A Farewell to Arms is the first Ernest Hemingway book, published in 1930, to reach the big screen.
Grade: B
The script disregards the context if the war, and instead builds up the romance between the two, leads, played by Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes.
Cooper plays Lieutenant Frederic Henry, a soldier romantically involved with an English nurse, Catherine (Hayes). She tells him that she had engaged for eight years to a boy she grew up with, who’s now dead Henry goes back to the front, and Major Rinaldi (Adolph Menjou), jealous of his affair, transfers the nurse to Milan. Wounded in combat, Henry is sent to Milan, and the affair resumes.
Melodrama kicks in, when she later crosses into Switzerland to await the birth of their child. Catherine sends Henry letters that he never gets because of the major’s jealousy. In the end, their baby is born dead, but the couple is united.
Paramount filmed two different endings. One, like the book, had Catherine die, while giving birth to the Lieutenant’s dead child. In this version, the last image depicts Cooper carrying the dead Helen Hayes in his arms exclaiming cynically, “Peace, peace.”
The other version had Catherine live. In true Hollywood tradition, the latter was preferred and ultimately used. Hemingway was displeased with the changes, later telling reporters, “I certainly did not intend a happy ending.”
“A Farewell to Arms” may be the only film in Cooper’s career, in which he says, “I don’t know” when asked for his reason for fighting. When he deserts service, it is less out of disbelief in what the war stands for than out of sheer passion for his beloved.
The overall visual style is impressive: Borzage invests the war scenes with a strange, brooding expressionist quality. However, the critic Mordant Hall complained in the New York Times that there was, “Too much sentiment and not enough strength,” whatever that means.
The film has dated badly, but it was an important statement in its time. Indeed, re-issued in 1938, the film enjoyed a second successful run.
Cast
Helen Hayes as Catherine Barkley
Gary Cooper as Lieutenant Frederic Henry
Adolphe Menjou as Captain Rinaldi
Mary Philips as Helen Ferguson
Jack La Rue as Priest
Blanche Friderici as Head Nurse
Mary Forbes as Miss Van Campen
Gilbert Emery as British Major
Agostino Borgato as Giulio (uncredited)
Tom Ricketts as Count Greffi (uncredited)
Credits:
Directed by Frank Borzage
Screenplay by Benjamin Glazer, Oliver H.P. Garrett, based on A Farewell to Arms, 1929 novel by Ernest Hemingway; play written by Laurence Stallings.
Produced by Edward A. Blatt, Benjamin Glazer
Cinematography Charles Lang
Edited by Otho Lovering, George Nicholls Jr.
Music by Herman Hand, W. Franke Harling, Bernhard Kaun
John Leipold, Paul Marquardt, Ralph Rainger, Milan Roder (all uncredited)
Production and distribution: Paramount (original release)
Warner Bros. Pictures (1949 reissue)
Release date: Dec 8, 1932 (US)
Running time: 88 minutes
Budget $900,000
Box office $1 million (rentals U.S.)
Recycling:
There have been two remakes. based on Hemingway’s book: “Force of Arms” (1950) with William Holden, Nancy Olsen, Frank Lovejoy, and “A Farewell to Arms” (1957), a more popular David O. Selznick’s overblown version, with Rock Hudson, Jennifer Jones (Selznick’s wife), and Vittorio de Sica (as Major Rindle).
My Oscar Book
Oscar Alert
Oscar Nominations: 4
Best Picture
Art Direction
Cinematography (Charles Lange)
Sound Recording (Harold C. Lewis)
Oscar Awards: 2
Cinematography
Sound Recording
