8pm Friday FAREWELL TO ARMS (1932) - A wartime drama starring Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes and Adolphe Menjou based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway.
Frederic Henry (Gary Cooper), an American driving ambulances for the Italian Army during World War I, falls for British Red Cross nurse Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes), to the displeasure of jealous commanding officer Major Rinaldi (Adolphe Menjou), who transfers Catherine to a different hospital out of spite. But after Frederic is injured on the battlefield, he is evacuated to Catherine's new hospital in Milan, and the star-crossed lovers begin their romance anew.
TRIVIA:
- Censorship problems arose from early versions of the script, which included phases of Catherine's actual childbirth and references to labor pains, gas, her groaning and hemorrhaging. After these were removed, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America approved the script, and even issued a certificate for re-release in 1938 when the censorship rules were more strictly enforced. Still, the film was rejected in British Columbia and in Australia, where Hemingway's book was also banned.
- Ernest Hemingway hated this interpretation of his novel, as he felt it was overly romantic. That didn't stop him, however, from becoming lifelong friends with Gary Cooper, whom he met several years later. In fact, it was Hemingway who would insist that Cooper be cast in the lead of the adaptation of his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) 11 years later. However, the two made a point of never discussing this film.
Source: IMDb
