Cert PG
82 mins
BBFC advice: Contains mild battle violence and scenes of emotional distress
Strange, isn't it, how some old movies are regarded more fondly as time moves on?
It's 82 years since Frank Borzage brought Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms to the big screen.
Hemingway despised this adaptation, claiming that it concentrates to much on the romantic aspects of his novel.
And yet he did praise Gary Cooper's performance and the two went on to become lifelong friends.
Cooper plays an American first world war ambulanceman who falls in love with an English nurse (Helen Hayes).
However, their relationship prompts jealousy from his best friend (Adolphe Menjou) and this has tragic consequences.
A Farewell To Arms hit the screens in the early days of the talkies and it interesting that its characters have that thick make-up which is synonymous with silent movies.
There is also rather too much of the over-dramatisation which was necessary before actors' voices could be heard.
Nevertheless, Hemingway was right to laud Cooper. He switches between feckless and selfish to romantic hero seamlessly.
Hayes, meanwhile, fulfills the femme fatale role, with vigour.
I enjoyed A Farewell To Arms and was pleased it has been restored and re-released but, having read Hemingway's comments, couldn't help thinking he was right.
The action takes place very near the frontline and yet there isn't enough sense of the awfulness of war.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: non
Overall rating: 7/10