A Farewell to Arms (1932)

"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 to frame their old-fashioned romance against images of the first war which engulfed the entire globe. Rather than a grand film about war, however, Borzage makes his point by creating a warm and intimate glow to a romance filled with sweet moments of love, yet surrounded with doom.

Through a timid kiss on a public street, a gift of a shared St. Anthony necklace to guard her sweetheart from harm, Katherine's romantically embellished description of her shabby hotel room when writing her love, and a marriage ceremony on a hospital bed where they pretend they can smell orange blossoms on the wind, Borzage creates something timeless while at the same time showing that true love once meant something. When Frederic comes back after their first time together, the viewer knows long before he gets there it is because he needs to let her know it really meant something to him.

Adolphe Menjou is Frederic's misguided party pal who can't understand and tries to interfere, then has a change of heart and helps them reunite under dangerous circumstances, but perhaps too late. For those who haven't seen it, I won't ruin the experience with too many details. The final shot of doves shot against the heavens has much the same effect as the final shot of Borzage's "Three Comrades." This old-fashioned and tender film is an early sound masterpiece anyone with a romantic heart will enjoy. October 8, 2007

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 got an Oscar for cimematography. The bar must have been petty low back then. Perhaps when this was made in 1934 the popular sentiment was that ALL soldiers should desert.
In conclusion, I liked the movie, but I understand from whence it came. With the price of movie tickets about the same as the price of this DVD, I am happy with my purchase.
My advice is this: This is a very good, very old movie. Watch it to see Hollywood in it's Black & White glory days. September 22, 2007

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 well shot in black and white.

To have been released 65 years ago, this film surprisingly is not much dated at all. June 26, 2007

& 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.
May 4, 2007

Romance Amidst War-Ravaged Italy

United forever in this 1932 film, are Gary Cooper (1901-61) and Helen Hayes (1900-93) in this chaste adaptation of the 1929 Hemingway novel, whose title - Farewell to Arms - simply means "desertion" and questions the very nature of war. As relevant today as it was during WWI, with today's Iraq war raging overseas, the viewer can't help but wonder when we will live to see peace again.

The grandeur of the film is in its magnificent cinematography, each shot beautifully framed, which, unfortunately failed to rescue the one-dimensional characters. Cooper and Hayes appeared more like figures in a mortality tale bearing witness to the horrors of war, perfectly exemplified in their roles as lovers doomed.

That said, glimpsing the youth and beauty of Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes together made the 90 minute film an unforgettable treasure. October 28, 2006

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