The Pride and the Passion Kings Go Forth The Pride and the Passion , a United Artists film took the concert world by storm in 1926 with his Sinatra gave one of his best performances in made in 1957 by producer and director Stanley Ballet Mecanique , which, in addition to its odd this film, and Curtis and Wood are equally ter - Kramer, not only had pride and passion on the instrumentation, included a siren and three air - rific, along with a touching supporting perform - screen, but plenty of pride and passion involv - plane propellers. Its premiere in Paris was scan - ance by Leora Dana. Tying all these plot threads ing stars Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and Sophia dalous, enraging some concertgoers and together is a great score by the great Elmer Loren behind the scenes, as well. A huge pro - resulting in a riot in the street outside the con - Bernstein. duction, with thousands of extras, the film was cert hall. Ultimately, Antheil ended up in Holly - given the lavish treatment by Kramer, shooting wood, where he began scoring films in 1935. 1958 was an incredible year for Elmer Bern - in VistaVision and Technicolor. The off-stage While never achieving the sort of success that stein, writing scores for such disparate films as drama sometimes equaled that being filmed – other Holly-wood film composers did, Antheil’s Desire Under The Elms, Saddle The Wind, both Sinatra and Grant had marriages ending, output was quite varied and he wrote some ter - God’s Little Acre, Anna Lucasta, The Bucca - Grant fell in love with Loren, and Sinatra could - rific scores for such films as The Plainsman, neer, Some Came Running , and Kings Go n’t wait for the film to finish shooting so he could Knock On Any Door, We Were Strangers , The Forth (not to mention his TV work that year). leave and asked Kramer to consolidate his Fighting Kentuckian, Tokyo Joe, House By The Despite the prodigious output for that year, he scenes so he could do just that. River, In A Lonely Place, The Sniper, Not As A provided one of his best scores Kings Go Stranger , and many others. He also wrote six Forth . The music begins with a classic Bern - Adapted from the C.S. Forester novel, The Gun, symphonies and a ballet called Capital Of The stein flourish and war motif, which then intro - The Pride and the Passion takes place in Spain World , which has similarities in feel to his score duces the three-note theme that will morph into during the Napoleonic wars. A British captain for The Pride and the Passion. one of his most lustrous melodies, the theme (played by Grant) is ordered to find and bring for Monique. In fact, it was such a beautiful back to the British lines a large cannon, which The Pride and the Passion is at the top of An - theme that Sammy Cahn wrote a lyric for it and will then be used to attack the French garrison theil’s film work. Symphonic, suffused with Sinatra recorded it, although the song was at Avila. Guerrilla leader Miguel (played by Spanish color, and containing a couple of beau - never part of the film or its soundtrack. The Sinatra) agrees to help the captain transport the tiful choral cues, the music is glorious and score then runs the Bernstein gamut – from ac - gun on its long and difficult journey – tempera - works wonderfully in the film. For those not fa - tion music, to scene-setting music, to romantic tures rise when Juana, Miguel’s mistress, takes miliar with the less outrageous side of the “bad music, to a couple of jazz sequences(featuring a fancy to the captain. General Jouvet, the boy of music,” this score will show that he was Red Norvo, Pete Condoli, and others). It’s Elmer sadistic French commander in Avila will do any - someone who understood how film and music Bernstein from his early period and there’s just thing to find out information about the cannon work, was an expert melodist, and was able to nothing like his music from that era. and its whereabouts. Along the way, there are keep his rather individual musical voice while trials and tribulations, romance, adventure, ex - serving the films he was scoring. Both The Pride and the Passion and Kings Go citement, and a rousing climactic battle scene Forth were originally issued on Capitol in which some survive and some don’t. A year later, United Artists released Kings Go Records. They were issued on CD in the United Forth , which takes place in the final years of Kingdom by Cloud Nine Records (but not cou - The film opened to mixed reviews, although World War II in Southern France. Adapted from pled together) – those issues have been out of most of them praised the production itself. Va - the novel by Harry Joe Brown (who had two print for many, many years. For this release, we riety said, “Top credit must go to the production. other excellent films adapted from his books – have gone back to the original album masters The panoramic, long range views of the march - Stars In My Crown and Addie Pray , which be - housed in the Capitol vaults. For those who ing and terribly burdened army, the painful fight came Paper Moon) , and directed by the won - have the LP issues you will note two changes: to keep the gun mobile through ravine and over derful and very underrated Delmer Daves On The Pride and the Passion we have omitted waterway – these are major pluses.” However, (Broken Arrow, 3:10 ToYuma, Cowboy, A Sum - the track “Juana’s Flamenco” as it was not com - with star power like Grant, Sinatra, and Loren, mer Place, and many others), the film starred posed by Antheil and is basically lifted from the the reviews didn’t matter and the film had a Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood. actual film track and consists of loud guitar healthy box-office and was one of the twenty Briefly, the plot involves two Army officers from strumming, loud singing, and loud flamenco highest-grossing films of its year. While the film different backgrounds, Sam (Sinatra) and Britt stomping and yelling; it interrupts the flow of the didn’t receive any Oscar nominations, Kramer (Curtis). While on leave in Nice, Sam meets score and its presentation and not in a good did receive a Directors Guild of America nomi - Monique (Wood), an American girl who’s lived way. On Kings Go Forth , side one and two of nation. Despite the lackluster reviews, there in France since she was young. He’s very taken the LP both contained a track entitled was nothing lackluster about the look of the film; with her, but she doesn’t seem interested in “Monique’s Theme.” One listen to each track it was gorgeous to look at, thanks to the stun - continuing and he can’t understand why. Finally, easily confirmed that it was simply the exact ning photography by Franz Planer, and it also she and her mother tell him the truth – her fa - same track repeated – we have removed its boasted a dynamic title sequence by the king ther was a black man. After much thinking, he second use as it is redundant and exactly the of the dynamic titles sequences, Saul Bass. The decides that isn’t important and they continue same track as the earlier one. Additionally, we film production’s behind-the-scenes problems seeing each other. This was daring stuff for have reinstated the track “Britt’s Blues,” which became the subject of a BBC Radio 4 play en - 1958. One night in a jazz club, she meets Britt, was left off the Cloud Nine release. Both titled The Gun Goes To Hollywood , told from the who is also taken with her and she him. Sam scores are presented in their original mono viewpoint of script doctor Earl Felton, who was steps aside, even though he’s wary of Britt’s sound. called in to do surgery to Edna and Edward An - motives, and he informs Britt that she’s of mixed halt’s screenplay. Steven Weber played Felton, parentage. He seems fine with it, too, and in So, we hope you’ll enjoy this jam-packed dou - Greg Itzin played Grant, Jonathan Silverman time he proposes to Monique. But Britt is a cad ble bill – since these were both United Artists played Sinatra, and Kate Steele played Loren. (as much of a cad as Curtis’s character in pictures, perhaps they even played together Helping the film immeasurably was the colorful Sweet Smell of Success) , and it’s revealed that back then on a double bill somewhere. That and dramatic score by George Antheil. Antheil he was never going to marry her. The film then would have been a lot of musical nirvana – two was born in Trenton, New Jersey on July 8, moves to its climax, with a dangerous mission, great scores back to back. 1900. The self-described “bad boy of music” loss of life and limb, and a moving final scene. — Bruce Kimmel