A Farewell to Arms

In Brief: I've never had much luck with director Frank Borzage's particular brand of melodrama, so it's a bit surprising that I like his 1932 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms as much as I do. Hemingway himself was notoriously disdainful of cinematic adaptations of his work (Arms was no exception), and he was just as famously enamored of star Gary Cooper — both of which are entirely understandable. The author's distinctively minimalistic style is effectively impossible to translate to the screen, and while Arms is certainly one of the more faithful attempts, its success likely has more to do with the chemistry between Cooper and co-star Hellen Hayes than anything else. Borzage dips his toe in some interestingly experimental stylistic waters, but the film's merits can be attributed almost entirely to its charismatic leads.