A Farewell to Arms (1932 film)

Last updated

A Farewell to Arms
Poster - A Farewell to Arms (1932) 01.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Frank Borzage
Screenplay by
Based on A Farewell to Arms
1929 novel
by Ernest Hemingway and play written by Laurence Stallings.
Produced by
  • Edward A. Blatt
  • Benjamin Glazer
Starring
Cinematography Charles Lang
Edited by
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures (original release)
Warner Bros. Pictures (1949 reissue)
Release date
  • December 8, 1932 (1932-12-08)(United States)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$900,000 [1]
Box office$1 million (U.S. and Canada rentals) [2]

A Farewell to Arms is a 1932 American pre-Code romance drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou. [3] Based on the 1929 semi-autobiographical novel A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, with a screenplay by Oliver H. P. Garrett and Benjamin Glazer, the film is about a tragic romantic love affair between an American ambulance driver and an English nurse in Italy during World War I. The film received Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Art Direction. [3]

Contents

In 1960, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the last claimant, United Artists, did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. [4] However, the novel upon which the book is based remains under copyright until 2025, thus restricting public-domain distribution of the film until then.

The original Broadway play starred Glenn Anders and Elissa Landi and was staged at the National Theatre from September 22, 1930 to October 1930. [5] [6]

Plot

On the Italian front during World War I, Lieutenant Frederic Henry is an American serving as an ambulance driver with the Italian Army. While carousing with his friend, Italian captain Rinaldi, a bombing raid takes place. Frederic meets English Red Cross nurse Catherine Barkley in a dark stairway. Frederic is inebriated and makes a poor first impression on Catherine and her friend Fergie.

At a concert, Catherine reveals that she had been engaged to a soldier who was killed in battle. Frederic tries to kiss her and she slaps him, but soon after, she asks him to kiss her again. He seduces her and tells her that he loves her.

Before departing for the front, Frederic tells Catherine that he will survive the battle unscathed. Catherine gives him her St. Anthony medal. However, Rinaldi had orchestrated the separation. Catherine is transferred to Milan.

At the front, Frederic is badly wounded by an artillery shell. He is sent to a hospital in Milan where Catherine rushes to his bed to embrace him. A priest performs an unofficial wedding for Frederic and Catherine. Months later, Fergie admonishes them for marrying and warns Frederic that she will kill him if Catherine becomes pregnant. Back at the hospital, Frederic is informed that his convalescent leave has been canceled. While waiting for his train, Catherine tells Frederic that she is scared of each of them dying. He promises that he will always return. Later, Catherine reveals to Fergie that she is pregnant and that she is traveling to Switzerland to give birth.

While apart, Catherine writes letters to Frederic, never revealing her pregnancy. In Turin, Rinaldi tries to entice Frederic to have some fun, but Frederic is intent on writing to Catherine. Rinaldi secretly ensures that all of Catherine's letters are returned to her without reaching Frederic. The hospital at Milan also returns Frederic's letters. He deserts and travels to Milan to find Catherine. In Milan, Fredrick finds Fergie, who refuses to tell him anything other than that Catherine was pregnant and has gone. Rinaldi reveals to Frederic that Catherine is going to have a baby and that she is in Brissago, apologizing for his part in keeping the lovers apart.

While Frederic is rushing to Brissago, Catherine is taken to a hospital as the time of birth is near. Frederic arrives as Catherine undergoes a Caesarean section. After the operation, a surgeon tells Frederic that the baby boy was stillborn. When Catherine regains consciousness, she and Frederic plan their future, but she fears that she will die. Frederic tells her that they can never really be parted. She dies in Frederic's arms as the sun rises. Frederic lifts her body and turns slowly toward the window sobbing, "Peace, Peace."

Advertisement from The Film Daily, 1932 A Farewell to Arms - The Film Daily, Jul-Dec 1932 (page 866 crop).jpg
Advertisement from The Film Daily , 1932

Cast

Production

The film was released in multiple versions with different endings, one with Catherine's death, one in which she lives and another in which her fate is ambiguous. Although international audiences saw only the version with tragic ending, some American theaters were offered a choice. [7]

As the film was released before strict enforcement of the Production Code, its themes and content became problematic during the era of enforcement when the film was prepared for rereleases to film and television. [8] [9] The film's original length was 89 minutes but was cut to 78 minutes for a 1938 reissue. The 89-minute version, which had not been seen since the film's original 1932 release, was long believed to be lost. However, a nitrate print was located in the David O. Selznick vaults and the uncut film was released on DVD in 1999 by Image Entertainment. [10]

Music

The film's soundtrack includes selections from the Wagner operas Tristan und Isolde ("Liebestod") and Siegfried , as well as the storm passage from Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini . [11]

Reception

Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes Gary Cooper-Helen Hayes in A Farewell to Arms.jpg
Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes

In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Mordaunt Hall wrote:

Bravely as it is produced for the most part, there is too much sentiment and not enough strength in the pictorial conception of Ernest Hemingway's novel ... Notwithstanding the undeniable artistry of the photography, the fine recording of voices and Frank Borzage's occasional excellent directorial ideas, one misses the author's vivid descriptions and the telling dialogue ... It is Mr. Borzage rather than Mr. Hemingway who prevails in this film and the incidents frequently are unfurled in a jerky fashion. To be true it was an extremely difficult task to tackle, a rather hopeless one in fact, considering that the story is told in the first person. Possibly if any one has not read Mr. Hemingway's book, the picture will appeal as a rather interesting if tragic romance. In some of the scenes, however, the producers appear to take it for granted that the spectators have read the book. [12]

Mae Tinée of the Chicago Tribune wrote: "'A Farewell to Arms' is rich with all the attributes that make for a completely satisfying screen play. Humor, pathos, suspense, romance, tragedy—all are there. And it has the human touch that endears." [13]

Irene Thirer wrote in the New York Daily News : "The picture is heart-rending and throat-hurting. It moves you so deeply that it is often difficult to see the screen, for the haze which mists your tear-filled eyes. Frank Borzage's direction is nothing less than superb. ... He tugs at your heartstrings until you positively can't stand it any more. And yet he gives a human treatment, indeed, with abundant charm and none of the saccharine." [14]

Awards

Theatrical trailer

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning two: [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>A Farewell to Arms</i> 1929 novel by Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The novel describes a love affair between the American expatriate and an English nurse, Catherine Barkley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolphe Menjou</span> American actor (1890–1963)

Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris, where he played the lead role; Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory with Kirk Douglas; Ernst Lubitsch's The Marriage Circle; The Sheik with Rudolph Valentino; Morocco with Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper; and A Star Is Born with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and was nominated for an Academy Award for The Front Page in 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Chatterton</span> American actress

Ruth Chatterton was an American stage, film, and television actress, aviator and novelist. She was at her most popular in the early to mid-1930s, and in the same era gained prominence as an aviator, one of the few female pilots in the United States at the time. In the late 1930s, Chatterton retired from film acting but continued her career on the stage. She had several TV roles beginning in the late 1940s and became a successful novelist in the 1950s.

<i>Morning Glory</i> (1933 film) 1933 film by Lowell Sherman

Morning Glory is a 1933 American Pre-Code drama film which tells the story of an eager would-be actress and her journey to stardom, and her gains and losses. The picture stars Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Adolphe Menjou, was adapted by Howard J. Green from a then-unproduced stage play of the same name by Zoë Akins, and was directed by Lowell Sherman. Hepburn won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for this movie. Morning Glory was remade in 1958 under the title Stage Struck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Borzage</span> American film director and actor (1894–1962)

Frank Borzage was an American film director and actor. He was the first person to win the Academy Award for Best Director for his film 7th Heaven (1927) at the 1st Academy Awards.

<i>The Sheik</i> (film) 1921 film by George Melford

The Sheik is a 1921 American silent romantic drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky, directed by George Melford, starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres, and featuring Adolphe Menjou. It was based on the bestselling 1919 romance novel of the same name by Edith Maude Hull and was adapted for the screen by Monte M. Katterjohn. The film was a box-office hit and helped propel Valentino to stardom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnes von Kurowsky</span> American Nurse and Muse for Ernest Hemingway (1892–1984)

Agnes Hannah von Kurowsky Stanfield was an American nurse who inspired the character "Catherine Barkley" in Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms.

<i>The Hucksters</i> 1947 film by Jack Conway

The Hucksters is a 1947 American comedy drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr, her debut in an American film. The supporting cast includes Sydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Ava Gardner, Keenan Wynn, and Edward Arnold. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The movie is based on the novel The Hucksters by Frederic Wakeman Sr., a skewering of the post-World War II radio advertising industry with Gable's character alternating in pursuit of Kerr and Gardner.

<i>A Star Is Born</i> (1937 film) 1937 film by William A. Wellman

A Star Is Born is a 1937 American Technicolor drama film produced by David O. Selznick, directed by William A. Wellman from a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell, and starring Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as a fading movie star who helps launch her career. The supporting cast features Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, and Owen Moore. At the 10th Academy Awards, it became the first color film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

<i>State of the Union</i> (film) 1948 film by Frank Capra

State of the Union is a 1948 American drama film directed by Frank Capra about a man's desire to run for the nomination as the Republican candidate for President, and the machinations of those around him. The New York Times described it as "a slick piece of screen satire...sharper in its knife-edged slicing at the hides of pachyderm schemers and connivers than was the original." The film was written by Myles Connolly and Anthony Veiller and was based on the 1945 Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.

<i>Gold Diggers of 1935</i> 1935 American film

Gold Diggers of 1935 is an American musical film directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley, his first time as a film's overall director. It stars Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Stuart, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, and Frank McHugh, and features Joseph Cawthorn, Grant Mitchell, Dorothy Dare, and Winifred Shaw. The songs were written by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). The film is best known for its famous "Lullaby of Broadway" production number. That song, sung by Shaw, also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The screenplay was by Manuel Seff and Peter Milne, based on a story by Robert Lord, who also produced the film, and Milne.

<i>The Front Page</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

The Front Page is a 1931 American pre-Code screwball black comedy film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien. Based on the 1928 Broadway play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the film was produced by Howard Hughes, written by Bartlett Cormack and Charles Lederer, and distributed by United Artists. The supporting cast includes Mary Brian, Edward Everett Horton, Walter Catlett, George E. Stone, Mae Clarke, Slim Summerville, and Matt Moore. At the 4th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Milestone for Best Director, and Menjou for Best Actor.

<i>Strange Cargo</i> (1940 film) 1940 film by Frank Borzage

Strange Cargo is a 1940 American romantic drama film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in a story about a group of fugitive prisoners from a French penal colony. The adapted screenplay by Lawrence Hazard was based upon the 1936 novel, Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep, by Richard Sale. The film was produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; it was the eighth and last film pairing of Crawford and Gable, and the first Gable picture released in the wake of Gone with the Wind. The supporting cast includes Ian Hunter, Paul Lukas, Eduardo Ciannelli, and Peter Lorre.

<i>A Farewell to Arms</i> (1957 film) 1957 American drama film by Charles Vidor

A Farewell to Arms is a 1957 American epic war drama film directed by Charles Vidor. The screenplay by Ben Hecht, based in part on a 1930 play by Laurence Stallings, was the second feature-film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1929 semiautobiographical novel of the same name. It was the last film produced by David O. Selznick.

<i>Forbidden</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

Forbidden is a 1932 American pre-Code melodrama film directed by Frank Capra and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, and Ralph Bellamy. An original story inspired by the 1931 novel Back Street by Fannie Hurst, with a screenplay by Jo Swerling, the film is about a young librarian who falls in love with a married man while on a sea cruise.

<i>Through the Back Door</i> 1921 film

Through the Back Door is a 1921 American silent comedy drama film directed by Alfred E. Green and Jack Pickford, and starring Mary Pickford.

A Farewell to Arms is a 1929 semi-autobiographical novel by Ernest Hemingway.

<i>China Doll</i> (film) 1958 film

China Doll is a 1958 romantic drama film set in the China Burma India Theater of World War II and starring Victor Mature and Li Li-Hua. It represented a return to films for director Frank Borzage who had taken a 10-year hiatus before tackling this poignant, yet "offbeat" film.

<i>Cafe Metropole</i> 1937 film by Edward H. Griffith

Cafe Metropole is a 1937 American romantic comedy film directed by Edward H. Griffith and starring Loretta Young, Tyrone Power and Adolphe Menjou. It was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay was based on an original story by Gregory Ratoff who also appears in the film. It is part of the tradition of screwball comedies which was at their height during the decade. It was commercially successful on its release.

<i>Prestige</i> (film) 1932 film

Prestige is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Tay Garnett and written by Tay Garnett, Rollo Lloyd and Francis Edward Faragoh. The film stars Ann Harding, Adolphe Menjou, Melvyn Douglas and Guy Bates Post. The film was released on January 22, 1932, by RKO Pictures.

References

  1. Schallert, Edwin (October 16, 1932). "Film Costs Hit Both Extremes". Los Angeles Times. p. B13. Retrieved May 15, 2022.
  2. Cohn, Lawrence (October 15, 1990). "All Time Film Rental Champs". Variety . p. M-140. ISSN   0042-2738.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Erickson, Hal (October 16, 2007). "A Farewell to Arms (1932)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2012.
  4. Pierce, David (June 2007). "Forgotten Faces: Why Some of Our Cinema Heritage Is Part of the Public Domain". Film History: An International Journal. 19 (2): 125–43. doi:10.2979/FIL.2007.19.2.125. ISSN   0892-2160. JSTOR   25165419. OCLC   15122313. S2CID   191633078.
  5. "A Farewell to Arms". Internet Broadway Database .
  6. Unlike most pre-1950 Paramount sound features, A Farewell to Arms was not sold to what is now known as Universal Television. Warner Bros. acquired the rights at an unknown date with the intention to remake the film, but never did. However, Warner Brothers DID re-release the movie in the later forties. WB replaced the original Paramount openings and closings with its circa 1948 logo and completely re-filmed the opening credits and end title. The film would end-up in the package of films sold to Associated Artists Productions in 1956, that company would be sold to United Artists two years later.
  7. "A Farewell to Arms (1932) – Notes". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  8. "A Farewell to Arms (1932) – Home Video Reviews". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  9. "A Farewell to Arms (1932) – Notes". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  10. "A Farewell to Arms (1932) – Alternate Versions". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  11. Slowik, Michael (October 21, 2014). After the Silents: Hollywood Film Music in the Early Sound Era, 1926–1934. Columbia University Press. p. 186. ISBN   978-0-2315-3550-2.
  12. Hall, Mordaunt (December 9, 1932). "Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou in a Film of Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms"". The New York Times . p. 26.
  13. Tinée, Mae (December 23, 1932). "An Ace Movie Starts Oriental on New Policy". Chicago Tribune . p. 17.
  14. Thirer, Irene (December 9, 1932). "'Farewell to Arms' Poignant Picture". New York Daily News . p. 62.
  15. "The 6th Academy Awards (1934) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved November 15, 2011.

Further reading

Listen to this article (5 minutes)
Sound-icon.svg
This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 16 August 2019 (2019-08-16), and does not reflect subsequent edits.

Streaming audio