A Farewell to Arms (1932)

[7]

Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper co-star in director Frank Borzage’s adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. Cooper plays an American ambulance driver who falls in love with Hayes’ British nurse in Italy during the first World War. They are secretly married and have to keep their relationship hidden from their superiors. Eventually, they are separated and their letters to each other are returned to sender. Worried, Cooper deserts the warfront to find his wife while she contends with a dangerous pregnancy she never told him about.

Hayes and Cooper are great casting choices here, though melodramatic dialogue often gets in the way of any good chemistry. There is one noteworthy scene, however, right before they are separated for the last time, that features a pretty compelling, more naturalistic connection between the two players. Frank Borzage, hot from two Best Director Oscars for 7th Heaven and Bad Girl, distinguishes A Farewell to Arms with moody atmosphere, beautiful sets, creative scene transitions, and more sweeping camera movement than you’ll find in most films from the early ’30s. I also enjoyed the clever use of model photography and the infrequent but powerful placement of scoring. A highlight of the film is a scored montage depicting Cooper’s on-foot trek back to Hayes, juxtaposed with bombings and increased wartime violence.

The ending is more emotionally over-the-top than I’d prefer, but at least it’s relatively true to it’s source material. If you’re in the mood for an old-fashioned wartime romance, you could do far worse than watching the beautiful faces of Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes in the well polished A Farewell to Arms. With Adolphe Menjou.

Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, Best Sound Recording
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Art Direction