Cary Grant and the Oscar!!

Year: 1969 (42nd) Academy Awards

Category: Honorary Award

Winner: To Cary Grant for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues.

Presenter: Frank Sinatra

Date & Venue: April 7, 1970; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

CARY GRANT:
I think you're applauding my stamina. [Banters with presenter Frank Sinatra.]

I'm very grateful to the Academy's Board of Directors for this happy tribute and to Frank for coming here especially to give it to me. And well, to all the fellows who worked so hard in finding those and assembling those film clips.

You know, I may never look at this without remembering the quiet patience of the directors who were so kind to me, who were kind enough to put up with me more than once, some of them even three or four times. There was Howard Hawks, Hitchcock, the late Leo McCarey, George Stevens, George Cukor and Stanley Donen. And all the writers. There was Philip Barry, Dore Schary, Bob Sherwood, Ben Hecht, dear Clifford Odets, Sidney Sheldon, and more recently Stanley Shapiro and Peter Stone. Well, I trust they, and all the other directors, writers and producers and leading women, have all forgiven me what I didn't know.

I realize it's conventional and usual to praise one's fellow workers on these occasions, but why not?! Ours is a collaborative medium, we all need each other. That's how we exist. And what better opportunity is there to publicly express one's appreciation and admiration and affection for all those who contribute so much to each of our welfare. You know, I've never been a joiner or a member of any particular social set, but I've been privileged to be a part of Hollywood's most glorious era. And yet tonight, thinking of all the empty screens that are waiting to be filled with marvelous images and idealogies, points of view, whatever, and considering all the students who are studying film techniques in the universities throughout the world and the astonishing young talents that are coming up in our midst, I think there's an even more glorious era right around the corner.

So before I leave you, I want to thank you very much for signifying your approval with this. I shall cherish it until I die, because probably no greater honor can come to any man than the respect of his colleagues. Thank you. So long.

For more about Cary Grant and the Oscars see...

"And the Winner is...!"

https://www.mylifeinayearwitharchie.com/2020/09/and-winner-is.html

The Pride and The Passion (1957)

      "...Kramer has used locale and crowds of people superbly, alternating the big panoramic canvas with telling close-ups that are right from Goya"

With Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren.

The Pride and The Passion - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"One great advantage that The Pride and The Passion has over most epic films is its unity of theme; all action revolves around the gun, the symbol of men fighting for what they believe in.  The English captain, skillfully played by Cary Grant, is a trained soldier, an authority on ordnance who has been commanded by his commodore to rescue the giant cannon, which was jettisoned by the fleeing Spanish army, and deliver it to a British warship.  The guerrilla leader, played by Frank Sinatra, is an uneducated, undisciplined patriot determined to deliver his hometown, Avila, from the occupying French.  Again and again the two men are contrasted: the smart, immaculately dressed, cold but sentimental English officer versus the emotional, cruel, provincial Spaniard.  Each has his big moments: the Englishman muddies his clothes as he assembles the broken cannon and directs its perilous journey, blows up a bridge and even eloquently pleads with the Bishop at the Escorial that the cannon be hidden in the cathedral; with less eloquence but with greater passion, the guerrilla leader persuades a group of townfolk to help drag the cannon out of the river and he effectively commands the peasants who work under him in the long march to Avila...  

It is fortunate that producer-director Stanley Kramer stressed the visual aspects in telling his story.  The script, written by Edna and Edward Anhalt, and stemming from C. S. Forester's novel The Gun, is strangely ineffectual; and the dialogue, whether due to the actors' odd mixture of accents due to poor recording, does not come through well.  The plot's argument is, therefore, difficult to follow at times; but Kramer has so directed the picture that the visuals succeed in developing the themes with little help from the spoken word.  Kramer's film is occasionally reminiscent of For Whom The Bell Tolls, another movie in which a foreigner was involved in one particular objective in helping the war-torn Spaniards; although the characters in the film made from the Hemingway novel were better drawn and motivated, The Pride and The Passion is far superior visually.  In magnificent scenes, like those showing the Holy Week procession in the Escorial, the dragging of the cannon through a dangerous mountain pass, the storming of Avila's walls and the routing of the French, Kramer has used locale and crowds of people superbly, alternating the big panoramic canvas with telling close-ups that are right from Goya.  Without minimizing the horrors of war, The Pride and The Passion is an epic sung in praise of the triumph of will over all obstacles.

- Philip T. Hartung, The Commonweal

New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 61 - The Pride and The Passion (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of

For more, see also:

On This Day 10 July 2020

On This Day 9 July 2021

Quote From Today 10 July 2022

Quote From Today... The Pride and The Passion (1957)

  "That's the part of you that's cheap."

With Sophia Loren.

The Pride and the Passion was Cary Grant's 61st full length feature film.

Anthony: You're living with him. But you don't love him. That's the part of you that's cheap.

On This Day...The Pride and The Passion (1957)

The Pride and The Passion was Cary Grant's 61st full length feature film and was released in 1957, on this date.

Grant plays British naval officer, Capt. Anthony Trumball, who is landed in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. His mission is to join up with Spanish forces to prevent a Spanish cannon, the biggest in the world, from falling into French hands.

However, the leader of the guerrilla forces, Miguel (played by Frank Sinatra) has other ideas. The struggle between the two men, also surrounds the story's love interest, Juana (Sophia Loren).

With Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren.

"One great advantage that The Pride and The Passion has over most epic films is its unity of theme: all action revolves around the gun...The English captain is skillfully played by Cary Grant...The guerrilla leader is colorfully played by Frank Sinatra." - The Commonweal

"While the gun deserves a special academy award, Mr. Sinatra must be commended for his restrained and appealing guerrilla leader, Mr. Grant for his stalwart, understated British captain, and Miss Loren for her good looks." - Saturday Review.

Frank Sinatra, apparently took the role so that he could be near his estranged wife, Ava Gardner, who was filming in Europe. His filming schedule was reduced to accommodate his personal situation.

Cary Grant on the other hand was happy to spend as long as it took, due to his estranged marriage to Betsy Drake and his pursuit of a serious romance with Sophia Loren: who by the end of filming was to marry Carlo Ponti.

It was one of the top twenty highest grossing films of 1957, but due to high production costs the film lost $2.5 million.

On 14 March 2011, BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Play broadcast The Gun Goes to Hollywood by Mike Walker, imagining the behind-the-scenes of the Kramer production, from the viewpoint of script doctor Earl Felton, who had been drafted to save the day. 

The play was directed by Kate McCall and the cast included Steven Webber as Earl Felton, Greg Itzen as Cary Grant, Kate Steele as Sophia Loren, Jonathan Silverman as Frank Sinatra, and Jonathan Getz as Stanley Kramer.

Cast:

Capt. Anthony Turmbull            Cary Grant

Miguel                                       Frank Sinatra

Juana                                         Sophia Loren

General Jouvet                          Theodore Bikel

Sermaine                                   John Wengraf

Ballinger                                   Jay Novello

Carlos                                       Jose Nieto

Jose                                           Carlos Larranaga

Vidal                                         Philip VanZandt

Manolo                                      Paco El Laberinto

Enrique                                      Julian Ugarte

Bishop                                       Felix De Pomes

Leonardo                                   Carlos Casaravilla

Ramon                                       Juan Olaguivel

Maria                                         Nana De Herrera

Francisco                                   Carlos De Mendoza

French Soldier                           Luis Guedes

And the Spanish People in the tens of thousands who made the motion picture possible.

Lobby Cards:

Directed and Produced by Stanley Kramer

Distributed by United Artists

Based on the novel 'The Gun' by C.S. Forrester

Running time: 130 minutes.