Wem die Stunde schlägt

This is a fine film, very popular in its day for depicting the desperate fight for freedom that even civilians engaged in by choice, at a time when democracy was in fact truly threatened and there was a very real possibility it would disappear from the earth. Because of the bravery of so many men and women of that time, the freedom that many today take for granted was assured. But it is by no means permanent.

The film is relatively heavy but certainly many modern films about current events are equally heavy. One is either involved or not but I found it a great story of a small group of people who have survived a great deal of pain in life and who have little to lose. The film presents the characters very well, allowing us to like and understand them. It was shot in Technicolor on realistic locations and beautifully designed by William Cameron Menzies. The music by Victor Young is outstanding.

In case anyone may not know, Ingrid Bergman was the choice of Ernest Hemingway. In fact, he went out of his way to see to it that the ballet dancer and actress Vera Zorina, who was originally cast and who had begun shooting the film, was replaced by Bergman. Hemingway also wanted Gary Cooper and no one else to play Robert Jordan. How can these actors be 'miscast' when the author who created the characters felt they were perfect for the roles?

When I first saw For Whom the Bell Tolls, I thought it was overlong and overrated. Since then, I've decided to re-evaluate the film and have decided that the film can be summed up as follows.

PROS:

(1) Hemingway and Cooper were friends, and Hemingway wrote the Robert Jordan character with Cooper in mind and handpicked Cooper for the role. Sure, it would have been nicer if this film had gotten made when he was younger, but it's hard to imagine anyone other than Cooper playing Jordan.

(2) This was only Cooper's second color film in a long and illustrious film career that began in the silent era, and Bergman's first color film. It's a treat to see both stars in Technicolor, and both of them are utterly luminous in their close-ups (I'd say Cooper actually has a slight edge here since, unlike Bergman, he didn't benefit from a soft focus effect, and it's hard to imagine another leading man of this era who was better suited for close-ups than Cooper was, even though he was in his 40s here and a little past his prime).

(3) Some reviewers felt that Cooper and Bergman had no chemistry, but I strongly disagree. The two were having an affair while working on this film. If Bergman seems like she's gushing over Cooper, she probably wasn't merely acting.

(4) If Cooper seems wooden to some people, he's supposed to be playing a stoic character who exemplifies grace under pressure, but is also sensitive, idealistic, and quietly romantic at the same time.

(5) It's hard not to notice that Cooper's look in the film must have been the inspiration for Indiana Jones, which makes me think that this film was much more influential than I had previously thought it was.

CONS:

(1) This didn't need to be a nearly 3-hour movie, and I wish it were 30 minutes shorter.

(2) I appreciated the supporting actors and initially liked their performances, but when I re-evaluated the film, I felt that they were over-acting and seemed like caricatures (and no, I'm not referring to their make-up; I'm referring to their acting).

(3) I wish there would be a properly restored version of this film.

For Whom the Bell Tolls is not without its faults, but I give credit to Old Hollywood and Sam Wood for even making a film that is this faithful to a novel--so faithful that it moves at a glacial pace at times, but I also think that people had longer attention spans back then and did not need instant gratification like people do now.

Ernest Hemingway was most particular about how is work should be portrayed on screen. He had hated the version of A Farewell to Arms that was done ten years earlier.

What he did like was Gary Cooper's portrayal of a Hemingway hero. He and Cooper got to be good friends, so he was Papa's first and only choice to be Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The novel grew out of Hemingway's experience in the Spanish Civil War that raged for almost four years. A number of generals not liking the leftist trend the new Spanish Republic was taking pulled a military coup d'etat. The whole world took sides with the Soviet Union aiding the Republic's defenders and Italy and Germany aiding the Nationalist Generals.

The USA was officially neutral, but people had their opinions. Believe it or not many supported the rebelling generals seeing them as upholding traditional Catholic Spain. But some in America organized the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of volunteers who fought for the Republic. Some in there were U.S. Communist Party members, but a whole lot were idealists. All of them had a lot of difficulty after World War II, for shall we say being to prematurely anti-Fascist.

Gary Cooper plays just such a volunteer and he's got a mission, to blow up a key bridge in the Guadarrama mountains. He makes contact with the guerrilla band of Akim Tamiroff and Katina Paxinou. Of course fighting with them is Ingrid Bergman, so we had some romantic interludes there which steamed up the screen.

This was quite a year for Ingrid, she did Casablanca as well that year and her name became synonymous with romance. She was not the first choice here. Director Sam Wood did not like his original leading lady Vera Zorina and replaced her with Bergman who he really wanted in the first place.

In fact Wood was a second choice. Paramount originally scheduled this film for Cecil B. DeMille. I'm betting there were some creative differences between DeMille and Papa Hemingway. If this had become a DeMille type film, it would have been a disaster.

Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, and Katina Paxinou all got Academy Award nominations. Only Paxinou won the Oscar for this film. A great performance, but also probably a tribute to her refugee status. She had fled her native Greece when the Nazis took over where she was a leading member of their national theater. She accepted her Oscar in memory of her late colleagues there.

The only criticism of the film came from those that thought it lingered too long on Cooper and Bergman's romance. Something by the way they were having in real life as well.

But Ernest Hemingway liked the film just fine and I think most will as well.

The picture narrates how an American professor(Gary Cooper) enlisted to the International Brigades (Brigade Lincoln) resolves to join himself with a group of rebels during Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) : The guerrilla is formed by a bunch of peasants : Vladimir Sokoloff , Akim Tamiroff , Arturo Cordoba , Katina Paxinou and he then falls in love with the gorgeous Ingrid Bergman . He's ordered by the Republic's authority blowing up a bridge and he'll have to confront a lot of dangers and risks and stifle the facing off among the members of the motley commando .

Runtime film is overlong , the run is about two hours and half but isn't dreary . It's based on Ernest Hemingway book magnificently translated to Cinemascope big screen . The movie has tension , drama , a love story , derring-do, warlike adventures , heroic events , romantic tale and although sometimes is slow-moving , isn't boring , neither tiring . Cooper and Bergman are attractive and romantics , both protagonists were especially selected by Hemingway . The secondary cast is impressive : Tamiroff , Vladimir Sokoloff , Joseph Calleia , Fortunio Bonanova but Kattina Paxinou -actress myth in Greece- is top notch, thus she won the Academy Award , Oscar , as the best support cast for her role as the impulsive , lusty and brave guerrilla woman . Exceptional and glimmer cinematography by Ray Rennahan and enjoyable music by Victor Young . The motion picture was well directed by Sam Wood. The picture was prohibited in Spain by the censorship until recent years . Rating: Very good . Above average .

The film opens with a tolling bell and a quotation from John Donne's "No Man Is an Island." Then the action literally explodes on the screen with an act of sabotage by Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper), who has just struck a blow for the young Spanish Republic against the fascist Nationalists. As one of about 60,000 foreigners who have come to fight for Spain's freedom, Jordan's story plays out against a background of cataclysmic world events.

Jordan is immediately assigned the task of blowing up an important bridge behind the Nationalist lines in the Guadarrama Mountains, near Segovia. The main story line follows him as he joins a ragtag troop of guerrillas in pursuit of his mission. The guerrillas are led by the forceful Pilar, in an Academy Award-winning portrayal by Katina Paxinou. An equally pivotal character in the band is cunning, treacherous Pablo (Akim Tamiroff), who may at any moment defect to the Nationalist side if it profits him. The guerrillas are a motley crew of pan- European characters, each with his own life story and reason for being in that place at that time.

And then there is the innocent, vulnerable, incredibly beautiful Maria (Ingrid Bergman), who was rescued from Nationalist rapists and is now protected by the guerrillas. Under Pilar's watchful eye Robert and Maria fall in love. With the signing of Ingrid Bergman to play the role of Maria, Paramount jumped on the post-"Casablanca" bandwagon. Echoes of the earlier film that were not in Hemingway's novel crop up as Robert morphs from the stalwart freedom fighter to the lover who is torn between duty and love.

A lengthy film of about 160 minutes, FWTBT takes time to explore the relationships between characters, even the lesser lights. We find out who is strong and weak, who is in favor of the war and who is not, and get a glimpse into how each one might react when the chips are down. A particularly meaningful interchange is when Robert explains to the guerrillas that although the Communists are on their side (under orders from the Soviet Cominterm), the fascist governments of Germany and Italy are supplying the Nationalists with Panzer tanks and Stuka dive-bombers. In reality those governments were testing their armament in preparation for the coming world war.

SPOILER: The end of the film is a whirlwind series of scenes in which Robert almost single- handedly demolishes the bridge as the Nationalist army approaches. Then fate takes a hand. To escape, the guerrillas must ride across an open area through a hail of enemy machine-gun and light artillery fire. Everyone makes it across but Robert, bringing up the rear, who is blown from his horse by an exploding shell. Too wounded to ride, Robert must be left behind with a machine-gun to slow the advance of the Nationalists.

With courage and great pain Robert delivers his "hill of beans" and "where I'm going you can't follow" speeches to Maria. He promises that they will be together in spirit but stops short of saying, "We'll always have Guadarrama."

Maria is thrown onto the back of a horse and the band gallops away, her screams fading into the distance. Fighting nausea and unconsciousness, Robert sets up the machine-gun and fires directly into the camera (mirrored at the end of "Bataan" with Robert Taylor). Smoke and cordite fill the screen, and the scene dissolves to the giant bell tolling a warning to mankind.

In 1943 Hemingway and the everyone in the film knew to their sorrow that the Nationalists had won the Civil War in 1939 and that Spain now lived under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. They could not know that, ironically, with Franco's death in 1975 Spain named King Juan Carlos I sovereign of the democratic constitutional monarchy that rules the Kingdom of Spain today.