A Farewell to Arms (1932)
On the Italian front in the First World War, American ambulance driver Frederic Henry and English nurse Catherine Barkley fall in love amid the retreat and the chaos around them. Wounded, separated by the army, and later reunited across the border in Switzerland, they try to outrun a war that claims them anyway.
The first sound adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel, directed by Frank Borzage as swooning romantic tragedy and circulated with more than one ending for different markets. A Farewell to Arms won Academy Awards for its cinematography and sound recording; Hemingway disliked it, and its lapsed copyright has made it one of the most frequently reissued of pre-Code features.
Background
This was the first sound adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel A Farewell to Arms, directed by Frank Borzage in the swooning, emotionally heightened romantic style that had already made him one of Hollywood’s most successful directors of love stories. Set on the Italian front during the First World War, it follows an American ambulance driver and an English nurse whose love affair survives wartime chaos, separation, and injury, though not, ultimately, the war itself.
What to watch for
The film circulated with more than one ending for different markets, a common practice at the time for films based on material with a particularly difficult or controversial conclusion. Watch for the film’s cinematography and sound recording, both of which won Academy Awards; Hemingway himself reportedly disliked the adaptation, finding it too sentimental compared to his more restrained prose style. Its lapsed copyright has made it one of the most frequently reissued films from the pre-Code era of American cinema.
