For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Sam Wood

Writers:

Ernest Hemingway (novel)
Dudley Nichols (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 April 1944 (Sweden)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History | Romance | War

Tagline:

The Most Thrilling Moment Ever Screened

Plot:

Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going...

Plot Keywords:

Bridge | Cave | Civil War | Mountain | Duplicity

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Robert Jordan
Ingrid Bergman	...	María
Akim Tamiroff	...	Pablo
Arturo de Córdova	...	Agustín (violent)
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Anselmo (guide)
Mikhail Rasumny	...	Rafael (Gypsy)
Fortunio Bonanova	...	Fernando (calm)
Eric Feldary	...	Andrés (courier to Gen. Golz)
Victor Varconi	...	Primitivo (lookout)
Katina Paxinou	...	Pilar
Joseph Calleia	...	El Sordo
Lilo Yarson	...	Joaquin
Alexander Granach	...	Paco
Adia Kuznetzoff	...	Gustavo
Leonid Snegoff	...	Ignacio

Runtime:

170 min | USA:134 min (re-release) | USA:168 min (restored version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | New Zealand:PG | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

Blue Canyon, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

When Ernest Hemingway told Ingrid Bergman she would have to cut off her hair for the role of Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), she shot back, "To get that part, I'd cut my head off!" She would rehearse tirelessly until any hour of the night, begging to repeat a scene long after the director was satisfied.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Pilar and Pablo use a 1892 Krag-Jorgenson (or variant). While it is possible, it is extremely unlikely that such a rifle, with its odd cartridge, was imported into Spain for the war effort.

Quotes:

Pilar: Look I am ugly. Yet one can have a feeling here
[points to her heart]
Pilar: that blinds a man while he loves you. He thinks you are beautiful. And one day for no reason at all he sees you ugly as you really are. And he is not blind anymore. Then you see yourself as ugly as he sees you - and you lose your man and your feeling. Then one day the feeling, that idiotic feeling that you are beautiful, grows inside you again and another man sees you and thinks you are beautiful and it's all to do over again. Now I'm past it. But it still might come again.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Splendor (1989)

An excellent adaptation from the Hemingway novel

The film proves more economical than the novel, reducing some of its weaker scenes. It has a couple of small problems. Gary Cooper is wrong for Robert Jordan, the American fighting with the resistance during the Spanish Civil War. The character wasn't all that deep in the novel, but Cooper, well, he doesn't do much of anything. He's much more passionless than the original character, I think. I've liked Cooper in a couple of films, but have found him weak in a couple others. The other thing I really don't like is the final scene. The novel's final moments were amazing, but Cooper's voiceover is almost laughable. I admit that this scene must have been very difficult to write for a film. One of the biggest improvements that the film makes is the character of Maria. She was damn annoying in the novel, and I was kind of hoping that she wouldn't make it out alive. That's pretty strong, but, man, she deserved it in the novel. Ingrid Bergman plays Maria in the film, and she brings a large quantity of realism and humanity into a character in which there was none before. The best characters of the novel are completely intact, and are played by a host of unrecognizable character actors (apparently most were Russian). The only one I know (and I know him well) is the venerable character actor Akim Tamiroff, who delivers one of his best performances as Pablo, the morally ambiguous rebel leader. He was one of the best characters in the novel, and Tamiroff is perfect in the role. Greek actress Katina Paxinou delivers an Oscar-winning role as the best character of the novel, Pilar. Also standing out above the others are Vladimir Sokoloff as the gypsy and Joseph Calleia as El Sordo (on second look, since that name sounded familiar, I see he was in both Gilda and Touch of Evil, where he played one of the most important characters; I didn't recognize him here). I think the film might work better for those who've read the novel. A lot of the tragic momentum that is found outside of the dialogue in the novel cannot hope to be transferred to film. You almost have to bring it with you. 9/10.