A Farewell to Arms

Rating:
Summary: music
Review: Search for the music credits for this film yielded nothing. But it is encouraging to see no one claimed credit for the score, except perhaps the ghost of Wagner. Perhaps that was PAPA's main problem with the film. Imagine LOVE DEATH as theme music for any of the films based on his books . . . perhaps it would work on one level, but not for the man whose prose is anything but Wagnerian.

Rating:
Summary: A Memorable Film in Need of Restoration & Re-Release
Review: The 1932 film version of Ernest Hemmingway's A FAREWELL TO ARMS will never challenge the likes of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT--but while it fails to capture the horrors of World War I it is remarkably effective at capturing the novel's sparse and unyielding prose. A good deal of the credit goes to writers Garrett and Glaizer and director Borzage--but the real interest here is not so much in the cinematic interpretation of the Hemmingway novel as it is in the cast, which is remarkable.

Actress Helen Hayes was already among the leading lights of the New York stage when she was lured to Hollywood for a handful of films in the early 1930s--and it is easy to see what all the fuss was about. Plaintive beauty aside, unlike most stage and screen actors of the era she is completely unaffected in her performance and proves more than powerful enough to overcome the more melodramatic moments of the script. She is costarred with Gary Cooper in one of his earliest leading roles, and while the pairing is unexpected, it is also unexpectedly good: they have tremendous screen chemistry, and in spite of the film's dated approach they easily draw you into this story of an ill-fated wartime romance between a nurse and an ambulance driver.

The film is also well supplied with a solid supporting cast that includes Adolphe Menjou, Jack La Rue, and Mary Philips, and while clearly filmed on a slim budget--something most obvious in the battlefront sequences--the camera work is remarkably good. Unfortunately, all this counts for nothing unless you can find a print of the film that you can stand to watch. It is sad but true: the 1932 A FAREWELL TO ARMS seems to have fallen into public domain, and the result is a host of DVD and VHS releases that range from the merely adequate to the incredibly dire.

I have encountered a number of these releases over the years, and I feel safe in saying that the best DVD presently available is the Delta release; the VHS honors go to the out-of-print Burbank Studio "Hollywood Favorites" version. But this is only in comparison with the unspeakably vile Madacy and Front Row versions, which should be avoided at all cost. Simply stated, there does not seem to be a truly first rate version available to the home market, and you may be better off looking for a late-late showing a local television channel.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: Beware the Hollywood Classics version
Review: The Hollywood Classics version of this DVD is very poorly done. Look at the cover! They put "Cary Grant" as an actor on the bottom left! They seem to have put even less effort into making the video and sound quality acceptable. They include a sheet stuck into the DVD case explaining how to make the sound quality tolerable, but it didn't help me much. The video is very poor as well. Get a different version if you must, but not the Hollywood Classics version at any price. It is unwatchable.

Rating:
Summary: A Luscious Romance
Review: This 1932 version of A FAREWELL TO ARMS was one which Hemingway very vociferously hated. From his perspective, since it placed the romance between Frederick Henry and Catherine Barkley over his depiction of the brutality of war, he was right. However, director Frank Borzage was after something else -- a luscious, doomed wartime romance. And in this, he succeeds, brilliantly. Aided in no small part by the beautiful teaming of Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. Hemingway later became very good friends with Cooper, whom he hand-picked to star in FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. They were in the process of forming a company to make ACROSS THE RIVER AND INTO THE TREES and THE NICK ADAMS STORIES -- Cooper to topline both -- when they died a mere seven weeks apart in 1961.

Rating:
Summary: Can Love Survive A War?
Review: This Hemingway tale is set in Italy during WWI. Gary Cooper plays an American working as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army, while Helen Hayes is a British nurse. They meet under strange circumstances, fall in love, and develop an intense relationship. But the war and various complications, most of them supplied by Cooper's Italian surgeon friend Adolphe Menjou, create problems in their relationship. Both leads are quite good, with particular praise going to Helen Hayes as the outspoken nurse. Menjou is also interesting as the friend who doesn't think love can be found in the war. I've read that the photography of the film is beautiful, but the print I've seen (like many of the ones out there of this film) was quite dark, occasionally making it difficult to see the action. But the film is well made, and the ending of the movie is well played and mounted, and will stick in your mind after it is over.

Rating:
Summary: Can Love Survive A War?
Review: This Hemingway tale is set in Italy during WWI. Gary Cooper plays an American working as an ambulance driver in the Italian Army, while Helen Hayes is a British nurse. They meet under strange circumstances, fall in love, and develop an intense relationship. But the war and various complications, most of them supplied by Cooper's Italian surgeon friend Adolphe Menjou, create problems in their relationship. Both leads are quite good, with particular praise going to Helen Hayes as the outspoken nurse. Menjou is also interesting as the friend who doesn't think love can be found in the war. I've read that the photography of the film is beautiful, but the print I've seen (like many of the ones out there of this film) was quite dark, occasionally making it difficult to see the action. But the film is well made, and the ending of the movie is well played and mounted, and will stick in your mind after it is over.

Rating:
Summary: Sweet stuff.
Review: This is a lot more sentimental than anything Hemingway ever wrote, but that's alright; it works on its own. Gary Cooper does his usual stick-in-the-mud thing that somehow always worked. He never looked better than in this film. Helen Hayes seems to anticipate the realistic movement in film acting that was still 20 or 25 years ahead at this time. She's not doing her cutesy "Airport" stuff here. She's really fine. This is a wonderfully romantic, sweet little date video.

Rating:
Summary: A classic!
Review: This is a wonderful film about a doomed relationship between an American ambulance driver (Gary Cooper) and a British nurse, played wonderfully by the very pretty Helen Hayes. Their relationship seems to be perfect at first, but time and circumstance change it all. This is a very bittersweet story with a tearjerker ending. This is one film you won't want to miss!

Rating:
Summary: Classic version of a very romantic Hemingway work
Review: This is an early filmed version of one of Hemingway's earliest, most successful, and most romantic works. Gary Cooper is a rugged and handsome Frederic, and the performance beautifully captures the brooding protagonist's disillusion with the war in Italy. Helen Hayes is an electrifying Katherine, in one of her most delicately-shaded performances. Adolphe Menjeu is also wonderful, and it is his character which serves as a catalyst for the movements of the main characters. For a French actor, he makes a very lively, convincing Italian. The lighting and cinematography are evocative of German expressionism, especially during the battle sequences, and the use of music is spare and tasteful. Some of the scenes are a little jerky and poorly-lit on DVD, particularly some of the romantic scenes, but the story is captivating and the performances keep it from descending into melodrama. There is an urgency in Katherine's final cry to be held which is tremendously touching and believable.

Rating:
Summary: A Farewell to Arms
Review: This movie although well ascted in absolutely no way compares to the book. Personaley I fell that in making the book into a movie way to much liberty was taken concerning the plot and storyline.