Tragedy and romance go side by side in this 1932 pre-code film based on the, then newly published, novel by Earnest Hemingway. The novel told a complex story of love during the first world war while setting things up for an emotional gut punch that was as effective as it was because it was so unexpected. When the film version released a couple of years later the ending was retained at first. Subsequent rereleases either dropped the ending outright or made it more ambiguous while also heavily censoring the film to align it more with the Hayes Code. For decades this altered version was all that was left, showing up on television and home video in the shorter, censored edition, until finally a print of the original version was found, remastered and became available to the public to see just how director Frank Borzage originally intended it to be seen.
The story begins on the Italian front during World War I. Frederic March (Gary Cooper), an American military ambulance driver, is serving with the Italian Army. One evening, while drinking with his friend Italian Captain Rinaldi (Adolphe Menjou), and playing around with some of the local women in a bar, a bombing raid occurs and in the commotion English Red Cross Nurse Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes), fleeing her dormitory in her nightclothes, meets Frederic in a dark stairway. In his drunken state he makes a poor first impression mistaking her in the dark for one of the bar women. Later, while reluctantly attending a double date arranged by Rinaldi, one of the girls happens to be Catherine. The other girl, Helen “Fergie” Ferguson (Mary Philips), was the intended one for Frederic but he is smitten with Catherine instead, to Rinaldi’s chagrin. It takes her more time to warm up to his advances but eventually she does and allows him to kiss her.
But war waits for no lovers and Frederic has to leave with several ambulances to the front. Before he goes he makes sure Catherine knows he loves her and that he will always come back to her. Rinaldi orchestrated the separation and, to further keep the two apart, arranges with the major to transfer Catherine to Milan. Frederic is badly wounded in the ensuing battle by an artillery shell and ends up coincidentally in a hospital in Milan where he is reunited with Catherine. The two are unofficially married by an Italian Army Priest but intend to make it official later. After Frederic returns to the war their correspondence keeps getting sent back to themselves through a combination of interference from Rinaldi and Catherine, discovering she is now pregnant, relocating to Switzerland to have the baby. After too long of a time being unable to reach her through the mail Frederic deserts the army, intent on finding her again.
When this film released the general consensus was that it played too heavily on sentimentalism and glossed over everything that made the Hemingway novel so powerful. This can especially be seen in the later moments of the film when so much of the conflict of war is reduced to a brief montage of generic battle shots. Character motivations are not particularly clear, too. Fergie does her best to sabotage the relationship between Frederic and Catherine, going as far as telling Frederic she will kill him if Catherine gets pregnant. Later, after he has deserted the army, he comes looking for Catherine and finds Fergie instead. Fergie refuses to tell him where Catherine has gone and tries to scream, outing him as a deserted soldier. Her reasonings for all this animosity are barely explored in the film and not to the point that it explains why she is so strongly opposed to them.
Rinaldi is equally guilty of trying to keep these two apart but his motivations are better explained. He sees Catherine as an enjoyable pursuit but nothing much more. His intentions are to keep Frederic focused on his work and not get distracted by romance. When it becomes clear to him just how deeply Frederic’s feelings are for Catherine he relents and takes steps to reunite the two lovers.
The film takes place during the closing battles of the first great war. This paints a backdrop for the unlikely romance to occur. It also creates a problem in the characterization of Frederic that it may be difficult to give a pass to. Frederic is an ambulance driver in the war, a man trained to patch up injured soldiers and get them back to the hospital. By having him abandon his post and desert the army so he can be reunited with Catherine it tarnishes his image and probably cost some lives in the process. In the novel he isn’t a deserter but escapes the military police who are dishing out blame for Italy’s defeat. This is not depicted in the film, one of the major casualties of condensing the story down to such a short runtime, and consequently he comes across far less heroic.
Watching A Farewell to Arms is a frustrating experience. On the one hand there is a tragic romance set during one of the bloodiest wars of all time. On the other hand so little time is dedicated to that war setting that it feels like an afterthought, not a major proponent of the story as Hemingway originally intended it to be. The balance between the two opposing tones just isn’t there. One of Hemingway’s best stories gets lost in its translation to the screen making for a film that, while not awful, is just frustrating to watch, especially if you’ve read the book beforehand.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Adolph Zukor
Best Art Direction: Hans Dreier and Roland Anderson
Best Cinematography: Charles Lang (won)
Best Sound Recording: Franklin Hansen (won)
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Release Date: December 8, 1932
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou
Directed By: Frank Borzage
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