Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
utgard14
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?
mungfish
Holy Ned, where does one start? This was just plain awful and Cary Grant must have been broke to star in this train wreck. Frank Sinatra had a terrible New Jersey Spanish accent (Jew want sumppin'?). Sophia Loren displayed her cleavage in the same outfit throughout the film. She had very little else to offer. The musical score was tedious and loud. The writing and direction was amateurish. Kramer didn't know how to proceed or how to end this debacle. Lots of extras were hired to fill out mob scenes and supposedly epic pageantry. It all fell flat and did nothing to better the lame plotting. It seemed that Kramer knew the movie was bad and he used lots and lots of diversionary long shots of thousands of extras to distract us from the tedium. Would liked to have given this POS zero stars, but the format didn't allow it.
tbssic
So,,, you have 1000 people and countless mules dragging a giant sized cannon,,, up hill, down hill, side hill,, literally all over the Spanish countryside,,, leaving a trail that Helen Keller could follow??? But 10 citizens a day will be executed until the cannon is found,,,, because the entire French army is unable to locate this thing??? A 1000 kilometer trek that must have taken months????? I don't mean to nit pick but this seems to be a "bit" of a flaw to me.Frank Sinatra as a Spanish patriot???? Maybe,, if not for the fact that every time he opened his mouth,, that phony Spanish accent made my stomach lurch.There is a song and dance number in the movie the features Sophia Loren's two big guns that is worth watching,,, if you love big guns. Her performance seemed to have the same effect on Cary Grant as it did on me,,,, major wood... Stiff and emotionless as I've ever seen him.. The only spark in the entire movie is when the cannon is fired..So,,, what you have here is a 132 minute movie with 2 minutes of dance,, 5 minutes of battle scenes,,, 10 minutes meaningless dialogue and 115 ponderous minutes of cannon dragging.... If you happen to be into cannon dragging,,, this is a must see.....
jamdonahoo
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.
