A Farewell to Arms

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Frank Borzage directs. Charles Lang behind the camera. Bernhard Kaun scores. George Nichols Jr. cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 189 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 294 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 3Directed by Frank Borzage, shot by Charles Lang. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Original score by Bernhard Kaun. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 5Editor George Nichols Jr. shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6Helen Hayes and Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou carry the top of the cast.
• 7Marketing tagline: "Every woman who has loved will understand".
• 8IMDB entry: tt0022879 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 9Classified under 15 themes, including "based on novel or book", "escape", "nurse", "world war i".

The technical file

Cinematography

Charles Lang

Original score

Bernhard Kaun

Editing

George Nichols Jr.

Costume design

Travis Banton

Runtime

89 min · 1h 29m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

A Farewell to Arms (1932) ↗

Also by

Frank Borzage

• 
  Prudence on Broadway

  1919 · ★ 10.0
• 
  The Age of Desire

  1923 · ★ 10.0
• 
  The Good Provider

  1922 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Marriage License?

  1926 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Early to Wed

  1926 · ★ 10.0
• 
  Two Bits

  1916 · ★ 10.0

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  A Farewell to Arms (1932) - trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• genplant292018-02-08
  ★ 7/10

  An Academy Awards Best Picture nominee, this is a very good film that, despite its occasional experimentation and evident striving for greatness, doesn't quite reach the mark it hopes to. Nonetheless, it's unmistakably high quality and remains very watchable, enduringly appealing, and, in places, impressive. The big glaring shortcomings are the experimental moments - which don't work and are distracting - and the fact that Miss Hayes is, much of the time, given over-ripe, unnaturally worded and stagy sounding dialogue to speak - and so much of the time, despite that she does give a fine, clearly talented performance, she does so in stage-performer mode and with "impress them with my craft" line delivery, rather than in the much more subtle and truly naturalistic way that's right for movie acting. I'm not faulting Miss Hayes' performance, instead am opining that she gives a stage star's version of subtle movie acting, rather than a movie actor's version thereof. For some reason, all the stagily worded dialogue was given only to Miss Hayes to speak. Other characters are given infinitely more real and believable sounding dialogue. Perhaps Paramount expressly wanted to capitalize on Miss Hayes' stature and deserved reputation as one of the greatest stage stars of her time, therefore ordered script writers to "pour it on thick" when it came to lines for her to speak. An additional shortcoming of this film, for me, has always been that I never have found Cooper and Hayes to seem like a credible couple; his chemistry with and towards her seems 100% natural and believable, though her interactions with him always feel, to me, like she's performing, rather than it being convincingly real life-like. I don't mean to sound like I'm faulting Miss Hayes, as she was, as we know, tremendously gifted. Her performance in this movie feels, to me, like it would have been spot-on on the stage. Another issue is that Miss Hayes has always struck me as miscast in this, as she seems neither remotely British nor the irresistible beauty that characters express to one another that she is. Very strong points of the movie are the cinematography (winner of the Best Cinematography Oscar), which is superb throughout, particularly throughout the impressive and memorable roughly four minutes exodus to Milan montage; it's outstanding. Too, the sets (nominated for the Best Art Direction Oscar) are marvelous. Also the performances by Cooper, Adolphe Menjou (as Cooper's surgeon best friend Rinaldi), Jack La Rue (as the priest), and Mary Philips (as Catherine's nurse best friend Fergie) are each perfect and wonderful. Definitely make sure that it's the beautiful near pristine KINO release of this film that you watch, and not one of the degraded, too often butchered, public domain releases. On the KINO version (which is 89 minutes in length), the picture and sound is near perfect, and you'll readily be able to fully appreciate the visual glory of this film. This is a movie that, despite my having the stated "issues" with it - and heretofore I failed to also mention its at times shameless ultra-melodrama (the letter-writing scene, or the final scene, anyone?) - I nonetheless always very much enjoy watching it, whenever I periodically do, and am always readily able to appreciate the things about it that are terrific. I consider this a very good film, and appreciate and enjoy it as such. I find myself feeling drawn to watch this again a time or two just about every year - and usually do. FYI: This review is also presented as a post on TMDb's AFtA message board, if wishing to comment/discuss.

  Read full review ↓
• CinemaSerf2024-01-01
  ★ 7/10

  Frank Borzage presents us here with quite an effectively abridged version of the Hemmingway story of wartime romance. "Frederic" (Gary Cooper) is an American soldier who finds himself in hospital being cared for by nurse "Catherine" (the almost porcelain-like Helen Hayes). Their's is quickly a love story that has to compete with the atrocities of the Great War as he and she are both transferred and it becomes harder for them to communicate and be together. "Frederic" isn't helped by the well meaning interventions of his captain "Rinaldi" (Adolphe Menjou) who ensures that their written correspondence is unanswered - but when "Frederic" learns that a baby is due and that "Catherine" is now in Switzerland, he must rush to her side - even if that means desertion. To be honest the production isn't the best and the lighting could be doing with some extra wattage, but there is a genuine sense of chemistry between the couple and of frustration as their romance blossoms despite the prevailing difficulties. I reckon it's the best cinematic adaptation of this frequently quite torrid story, and well worth a gander,

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Paramount Pictures

  US

Key crew

• NovelErnest Hemingway
• EditorGeorge Nichols Jr.
• Assistant DirectorCharles Griffin
• Art DirectionRoland Anderson
• Costume DesignTravis Banton
• Associate ProducerEdward A. Blatt
• CastingFred A. Datig
• Assistant DirectorLew Borzage
• Assistant DirectorArthur Jacobson
• Associate ProducerBenjamin Glazer
• Art DirectionHans Dreier
• SoundHarold Lewis
• EditorOtho Lovering
• SoundFranklin Hansen
• ProducerFrank Borzage
• PropsClem Jones
• ProducerAdolph Zukor

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• based on novel or book
• escape
• nurse
• world war i
• italy
• pregnancy
• love letter
• priest
• hospital
• best friend
• pre-code
• air raid
• battle of the isonzo
• deathbed
• air attack

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1932-12-08NR

Also known as

International titles

• Adiós a las armasES
• 무기여 잘 있거라KR
• A Farewell to ArmsGB
• Silahlara VedaTR
• 戦場よさらばJP
• Een afscheid voor eeuwigNL
• L'Adieu au drapeauFR