Amazon.com essential video: The 1932 version of A Farewell to Arms owes as much to the shimmering house style of Paramount Pictures as it does the novel by Ernest Hemingway. If Hemingway purists can get past the romanticizing of the book, however, this film offers its own glossy appeal. On the Italian front in World War I, an American ambulance driver (Gary Cooper) falls in love with a nurse (Helen Hayes, before she became the official First Lady of the American The-a-tah). Cooper was a Hemingway friend in real life, and later played the hero of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls; his boyish simplicity is just right for director Frank Borzage's heartfelt approach. Image Entertainment's DVD release is a stunningly gorgeous improvement on the muddy prints of this film that had been circulating for years, a fitting tribute to the Oscar-winning cinematography of ace cameraman Charles Lang (this is the kind of lush black and white that can capture the glow from a cigarette as it plays across Cooper's darkened face--a breathtaking touch). The jaded battle scenes show the influence of the hit film version of All Quiet on the Western Front, especially in a gripping montage depicting Cooper's progress alone through the war zone. Hemingway would have none of it, of course; he once disdainfully wrote that 'in the first picture version Lt. Henry deserted because he didn't get any mail and then the whole Italian Army went along, it seems, to keep him company.' This is first and foremost a love story, however, and as such it succeeds beautifully, right through to the remarkably intense ending. --Robert Horton
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Rating: - "I don't really live at all when I'm not with you...."
"I'm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it. And sometimes I see you dead in it." -- Helen Hayes
Frank Borzage had a romanticism and sensitivity to his silent work matched by none, and when sound came along he continued to put a delicate touch on films that required something more than just direction. With Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" he brought this romantic tragedy to the screen with a dark and foreboding glow. Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes portray the doomed couple battling for moments of happiness while bombs explode everywhere around them.
Cooper is Frederic, an American driving in the Italian Ambulance Core who meets and falls in love with lovely Katherine (Helen Hayes). She is a nurse and both are simply trying to outlast the reality of war, any romantic notions crushed long ago by the parade of damaged young men. Borzage uses Charles Lang's photography ... Read More
Rating: - A Farewell To Seriousness
As a fan of old Hollywood movies and stars, I went for "Farewell" because the name carries so much weight in American literature and film. Who can resist these titans of cinema? Well, perhaps those who need a well developed story line and believable script.
One must extend his or her sense of the age in which this film was made. Editing and paper cut-out effects make this seem incredibly amateurish by modern standards. Emotions are so overwrought that it could have been a silent movie.
Gary Cooper steals his best friend's girl with no remorse. Helen Hay's character is equally spineless right up to her death scene which is hammy enough to bring a smirk to George Washington's face on Mt. Rushmore. Adolphe Menjou gets his revenge by wrecking both their lives.
" A Farewell to Arms" is a paraphrase of a French saying meaning desertion. They got it right in the movie.
Having said all that - this film ... Read More
Rating: - Fine Performances by Cooper and Hayes
Released just four years after Ernest Hemingway's novel was published, the screen version of A FAREWELL TO ARMS, directed by Frank Borzage, plays fast and loose with the novel's story. One big departure is that Major Rinaldi (Adolphe Menjou), the surgeon who is Henry's (Gary Cooper) friend and drinking buddy in Hemingway's work, becomes the villain here in that he intercepts Henry and Catherine's (Helen Hayes) letters. There are other changes as well. The priest blesses their marriage-- sort of-- for the 1932 censors I suppose. But then the movie is not the novel and doesn't have to be.
Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes give fine performances. It is easy to see why Mr. Cooper was a leading man of the first order, and Ms. Hayes' acting ability of course is legendary. The ending of the movie is quite operatic and worthy of Wagner. Charles Lang won an Oscar for the cinematography. The cruelty and absurdity of war works ... Read More
Rating: - & a welcome to the arms of morpheus
gary cooper and helen hayes play noble in this early talkie adaptation of hemingways overrated novel of the great war, a rogueish ambulance driver and the fallen woman he loves. cooper was often accused of being stiff, and tho i do not usually accept that assessment, i see it here. unfortunately he is matched by hayes, who might have been a great stage actress (i never saw her there) but was always a pest on screen (was there EVER a more undeserved oscar win than "airport"?). good hammy performance by adolphe menjou as the almost-villain of the piece, but thats hardly enough to recommend this otherwise stolid affair.
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- "I don't really live at all when I'm not with you...."
- A Farewell To Seriousness
- & a welcome to the arms of morpheus
