WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[movieman1957]

Terrific film. I'd never heard of it but someone at TCM City mentioned it. The last shot is startling but I thought there were parts of the whole film there felt that way. I think it's pretty interesting visually and overall disturbing because it is well done. It was a wonderful discovery.

[RedRiver]

I like everything about this fine, disturbing, character study. There are a number of low budget crime films included in a certain video release. (Criterion?) This one is the best.

[JackFavell]

I better go check and see if I have a copy. Bet I do! Now I'll actually watch it.

[CineMaven]

"A FAREWELL TO ARMS"

. . . A light switch suddenly turns on and out of the darkness of my blindness, in walks Helen Hayes. Maybe it was the “First Lady of the Theatre” moniker that put me off; you know...all that "AHKTING" and stodgy theatrical hijinks ensuing. 0R it could have been my first memories of Hayes as that little cotton-topped old lady in “AIRPORT” ( 1970 ) ( How the heck tall IS she, anway?! ) OR maybe it was my shallow soul (( )) and Hayes not having enough Oomph to attract my attention.

My silly biases have disappeared watching Hayes play Catherine Barkley, the Nurse in this love story. I thought she was very subtle and acting; probably moreso than my pre-code faves: Harding & Shearer. She’s as cute as a button and though she doesn’t have the, shall we say “sensual bling” of Bow, Harlow or Louise Brooks, still waters do run very deep. You might remember that.

I want to say “A Farewell to Arms” is equal parts Gary Cooper’s and Hayes’ performances. No doubt he is a tall quenching glass of water, but in general I feel Hayes acts rings around Cooper’s halting/hesitant/stilted delivery; so I lean in towards her. Maybe it's more fair to say this is equal parts Catherine’s and the lieutenant’s: ( Fredric’s ), story.


Bedside Manner: Florence Nightingale never covered THIS in the Nurses Manual

Catherine’s a little more interesting for me to watch. She represents those young women a decade-plus into the 20th century’s beginnings who will bob their hair, seek The Vote and want just a touch more autonomy in their lives ( though still a million and a half light years from burning their bras. ) She’s left her small-town and is out in the big wide world at large. She leaves her provincial thinking back home. She’s mending and healing the war’s broken bodies. No, it’s not a pre-requisite to throw caution to the wind; but it’s something she questions as she speaks of her dead fiancee: “If I had to do it all over again, I’d marry him. Or... anything.” It’s those ‘or anythings’ that’ll get you every time, girls.

And like Cinderella, the ambulance driver and the nurse meet “cute”...during an air raid (( )) - Fredric with a veritable “slipper” in his hand.


Miss, may I show you something in a Size 3?

When next they meet, the Lt. steals the nurse from his buddy, Major Rinaldi ( played by Adolphe Menjou ) who had his "eyes" on her first. Neither of their intentions were quite honorable toward Nurse Catherine. But Fredric wins out. The Lt.’s gentle, insistent, full court press muffles the cries of protest from Catherine. Resistance is futile. ( Resist... really? It’s Gary Cooper for cornsakes... and besides, there’s a war going on; it’s practically her patriotic duty. ) Afterwards, Fredric is concerned about her...“afterwards”, but Catherine is surprisingly resigned to having given up the "coin of the realm". He seems more concerned than she though I think she feigns her carpe-diem attitude. ( But note, his concern comes “after.” ) Sent to the front, he drives his ambulance BACK to see her to make sure she understands that this was not a mere one-nite stand. It’s his coming back to her that I think their emotional tale starts.

They both have BFF’s that are adamantly opposed to their relationships.


The Lieutenant and the Major: Girls don't care about rank at a
time like this. They're ours for the taking!

When I first saw Adolphe Menjou as the Italian Major head doctor, I scratched my head. Huh??? Wha’?? What in the name of Central Casting is this? But I must say he did grow on me by the end of the movie even with his phony baloney Italian accent. And I loved how he called Fredric “bebe.” Rinaldi can’t believe he’s losing his ol’ running buddy to love. Then he tries to cheapen her in Fredric’s eyes but the lieutenant will have none of that. He's instrumental in separating the lovers, too. Sheesh, with friends like this... He later comes to understand that their love is real and deep. Catherine’s good friend is fellow nurse Ferguson ( played by Bogie’s ex-wife Mary Philips. ) She seems so stuck up from the get-go. She’s also deeply opposed to this relationship, but even more vehemently. ( When Fredric looks for Catherine later in the film, Fergie is of no help at all. Can’t she see that he came back for Catherine? Ack! ) I don’t think the reason's because she’s sitting on the sidelines while “hook-ups” are happening all around her or that she fears Catherine would, inevitably, “get into trouble.” My impression was that she felt more for her friend than admitted.

It’s interesting to see Catherine and Fredric travel their individual paths on that same road of love. We do see they’re in love and that they take it seriously, spiritually enough to accept the Priest’s ceremonial words on their behalf. The priest is played by Jack LaRue. JACK LARUE?! A priest? Well I'll be...he sandwiched this goody goody role in between “Three On A Match” and “The Story of Temple Drake” where he is a ravaging brute. He’ll come clean again in “Captains Courageous” though there will be those orchids for Miss Blandish about ten years later.


...is such sweet sorrow, and how the heck tall ARE you?

Catherine and Fredric are sweet and loving and tender to each other - friends and conventions be damned. They’re so cute together. And when they have to part, even if Fredric has only twenty minutes before train time, he spends it with her. They live a lifetime in their little room. They live a lifetime in each other’s company. “I wish we could do something sinful. Eveything we do is simple and right.” Maybe. But these two crazy kids are going to pay for that. How could loving each other be sinful? Beats me. And in whose eyes? ACK! Beats me. But they’re going to pay a terrrrible price for not seeing what they are doing is ( considered ) sinful. She is pregnant. One of the Hayes moments I really enjoyed was her merely reading aloud a letter she writes him. She paints a beautiful picture of a house she’s rented, while Borzage reveals her voice-over, over a squalid little room. Hayes reads the letter so matter-of-factly without the least bit of an actress-y hint that she’s already memorized what she’s supposed to be reading, that that small moment caught me. It’s a small thing I know, but it showed something to me of Hayes’ gift. As Catherine, she’s going to rough it alone, have their baby and be waiting for him when he comes back from the front. When she finds out her letters have never even reached him...

And the lieutenant. He’s worried about not hearing from her. He knows something’s wrong. What initially started out as just a conquest, quickly turned into love for him. And truth be told, it turns out to be more than just love. It’s some kind of symbiotic oneness they've achieved with each other. That Fredric risks everything to leave his post to go back to her was astounding to me. He was like, “I’m leaving the Army and I’m going home.” Huh? What the... Yup, he was just going to leave and go home. See, this is the SECOND time he’s going back to her; he doesn’t care how far away he is away from her...he has to get back to her. Simple. And that just plain kills me. Today when girls are wondering why he hasn’t called, texted or FaceBook’d her, here we have the Lieutenant going through battle, in the opposite direction of the way everyone was traveling just to get back to her...


Please don't die.

Of course it’s too late. ( That’s what makes this a tragedy. ) And here is where IMHO Gary Cooper shines. The grief. The praying against all hope that his little prayer would be answered in that big wide war-crazed world. A simple request; that she not die. I was stunned by his tears and the unseeing look in his eyes as he ate his bread. I can’t say really that Cooper touched me like this for the rest of his career.

Forget Heathcliff. Forget Armand Duval. Guys, I wanted a happy ending so badly here, it hurt. My throat was burning. But Fate and Hemingway was not on the side of these two kids.



But it doesn't really matter where I live. Because I don't really live
at all when I'm not with you.

[feaito]

Congrats for the heartfelt review Tess. This 1932 Borzage has been a particular favorite for decades. I relished last year watching the Blu Ray released by KINO (I already had two versions on DVD, since it's a PD movie). I have always said that the range and sensitivity that Gary Cooper achieved in his performances between 1929-1936 was never again to be seen after his definitive screen persona was established. Same happens to me with Loretta Young; that unique freshness she had in between 1930-1934 (Midnight Mary, Man's Castle, Zoo in Budapest, Born to be Bad, Life Begings et al), was lost afterwards when she became a grande dame.

[Robert Regan]

Theresa, I can't tell you how much it warms my heart to read your excellent analysis of one of my all-time favorites. Although I'm glad to see you giving the credit that she deserves to Hayes, I think you somewhat underrate Cooper's work here. He was a master of what I have called 'invisible acting" and a master at creating a totally credible characterization. I may have quoted this before, but here's something that Hayes wrote in her memoir many years later, “Never working in film have I felt as comfortable with a director as with Frank Borzage, who had a wonderful gift for intimacy: he knew how to get inside an actor’s heart and mind, and that rapport gives a special glow to his films.” I can see, my friend, that you are coming to understand why I admire and love Borzage.

What the hell! While I'm here and on the subject, let me quote what I wrote about this great movie on Mubi. It doesn't repeat your analysis, but there's some interesting background material.

Ernest Hemingway hated this, the first film adaptation from his writing. Not having seen it did not prevent him from loudly and publicly venting his spleen. According to the N.Y. Daily News, when Paramount planned a private screening in Piggott, Arkansas (Yes, the town that 25 years later would be the location for Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd !) where the writer was living at the time, he wired them, “Use your imagination as to where to put the print, but do not send it here.” It is not known where he put the $80,000 that he received when he sold the rights.

Truth to tell, if or when Hemingway did see the film, he would have found that it only retained his book’s marketable title, the story’s main situations, and some of its dialogue. As Mordant Hall wrote in his N.Y. Times review, “It is Mr. Borzage rather than Mr. Hemingway who prevails in this film.” In his context, this does not appear to be complimentary. However, there are many who consider A Farewell to Arms to be Mr. Borzage’s first masterpiece of the sound era, and Mr. Hemingway’s novel to be rather dated and sophomoric. The book is about futility and despair, and the film is about the transcendent power of love.

The 1929 novel had been adapted for Broadway by Laurence Stallings, the author of What Price Glory?, where it was directed by Rouben Mamoulian who would soon be working for Paramount himself. The subject matter, pre-marital sex, illegitimate birth, desertion, and a less than favorable view of the Italian Army was problematical, even in the pre-Code years, and had defeated previous holders of the option, Warner Brothers and MGM, but Paramount, a studio accustomed to working in a more sophisticated mode, felt that they could handle it. As with 7th Heaven five years earlier, everyone in Hollywood wanted to be in this one. The talk at first was of Frederic March and Claudette Colbert, but De Mille grabbed them both for The Sign of the Cross. Then Gary Cooper and Nancy Carroll were scheduled to play under the direction of Richard Wallace, but after the studio replaced Wallace with John Cromwell, the leads went to Cooper and Ruth Chatterton.

When Borzage dropped out of Cavalcade at Fox, Paramount made one of those amazingly astute decisions and hired him for A Farewell to Arms. He wanted Eleanor Boardman, but at the suggestion of Irving Thalberg, the studio borrowed Helen Hayes from MGM. Cooper was somewhat intimidated by Hayes who was considered then and for many decades to come the First Lady of the American Theatre, but Borzage had faith in Cooper and insisted that he was the right man for the part. Both stars were nervous about the difference in their heights, and in the film, there are few shots of both of them on their feet.

Paramount gave their all to the film. The budget was $900,00 (the average at the studio was $300,000), and a generous eight weeks was provided for shooting. Charles B. Lang was the cinematographer, and the art director was Hans Dreier who designed twelve films for Sternberg and ten for Lubitsch. Everyone did their best work.

For a 1938 reissue, about ten crucial minutes were cut, and a shot of a wedding ring was added. Practically all of the Public Domain DVDs currently available are based on this short version. The dvd recently (2012) released by Kino is virtually complete and essential for this masterful film.

[Robert Regan]

You're welcome, kingrat. And you're right again. Frankly, a recent revisit to Hemingway's novel, which I revered when a youth, revealed a much less mature work than Borzage's film. I like a good book just as much as I like a good movie, but we have a long history here of "educated" people condescending movies unconscionably. I am reminded of a young English professor who told of his great disappointment after driving some thirty miles to see The Killers and finding that it "had nothing to do with" Hemingway's great story! This man was extremely intelligent, but was he blind? Did he not see that film opened with a nearly perfect adaptaion of its source? Perhaps the sight of the glorious Ava Gardner led him to forget what he had seen before the beginning of the "back story".

[feaito]

Robert, thanks for your illuminating post. I couldn't agree more with you. Borzage created a unique masterpiece with Hemingway's basic plot elements about love transcending everything else. Its romantic scenes are among the most exquisite ever filmed.

[JackFavell]

Wow, great review, T! I can see I need to revisit this movie. Thanks also Robert for the background information. I've always loved the way they dealt with the two stars heights in this film (since I'm about the same size as Hayes I can live vicariously through her -ooh la la).

[Robert Regan]

You're welcome, Wendy and fealto, and thank you both for your kind words.

[CineMaven]

Hi there. Thanxx to all who read ( and liked ) my review. Bob...thanxx for the additional background information. When will novelists and architects learn that a house is not a home...and abook is not a movie. They're fine taking the moola and then claim " Hollywood - BAM / HUMBUG! " Luckily I don't read. Hell, why spoil a good movie by reading the book.

Okay okay...I'm only half-kidding there. I tip my hat to writers who do screen adaptations trying to please everybody. Take a page out of Margaret Mitchell's book. I don't think she kicked too much when Hollywood came-a-calling and took this cute little novel she wrote and made it a film that people know of 74 years later. ( And are probably still reading her book. )

To think, I've visited you Bob and heard you talk of Borzage or the dvd set you got of Borzage and and and...aw heck, I forgot... I was listening. Paying attention to you but a lot went through me caught in a crevice in my brain.

I see I shall have to visit you again and, if you don't mind, tell me all you know of Borzage. I tell ya boy, can I get some credit for finally waking up? I didn't take notes while I was watching most of "Three Comrades" but I know I did change my mind about Margaret Sullavan by the movie's end and you've been touting Margaret Sullavan to me since college!

I'll have to look at a better copy of "A Farewell to Arms" that a friend sent me. I'm finding with Borzage that his tenderness touches my heart. How do you make a movie "tender"?? Is it on the page, is it in the casting? How can one write "tender"?

I'm still scared to go back and revisit "Moonrise." I'm about to bust out crying right now. Gail Russell is already a heartbreaker ( I've recently watched "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes" and I'm lovin' me some Eddie G. Excuse my informality with the stars, Robert. ) With "Moonrise" I didn't know WHAT hit me.

Jackaaaay!!! Jackie Hayes, huh?

Thanks again folks.

[Robert Regan]

Theresa, you deserve all the credit in the world for being simply open-minded! Is it an accident that it was Borzage who led you to see Sullavan in a different light? I don't think so. Wait till you see what he does with George Brent and Kay Francis!

[CineMaven]

Which movie Bob?

[feaito]

With Bob's assessment I must see "Living on Velvet" (1935) ASAP. Shame, shame on feaito....such a Borzage fan and he still hasn't seen all the films of his he owns copies of (The same applies to "Bad Girl" (1931) and more....) You know, I don't want to fire all my guns at once!

Tess, you must see Borzage's "Till We Meet Again" (1944) with Barbara Britton, Ray Milland and Lucile Watson?. It's one of my greatest "discoveries" of the last years. A magnificent, unsung film.