The Pride and the Passion (1957)

FOREIGN TITLES & RELEASE DATES

USA (Hollywood/New York City, Capitol Theater) -

July 6, 1957 - The Pride and the Passion - 132'

France (Paris) -

December 4, 1957 - Orgueil et passion

Italy - December 1957 - Orgoglio e passione

West Germany -

December 20, 1957 - Stolz und Leidenschaft - 134'

Spain - December 1957 - Orgullo y pasión - 150'


Spanish poster	Italian poster	French poster	American DVD

PLOT

In 1810, in Spain, Napoleonic troops force the Spanish army to retreat. Several guerillas led by Miguel, assisted by British troops under the command of Captain Trumbull, want to seize an abandoned cannon. After many mishaps, they finally succeed. As it happens, however, Juana, Miguel’s girlfriend, falls in love with Trumbull, who loves her in return: this incites the jealousy of the Spanish rebel, who no longer wants to obey the British captain’s orders. The cannon’s advance undergoes delays, but at the price of enormous sacrifices the Spanish transport it to the walls of Avila and bombard the city, conquering it. Juana and Miguel are fatally wounded as the French flee and the Spanish sing a hymn to victory. (Enrico Lancia)
Story based on the novel 'The Gun' by C.S. Forester (1933).

FILMING LOCATIONS

Ciudad Encantada, Toledo, Torrelaguna (Spain)
Santiago de Compostela, Ávila, Segovia, El Escorial (Spain)
Valdemoro's plaza mayor (Spain)
Paramount Studios, Hollywood (USA)

Filming dates: April - July 1956

Sophia flies to Madrid on April 10 and is back to Rome on July 22.

MAIN CAST

Cary Grant (Captain Anthony Trumbull)
Frank Sinatra (Miguel)
Sophia Loren (Juana)

CREDITS

Photography (Technicolor, Vista Vision):
Franz Planer
Costumes Designer:
Joe King
Sophia's Makeup Artists:
John O’Gorman
Sophia's Hair Stylist:
Grazia De Rossi
Music:
George Antheil
Still photographers:
Sam Shaw, Ernst Haas, Federico Patellani, Ken Danvers
Sophia's voice is dubbed by:
Edith Schneider (German), Mari Angeles Herranz (Spanish).
Production:
Stanley Kramer for United Artists

NOTES

Sophia's cachet of the movie is $ 200,000.

Sophia is in Madrid in February to learn the rudiments of bullfighting from Luis Miguel Dominguin and takes Flamenco lessons in order to prepare for the shooting.

There are plans to have Ava Gardner in Sophia's role as Juanita. The rumors end when Sophia is signed for the picture.

Sophia steps on her foot during a dance and busts a bone in June.

The film almost doesn't start on schedule because of a dispute over the number of buttons Sophia's blouse should be buttoned in order to get the scene passed by the censor for each country where the movie is slated to be shown. Sophia is quoted as saying, "If the audience is counting how many buttons I do not have, they will not pay attention to me... it is well known that I have a 93-centimeter measurement so buttons are not important. What is important is the audience knows I am intelligent as well as beautiful." Finally, director Stanley Kramer decides that Sophia is to wear an off-the-shoulder blouse in the scene.

During the shooting in El Escoria, Frank Sinatra has a suite at the Felipe II hotel but once his work is done he prefers daily escapades to Madrid, at the Hotel de la Castellana, where his ex-wife Ava Gandner is staying. He makes the 50-km trip back to El Escorial everyday.

QUOTES AND REVIEWS

"Mimicking a Mafioso all the way, Sinatra kept greeting Sophia with a bantering "You'll get yours," the humor of which never amused her. But when, between takes, he called her "a broad," she denounced him in her early but explicit English as a "mean little son-of-the-bitch" and one hundred onlookers cheered. Taken aback but duly impressed, Sinatra eventually pronounced Sophia 'a gasser'."
Alan Levy, Forever Sophia

"This lusty Loren girl is going to scare the living daylights of of Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner."
Daily Express

"Sophia the gorgeous… sultry, sexy… a Vesuvius of a beauty".
The Daily Herald

"The fascinating Sophia comes off well, even when she attempts a flamenco dance. But her pizzaiola was much better.
Carlo Marcello Reitman, Il Secolo XIX

"She dances moving her breast like a drilling machine, surrendering it to the air for a split second (as though it were lighter than air) and then recovering it or restraining it - almost reassimilating it, one might say - in such a way that we feel robbed of it, God help us."
Giuseppe Marotta, L'Europeo

"And Sophia Loren as the lovely camp follower, who shifts her affection from the first ot the second man, has mostly to play
a sweet peacemaker and string along with the gang."
Bosley Crowther, New York Times, 7 jul 1957

"She's such a good Joe with such a wonderful sense of humor you forget how gorgeous she is. Well, you kind of forget."
Frank Sinatra

"This girl will explode within two or three years as the world's greatest actress. I've worked with some great talents but in this 22-year-old, youngster 1 see the greatest of them all."
Stanley Kramer

"Although Loren is camping along the Spanish countryside with the rebel troops, she manages a few wardrobe changes. For the most part, she is clad demurely in full peasant skirts, with wide belts to set off her small waist, and very tailored peasant bodices. Variations include a ruffled décolletage and layered petticoats, complemented by strappy sandals. All in all, it is uninspired western señorita drag from Hollywood, where Mediterranean and Mexican were apparently interchangeable."
Deirdre Donohue, Sophia Style