JohnHowardReid Two days before shooting was due to commence on the David O. Selznick remake of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms ('57), director John Huston left the set in the Italian Alps, following a disagreement with the producer. At a press conference a few weeks later, Selznick explained that singly their differences would sound trivial, but there were "hundreds of them". Calling Huston "a talented man", the producer said there are certain men who ought to do their own producing. Selznick's definition of a producer's duties was that he supervise "every camera set-up, every frame". He said his understanding with Charles Vidor, who replaced Huston, was complete. Nevertheless, he added that there was need for more rugged individuals (indicating Huston and himself) making movies. Beyond Farewell, Selznick enumerated his future plans as package deals with 20th-Fox for Tender Is the Night and Mary Magdalene; developing Gone With The Wind as a stage operetta; and a TV spectacular of Rebecca, sometime within the next two years.Between Huston's desertion on 22 March 1957, and Vidor's appointment on 5 April, the film had been carried on by second unit director Andrew Marton, who had completed shooting all the film's major battle scenes - involving 14,000 soldiers and 2,000 mules and horses - before Vidor arrived at the Udine location.Although more faithful to Hemingway than the earlier version with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes (in that film, Henry deserted because he suspected that Rinaldi was having an affair with Catherine), Selznick's remake entirely fails to capture the spirit of the novel. One example will perhaps suffice to show how thoroughly the film overdoes things. The last line of the novel reads: "After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain." In the overdone film, however, Rock Hudson walks out of the hospital; we hear music, and then the voice of Jennifer Jones. Next we have a brief flashback in which Jones says, "We're going to have a strange life, but it's the only life I want." The flashback fades out, a heavenly choir fades in, and we see the early morning sun as Hudson retreats down a long avenue. Then it begins to rain. Overdone!Another example: Vidor seems to have mistaken the retreat from Caporetto for the flight from Atlanta, and has tried to make a Technicolor epic out of black-and-white non-epic material. He is not helped, either, by the playing. Rock Hudson is not an actor who can quote Andrew Marvell and get away with it. Jennifer Jones unleashes too much hysterical emotion at the beginning of the film to have any reserves left for her ordeal at the end. Worst offender of all is Alberto Sordi, the wonderful comedian of La Bella di Roma, who is utterly out of his element as a sort of European version of a Bing Crosby priest.On completing A Farewell to Arms, Vidor gave himself an extended vacation. In May 1958, he turned up on the international jury of the eleventh Cannes Film Festival, where he distinguished himself by protesting against the screening of Anthony Asquith's Orders to Kill.But Charles Vidor was usually quiet-spoken and congenial; although he was always annoyed that pressmen persistently quoted him as saying that the thing of which he was most proud was not his hard-earned success but the fact that he was the best English-speaking Hungarian in Hollywood. This was a tilt at Michael Curtiz that Vidor never meant to be taken seriously.In Vienna for background filming on Columbia's Song Without End, Charles Vidor suffered a sudden and fatal heart attack in his hotel room on the night of 4 June 1959. He was only 59 years old.His body was buried at the Los Angeles Home of Peace Mausoleum the following 11 June, while Jack Benny delivered the eulogy at a memorial service in the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

williwaw David Selznick loved Jennifer Jones and per John Huston in his book "put everything on the line for his adored Jennifer" I met Douglas Fairbanks Jr years ago at a party when he was in New York and Fairbanks remarked that of major producers he knew, David Selznick stood out because of Mr. Selznick's love of great literature. David Selznick's brilliant productions of Gone With The Wind, Rebecca, David Copperfield, et al reflect Selznick's great love of great novels. (David Selznick wanted to but could not get financing for War and Peace starring of course Ms.Jones) One wonders why David Selznick insisted on remaking A Farewell to Arms but push ahead he did. David Selznick made a releasing deal thru 20th (Likely because of Jennifer Jones' attachment and successes at 20th Century Fox -Song of Bernadette, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, et al) and hired John Huston to direct again possibly because of Jennifer's past history with John Huston (Beat The Devil, We Were Strangers). David Selznick micro managed his productions and fired John Huston whom he felt was titling the picture towards a war film versus a highly romantic film, i.e. favoring Rock Hudson over Jennifer Jones. Charles Vidor replaced Huston and also had clashes with David Selznick. In the mid 50's a gigantic production shot on location in Italy had to be a logistical challenge: Selznick also fired Arthur Fellows as line producer. Some of A Farewell To Arms scenes are brilliantly photographed and large in scope as is the trademark of a Selznick International picture.Jennifer Jones was a beautiful movie star. I would recommend a review of Ms. Jones career, as Ms. Jones is sadly forgotten but was a huge box office star and acclaimed screen actress of her day: Madame Bovary, Good Morning Miss Dove, Duel In The Sun, Ruby Gentry et al Some carp over Jennifer Jones' age in this film but Jennifer Jones looks fine in this picture (but ironically would look even much better years later in a fine and underrated film 20th's Tender Is The Night). My quibble with this film is the dialogue between Jennifer Jones and Rock Hudson which seems so stilted and phony. Has anyone counted the number of times the word "darling" is used?Rock Hudson, then a gigantic box office star after George Stevens great film Giant and his run at Universal with hits such as Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, etc got first billing over the veteran Oscar Winning Jennifer Jones. Elaine Stritch is wonderfully sassy in a small but pivotal supporting role. We are likely never to see the likes of David Selznick again, a pioneer in film. Of all David Selznick's movies I liked Gone With The Wind best but also the splendid WWII Film Since You Went Away starring Ms. Jones and a superb Claudette Colbert I wish Selznick had done an original film like Since You Went Away rather than a remake of A Farewell To Arms. Mr. Hudson adored by his female co-stars such as Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Jane Wyman, et al never really had much to say about working with Jennifer Jones. Ms Jones until her death never commented much about anything ever about her career, her Leading Men, or about her stormy private life. A book on the back story filming of this movie would prove to be interesting. Reading Memo From David O Selznick and David Thomson's Showman would help understand David Selznick's obsession with Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms and Ms. Jones in particular. This was the final film personally produced by David O Selznick.

Emil Bakkum There are surprisingly few reviews here, and yet for me this is an epic film. My fascination started long ago with a liking of adventurous stories, and consequently also of Ernest Hemmingway (author of the book with the same title). His participation in the Spanish Civil War, his stays in Havana. I was touched by his melodramatic style, which contrasts so much with true life, that the emotions seem almost poisonous and self-destructing. I saw the film, read the book, and again saw the film a couple of times. In fact the film script closely follows the Hemmingway narrative. The second part of my fascination stems from the setting of the story, in the First World War. It is a bizarre fact, that a horrid war developed at a time, when European wars such as the French-German conflicts of the nineteenth century seemed to have become more or less civilized or at least bearable. The people were proud to serve their country, there were honor and social reward in a good fight, and they went happily to confront death at the battlefields. It is true that for the first time in history there was an impressive anti-war movement, carried by the rising socialist parties. But as soon as the showpiece started, all national differences disappeared. The trenches of the enemy were joyfully stormed while exclaiming "Hurray!" and the like. Eventually the reality dawned upon the soldiers: the hunger in the muddy trenches, and the grinding of human bodies by shrapnels and barbed wire. This horror is best portrayed in the book "Im Westen nichts Neues" by Remarque, and from it the ensuing films, that I also plan to review. Another epic drama about the same war, but located in Russia, is of course the astounding romance "Doctor Zhivago", which however on closer examination may be somewhat emotionally twisted. You don't find such melodramatic films about this other global fire, the Second World War. The mass destruction had become too obvious. "A farewell to arms" has its own share of war violence. The stage is situated in Italy, at the mountainous front with the Austro-Hungarian armies (at that time already enforced by German divisions). Rock Hudson plays Frederick Henry, an American character with the bravura that seems so typical of Hemmingway. Henry has volunteered in the Italian army as an ambulance driver. At the front he meets Catherine Barkley (Jennifer Jones), a British nurse, and a romance evolves. She had taken the job in order to join her beloved, who however was soon shot to pieces at the Somme (in France). Since then, her mind is somewhat derailed and she finds herself lost while doing the job in the field hospitals. The romance gives her a new perspective, but also provokes her fears of abandonment. After some nasty war scenes Henry is wounded and transported to a hospital in Milan. There he is once again united with Barkley, who probably on purpose has been transferred to the same place. There follow a couple of care-free months, in which she smuggles cigarettes and bottles of booze into his bedroom etc. She gets pregnant. Henry rejoins the front, and is caught in a chaotic massive retreat of the Italian forces. When he is about to be court-martialed by some idiots, he deserts. Finally he and Barkley decide to flee to the neutral Switzerland, using a row-boat in the night across the lakes. In the Swiss Alps they have a wonderful time, summer and Christmas, while awaiting the childbirth. Unfortunately bad complications arise during the delivery. Now the fear of abandonment switches sides, with Catherine just hating her predicament (what does this mean?). The child is born dead, and Barkley succumbs due to the loss of blood with Henry sobbing at her bedside. Again he is on his own, but disconsolateness has replaced the bravura. The contrast between the anonymous mass scale destruction and the private mishap can hardly be greater. While I have accrued some doubts about the quality of the dialogs, my final judgment remains positive.

preppy-3 Terrible adaptation of Heminway's low key love story. An American soldier (Rock Hudson) falls in love with a British nurse (Jennifer Jones) in Italy during World War 1. What's wrong with this? Virtually everything. Hudson is WAY out of his depth here. He could be a good actor but not in this movie. Jones is far too old for her role (she's 21 in the book--here she's 38...and looks it!). Also her acting wavered between overdone and underdone! They took a simple low-key love story and blew it all out of proportion. The film is fatally long (a little over 150 minutes), self-indulgent and padded to a ridiculous degree. It seems producer David O. Selznick thought he was doing "Gone With the Wind" again. Some of the scenery is truly stunning (even on a small TV screen) but there's not enough of a story to match the images. SPOILER!!! The ending where Jones dies is supposed to be tragic but the bad acting and overblown theatrics had me fighting not to laugh! To make matters worse actor Vittorio De Sica overacts to a truly embarrassing degree. Overblown, self-indulgent, badly cast and slow. Pretty terrible. This was (understandably) a financial and critical bomb and ended Selznick's career as a producer. You might want to tune in for some of the scenery at the end but it's really not worth it. I give this a 3.