A Farewell to Arms movie storyline. Frederick Henry (Rock Hudson) is an American officer serving in an ambulance unit for the Italian Army during World War I. While recovering from a wound in a British base hospital in northern Italy, he is cared for by Catherine Barkley (Jennifer Jones), a Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps nurse he had met earlier, near the front, and they engage in an affair. Frederick’s friend, the doctor, convinces the army that Frederick’s knee is more severely wounded than it actually is and the two continue their romance but never get married.
Catherine discovers she is pregnant but after sneaking alcohol into the hospital for Frederick, the head nurse Miss Van Campen (Mercedes McCambridge) discovers the duplicity and separates them. She informs Frederick’s superiors that he has fully recovered from his wounds and is ready for active duty. During their separation, Catherine comes to believe Frederick has abandoned her.
Following the Battle of Caporetto, Frederick and his close friend Major Alessandro Rinaldi (Vittorio De Sica) are among the dispirited and retreating Italian army. Along the path or the retreat, several people die or are left behind due to exhaustion. Raving with illness, exhaustion and depression, Major Rinaldi professes defeatism with the pair arrested by the Carabinieri. A drumhead court-martial sentences Rinaldi to execution by firing squad that is immediately carried out. Enraged, Frederick knocks out the kerosene lamps and flees, jumping into the river.
A Farewell to Arms is a 1957 American DeLuxe Color CinemaScope 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 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. It was the last film produced by David O. Selznick. The logo for 20th Century Fox also does not appear at the beginning, due to the movie’s poor reception. An earlier film version starred Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes.
About the Production
For many years, David O. Selznick had wanted to film the Hemingway novel, but Warner Bros. owned the property and refused to sell it to him. He found himself in an advantageous bargaining position when Warner Bros. bought the remake rights to A Star is Born, to which he owned the foreign rights. Without them, the studio could not release their intended remake with Judy Garland overseas. Selznick offered to relinquish his rights to Star in exchange for the rights to Farewell, and Warner Bros. agreed.
On October 25, 1956, Selznick contacted director John Huston at the Blue Haven Hotel in Tobago and enthusiastically welcomed him to the project. He advised him his contract with 20th Century Fox called for severe financial penalties if the film went over schedule and/or budget, and urged him to concentrate wholly on the film until principal filming was completed.
Selznick’s concerns increased as Huston began to tinker with the script and spend an inordinate amount of time on pre-production preparations, and on March 19, 1957, he sent the director a lengthy memo outlining the problems he foresaw arising from Huston’s lack of cooperation. Two days later, Huston announced he could not agree with Selznick on any of the issues he had raised and quit the project. Based on correspondence to Charles Vidor, it appears the producer’s relationship with Huston’s replacement was acrimonious as well. The producer later said the film was “not one of the jobs of which I am most proud.”
The film was shot on location in the Italian Alps, Venzone in the Province of Udine in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, and Rome. It was budgeted at $4,100,000, $4.2 million or $4,353,000. According to Carlos Baker’s 1969 biography Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story, the Nobel Laureate was informed by Selznick that he would receive a $50,000 bonus from any profits the movie made.
Unhappy at Selznick’s nepotistic decision to cast his nearly 40-year-old wife as a character intended to be in her early 20s, he wrote back “If, by some chance your movie, which features the 38-year-old Mrs. Selznick as 24-year-old Catherine Barkley, does succeed in earning $50,000, I suggest that you take all of that money down to the local bank, have it converted to nickels, and then shove them up your ass until they come out your mouth.”. A. E. Hotchner also refer this anecdote in his 2018 book Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir.
All about A Farewell to Arms 1932 version.
A Farewell to Arms (1957)
Directed by: Charles Vidor
Starring: Rock Hudson, Jennifer Jones, Vittorio De Sica, Elaine Stritch, Oskar Homolka, Mercedes McCambridge, Kurt Kasznar, Victor Francen, Franco Interlenghi, Eva Kotthaus
Screenplay by: Ben Hecht
Production Design by: Alfred Junge
Cinematography by: Oswald Morris
Film Editing by: John M. Foley, Gerard Wilson
Costume Design by: Veniero Colasanti, John Moore
Set Decoration by: Veniero Colasanti, John Moore
Art Direction by: Mario Garbuglia
Music by: Mario Nascimbene
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: December 14, 1957 (United States)
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