the leading man is my tpye

That was an excellent one.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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?

See it - This big sweeping epic has gotten a bum rap over the years. Most people want to focus on the improper casting of Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. But its time to look past that. This is a pretty good movie. I like it because it is one of the few major motion pictures that was made about the Napoleonic Wars. At the heart of this movie, it's a drama. But it's hard to find a drama with this much action. It's the story of Spanish soldiers who transport a huge cannon halfway across the country to lay siege to a castle held by the French. Along the way they attack a French camp, blow up a bridge, and we even get to watch a knife fight amongst windmills. All of this leads up to the final crescendo at the enemy castle. This film is old school, but its time we brought this larger than life war movie into a new light.

The huge, ponderous canon is an apt metaphor for a lumbering, ponderous movie with almost nothing going for it despite a trio of 'stars' who were also accomplished actors - when they put their minds to it - spectacular scenery and, on paper, a 'bowy own paper' adventure story just made to put bums on seats. Alas, Edward and Edna Anhalt, the husband-and-wife writing team failed to add any flair to C.S. Forrester's staid novel, The Gun, least of all believably dialogue and the lack of chemistry between all three leads has to be seen to be believed, especially since the woman in question was Sophia Loren, who enjoyed a passionate off-screen romance with Grant but incredibly brought none of the fire onto the set. Sinatra more or less phoned it in and I speak as a lifelong admirer of both his singing and acting. In sum: one to miss.

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.