be repaired safely. When they finally reach Ávila, their entourage includes around 10,000 farmers. The next morning they shoot a large hole with their cannon in the city wall, which is now taken by the rebels in a storm. Many of the farmers die, and Juana is also struck down. When Trumbull finds her, she confesses her love to him with her last words. Miguel is already dead in front of the city walls. Trumbull carries him to the center of Ávila and places the lifeless body at the feet of the statue of St. Teresa . Together with the remaining farmers who pull the cannon behind him, Trumbull leaves the city.
background
Director Stanley Kramer later described the production of Pride and Passion as the most difficult and disappointing experience of his career. For the married author duo Edna and Edward Anhalt , the film was the last work they did together. Before both authors could deliver a finished script, they went their separate ways and refused to continue working together, which is why Kramer had to mediate between them again and again. They divorced a little later.
Casting the film was also difficult. While Cary Grant was sure to play Anthony Trumbull from the start, Marlon Brando was originally supposed to play Miguel. However, since Brando rejected the script, Kramer chose Frank Sinatra . Kramer also saw Ava Gardner , who was married to Sinatra at the time, for the role of Juana. However, she was otherwise tied to the shooting of Die kleine Hütte (1957). Even Gina Lollobrigida was temporarily for the female lead in conversation, turned but already Trapeze (1956) with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis . The Italian film producer Carlo Ponti then convinced Kramer to cast his latest discovery, Sophia Loren , as Juana. Loren's first English-language film became pride and passion . Her knowledge of English was still very limited in 1956, which is why she received additional language training. Cary Grant in particular initially had reservations about the inexperienced young actress. But during the shoot, Grant fell in love with Loren and proposed marriage to her, even though he was married to Betsy Drake and Loren was in a relationship with Ponti.
The shooting took place in Spain from mid-April to the end of September 1956 . The more than twenty different locations included Ávila , Granada , Hoyo de Manzanares , the monastery in San Lorenzo de El Escorial , Santiago de Compostela , Segovia , Seville , Valdemoro and Toledo . According to the autobiography of Stanley Kramer, he had to obtain a filming permit from Spain's dictator Francisco Franco at a personal meeting. Thousands of Spanish extras were hired for crowd scenes, often delaying filming by waving eagerly into the cameras. Three different models were used for the large cannon used in the film. Transporting them across the rough terrain of the locations proved to be particularly difficult. With their real shots, the guns also posed a threat to the staff and crew. From January to February 1957, individual scenes were re-shot in the Universal Studios in California within ten days . According to Kramer, re-shooting was necessary because Frank Sinatra had left the shooting in Spain prematurely for personal reasons and scenes with him could not be realized.
Pride and Passion premiered simultaneously in New York , Los Angeles, and Chicago on June 28, 1957 . The adventure film was first shown in German cinemas on December 20, 1957. In 2004 the film was released on DVD.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films described pride and passion as "[h] historically inadequate, but lavishly staged adventure spectacle". For Cinema , the film was “nice to watch, but pointless”. The result is "[a] elaborately staged, but poor in content". According to Prisma , the film has "some good scenes". However, the star cast seems "rather ridiculous in the historical costumes".
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times called the film "a bombastic adventure story". The action scenes were realized “spectacularly”, but the film lacks “human depth”. Variety was also only impressed by the elaborate production. The film critic Leonard Maltin spoke in retrospect of a "wrongly cast action film". He also came to the conclusion that some scenes were “impressive”, but that the film as a whole looked rather “ridiculous”.
Awards
In 1958, director Stanley Kramer was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award , which David Lean ultimately won for The Bridge on the Kwai .
German version
The German dubbed version was created in Berlin in 1957 .
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Capt. Anthony Trumbull | Cary Grant | Paul Klinger |
| Miguel | Frank Sinatra | Wolfgang Kieling |
| Juana | Sophia Loren | Edith Schneider |
| General Jouvet | Theodore Bikel | Werner Peters |
| Jose | Carlos Larrañaga | Herbert Stass |
Web links
- Pride and passion in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Pride and passion for Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Pictures of the film on cinema.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b cf. Jeff Stafford on tcm.com
- ↑ cf. Notes on tcm.com
- ↑ Pride and Passion. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 12, 2019 .
- ↑ cf. cinema.de ( Memento from November 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ cf. prisma.de
- ↑ “What he is offering precisely is a turgid adventure yarn. […] Such matters […] are staged spectacularly. [...] it has virtually no human depth. " Bosley Crowther : Mighty Canvas . In: The New York Times , June 29, 1957.
- ↑ See The Pride and the Passion . In: Variety , 1957.
- ↑ “Miscast actioner […]. Spectacle scenes […] are impressive; but most of the film is ridiculous. " Leonard Maltin : Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2004 . Plume, 2003, p. 1107.
- ↑ cf. synchrondatenbank.de