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By
NICK ZEGARAC
For producer David O.
Selznick, no one director would ever do. Hence, on
"A Farewell to Arms" (1957) we get two -- Charles
Vidor and John Huston. Though both men were quite
accomplished in their own right, neither could
make head or tail of this disastrous remake of
Hemmingway's magnum opus. Hemmingway in general
has never translated well from book to screen. But
under Selznick's zeal to transform it into his
next "Gone With The Wind" the excursion is both
punishing and exhaustive. At this point in
Selznick's career, he was no longer the titan who
could take "box office poison" and transform it
into Gone With The Wind. Tired, frail, minus his
studio, and, with an impending sense that his
second marriage to Jennifer Jones might have been
a mistake, Selznick handed the creative reigns of
this flick over to Fox Studios -- but he kept
enough of himself in it to become a damn nuisance
on the set.
By now one is, or should be familiar with the
bittersweet tragic love story of a nurse,
Catharine Barkley (Jennifer Jones) and her soldier
hero, Lt. Frederick Henry (Rock Hudson). Their
passion is supposed to serve as the stabilizing
force for what is essentially a war
correspondent's tale with romanticism thrown in
for good measure. But the chemistry between Hudson
and Jones is both turgid and dull. In the final
reel, Jones' facial contortions during childbirth
are so bad I am surprised that neither director
opted to cut them from the general release. Part
of the problem with Jones is that at thirty-eight
she's far too wise to play the optimistic
Catharine with any great conviction. Yet, older
actresses have frequently managed to make an
audience forget discrepancies in age. Not so with
Jones. One is painfully aware that she doesn't fit
the bill in either acting chops or years invested
on this planet. Hudson's laconic charm is
hopelessly out of touch with to stoicism of an
army soldier whose heart is broken but head
remains strong. The supporting cast is peppered
with such luminaries as Vittorio De Sica and
Mercedes McCambridge, but these are wasted bits of
nonsense that in no way reflect upon the
formidable talents of either actor and best made
evident elsewhere in their canons of film making.
The anamorphic picture element for "A Farewell to
Arms" looks good enough, though there's just a bit
too much film grain present in certain scenes for
this reviewer's liking. Overall, colors are subtle
and muted, though balanced in accordance with the
DeLuxe color processing employed at this time.
Some fading is evident. Flesh tones don't appear
very natural. Contrast levels are a tad weak.
Blacks are generally solid. Whites are almost
clean. There's not much to recommend this film
sonically. It's essentially a wordy dialogue
driven picture with gunshots as a backdrop. There
are no extras. |
