A Farewell to Arms (1932)

 A Farewell to Arms (1932)

Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes are two Americans volunteering for Italy in WWI, meeting, and after an initial bad impression, falling in love, much to the chagrin of a male friend (Adolphe Menjou) who had his own romantic designs on her and who is later instrumental to their concluding tragedy.

I don’t want to be unfair to the film, so I’ll merely mention it was most distracting watching this in a spectacularly inferior transfer of the early AMC discs (shame!) that looks as if mastered from a public domain print, (don't be fooled by the photo below!)

At one point Coop mentions he’s deserting, and his statement followed by a long battle montage where nothing is clear… Did he desert? Was he convinced by his friend not to? Everything is so dark and fuzzy you have no idea whatsoever what is happening.

I suppose the film, though still admittedly old-fashioned, must be infinitely more enjoyable with a nice visual and sound quality. Ironically, the film received Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

Excellent use of selections from the Liebestod from Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde.

I'm not even gonna attempt to describe Pre-Code content... did they get married, or not? Even that wasn't clear by the end.