The Pride and the Passion

The Pride and the Passion - soundtrack (1957)

Format: Vinyl: Captitol Records High Fidelity Recording (mono) W873

The Film:

We begin our survey of the Pride record vault with very rare soundtrack recording. The Pride and the Passion was released to theaters in 1957 and is one of those Hollywood epics that were very popular at the time. The film was not the massive success that movies like Ben Hur would be, nor is it anywhere near as great as that film. The film takes place during the Napoleonic wars, specifically when Napoleon was taking over Spain. The film had a triple threat of star power to lure audiences into theaters. Cary Grant plays an English general who needs to get a giant cannon 1,000 miles to a Spanish peninsula. This is not one his better performances and one of the things that stops the film from being great is the acting throughout. Even worse is Frank Sinatra as Miguel, a Spanish hotheaded lunkhead. You'll get a kick out of hearing Sinatra try to mimic a Spanish accent. You won't be impressed but you need to see this performance to believe it. Much better is Sophia Lauren as the sexy and feisty Juana. You can see why many men went gaga over her in the 50's. With her low-cut blouse and hypnotic eyes, she oozes sex, especially in the skinny dipping scene. The film drags a little here and there but over all it is one of those old fashioned adventure stories for the whole family. (No nudity in the aforementioned skinny dipping scene...I think...) Once things get moving and they start lugging that huge cannon, things stay interesting throughout. I'd recommend the film as long as you are not expecting too much out of it. You can get it on DVD in non-anamorphic letterbox format for $8 on amazon. As long as you zoom the picture on a wide screen set it will look just fine. The Vista Vision is slightly cropped but you won't notice it and the Technicolor comes through fairly well. The sound is passable, so that's why you might want to get the soundtrack. You can get it on CD but I bet the vinyl is better although very expensive on the used market.

George Antheil (1900-1959):

George Antheil wrote the music for this film and was a notable composer in his own right, as were many film composers in this period. He was born in 1900 in Trenton, New Jersey (near where my mom grew up). He studied composition with Ernest Bloch in 1919 and wrote his first symphony during that period. He had financial problems here in America so in 1922 he moved to Europe to persue a career as a concert pianist. He was very successful and helped to spread his own music as well. He met Igor Stravinsky in the 1920's and this greatly affected his writing style. He was particularly  interested in Stravinsky's use of polyrhythms. Antheil's compositions reflected his interest in machines and time space theories, especially his Airplane Sonata for piano. He moved to Paris in 1923 and became one of the crowd of great French intellectuals of that period, hanging with such people as James Joyce, Ezra Pound (who championed his music), Eric Satie, Picasso and many others. His music has been compared to the cubist painters, being made up of rhythmically activated blocks and repeating ostinato patterns. A good example of his style would be the chamber piece from 1926 Ballet mecanique, which was originally meant to accompany a film. I think the piece is great and predicts the music of future minimalists like Phillip Glass and John Adams, but the piece was a flop when it was premiered in New York in 1927, although it had been a hit in Paris. This reception in America hurt his career.

Because of this unfortunate event, he changed his style to a "fundamentally American" style in the 1930's and 1940's , probably influenced by the success of Aaron Copland. Pieces like his Fourth Symphony borrow from American folk tunes, something he also does in the soundtrack to The Pride and the Passion. I find his work from the 1920's to be much more interesting and I would highly recommend you check it out. He moved back to America for good in 1933 and began to write for musical theater. He moved to Hollywood in 1936 and made a ton of money writing film scores for 33 movies. His film score writing is the Romantic style of the film score composers of that period.

The soundtrack:

The soundtrack to The Pride and the Passion was written near the end of Antheil's life. Although it does sound like a typical Hollywood movie score, you feel you are in very capable hands and there are some very nice passages throughout the score. The album starts off with the Main Theme, which sounds a lot like Ravel's "Bolero." This music recurs throughout the film every time the huge cannon makes an appearance. The second track is a delightful Flamenco. The whole album might be of interest to classical guitar players because of Antheil's effective use of the instrument. This track is lifted straight from the movie, which will give you a chance to see the types of guitars flamenco players use and the way they use  all five fingers of the right hand to strum the chords. That is, if you can take your eyes off Sophia Lauren...

Like many scores of this period, each character  has his or her own leitmotif. The British Captain's motif (Track 3) uses an English chorale tune to suggest his nationality compared to everyone else in the movie, who is either Spanish or French. Grant's theme is a bit more classical than the others. There are still a few Neapolitan chords to keep our minds in Spain, but this adds a nice variety to the score. "Windmill Camp at Night" is absolutely beautiful and uses the classical guitars to play an ostinato pattern against the spanish-inflected melody. This shows Antheil's command of creative orchestration, even within this rather conservative style. The rest of side 1 is less interesting but is still pleasing in that nostalgic "old Hollywood" way. Antheil continues to quote snippets of folk tunes both Spanish and French throughout. In the film, this helps you keep straight which army is which.

Side 2 is not as good as Side 1. It's mostly cliche Spanish-influenced music for the most part. The second track is wholesale ripoff of Ravel's Bolero and uses many of the same types of modal scales that Ravel used. The track ends with a Hollywood happy ending, which just seems...wrong! I was looking forward to "Miguel's Theme" (you know, Sinatra as a Spaniard). What a disappointment! This theme is just a pleasant, innocent little melody. I guess it show's that Sinatra's character is just a harmless, ignorant Latino, reflecting the racism in Hollywood at the time towards this group. No, Sinatra never breaks into song in the movie...thankfully! Don't get me wrong. I love Sinatra (as you will soon find out when we get the "S" section of my collection), but I'm really glad he didn't sing a flamenco for us!
"The Procession" adds a choir and we get a little bi-tonality at the end, which is nice and looks back a little to Antheil's writing in the 1920's. His writing for choir reflects a French influence in the harmonies, which are not just traditional triadic harmonies. Make no mistake, though. This music will remind you of the music in those Biblical epics popular at the time. Is Antheil's music here suggesting a Christ-like self-sacrifice on the parts of the main characters as they prepare to give their lives for their cause? The record ends with the end titles, which brings back the choir and the Bolero rhythm again to no great effect.

So, do I recommend this album? Like the movie, don't expect greatness and you'll be pleasantly...um, pleased. The best track is "Windmill Camp at Night" and Side 1 stays pretty interesting throughout. I think you will enjoy the soundtrack more if you see the movie. That way, the soundtrack will be sort of a "souvenir" you can "take home" with you after the show, which is all you could take home back in 1957 unless you had a small theater in you cellar and a lot of money. I like the cover, too and the CD is just plain small and pathetic. Anti Vista Vision!

The mono sound is fine and a lot better than the DVD. Again, don't expect a sonic spectacular and you'll be fine. The sound is natural and doesn't sound processed, which is all you can expect. If you have turntable (you do. don't you?!!) and you see it for cheap at a yard sale definitely pick it up. If it's stereo...it's not, so avoid that. The film is mono.

UP NEXT:
And now, for something completely different: A rather brief survey of the music of Primus and an answer to the question, "Does Primus suck?"