FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS Movie Review

1943 Sam Wood

Someone once said of writer Henry James that he chews much more than he bites off. That also applies to Sam Wood's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's famous novel. It's a simple story of a commando raid that could have been a fine adventure tale. (Remade under the title The Guns of Navarone, that's exactly what it is.) But Wood overinflates every aspect, dragging out scenes that should be quick and sharply pointed. The 1995 restored edition compounds the problem by adding a musical overture and intermission, complete with production stills.

Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper), an American schoolteacher turned demolitions expert, is sent behind enemy lines by the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War. As part of a major offensive, he is to join a group of resistance fighters and blow up a bridge spanning a mountain pass. But Pablo (Akim Tamiroff), the group's leader, thinks the mission is too dangerous and refuses to help. Pilar (Katina Paxinou) then challenges Pablo's authority and takes over. Futher roiling the already stormy emotional waters, beautiful Maria (Ingrid Bergman) immediately falls for the American.

Much of the first half is set inside a cave, where the group dynamics shift, and various loyalties are questioned as backgrounds are revealed. Several slowly paced, talky scenes—made even less palatable by broad overacting, phony accents, and forced humor—finally boil down to faith in Pablo's leadership. Do they trust him? Should they kill him? Most of the physical action occurs in the second half. There the confrontations between the Civil Guards and the Republicans are marred by dated special effects and jarring transitions between real exteriors and the sets meant to represent those exteriors. At one time, audiences may have accepted such conventions, but today they are intrusive, and neither the acting nor the slim story is compelling enough to compensate.

The once-daring sexual element doesn't make the earth move anymore, either. The goo-goo eyes that Jordan and Maria make to each other are more than a little embarrassing. As Ms. Bergman had proved so effectively a year before in Casablanca, with star-crossed wartime romance, less really is more.

Also, despite the film's inherent anti-fascist, pro-left point of view, director Sam Wood and star Cooper were active in the anticommunist witch-hunt of the late 1940s. In fact, a year after this film was released, Wood organized and became president of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. His politics have nothing to do with this film's problems. It's purely a matter of a filmmaker treating his fictional source material as holy writ when he should have tried to tell the story as efficiently as possible.

Cast: Gary Cooper (Robert Jordan), Ingrid Bergman (Maria), Akim Tamiroff (Pablo), Katina Paxinou (Pilar), Arturo de Cordova (Agustin), Vladimir Sokoloff (Anselmo), Mikhail Rasumny (Rafael), Fortunio Bonanova (Fernando), Victor Varconi (Primitivo), Joseph Calleia (El Sordo), Alexander Granach (Paco), Yakima Canutt (Young cavalryman), George Coulouris (Andre Massart), Yvonne De Carlo (Girl in cafe), Martin Garralaga (Capt. Mora), Soledad Jiminez (Guillermo's wife), Duncan Renaldo (Lt. Berrendo), Tito Renaldo (First sentry), Pedro de Cordoba (Frederico Gonzalez), Frank Puglia (Capt. Gomez), John Mylong (Col. Duval), Eric Feldary (Andres), Lilo Yarson (Joaquin), Leo Bugakov (Gen. Golz), Antonio Molina (Guillermo); Written by: Dudley Nichols; Cinematography by: Ray Rennahan; Music by: Victor Young. Producer: Sam Wood; released by Paramount Pictures. Awards: Academy Awards ‘43: Best Supporting Actress (Paxinou); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘43: Best Actor (Cooper), Best Actress (Bergman), Best Color Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Interior Decoration, Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Tamiroff), Best Original Dramatic Score. Budget: 2M. Running Time: 130 minutes. Format: VHS, DVD.