Una campana per Adano

This is one of those films made during late WWII about WWII. It has some of the feel of the Italian neo-realist films that were starting to be made around this time. This is definitely a good thing - it doesn't feel like an overproduced, overwritten studio effort.

The story slowly draws you in as the new American administrator of a little Italian village arrives and tries to help the townspeople get used to life as a free people again, and to get their lives & livelihoods restarted.

The writing is mostly fresh and natural, as is the acting. The only false notes are the bumbling Italians who become the Americans' assistants, and to a lesser extent the standard poor-yet-dignified villagers. But compared to most films of the era they're minor annoyances.

Adapted from a famous novel ," a bell for Adano" seems sometimes too good to be true."Mister Major " is really a hand to kiss for he changed the life of the inhabitants of an Italian small town singlehandedly.John Hodiak portrays this officer with authority and humanity.On the other hand ,the users are right when they write that Gene Tierney -an actress who happens to be one of my favorites- is miscast;she could pass for half-Chinese in "Shanghai Gesture" ,she is not credible as a blonde (?) Italian .Besides ,it is not much of a part,and except for the scene where she's told about her fiancé's fate,she is lost in the crowd.

Marcel Dalio,on the contrary ,is well cast as the coward;this French actor was famous in his native country for his portrayals of villains,traitors ,collaborators,etc .The first scene is his: swearing he has never been a fascist but giving the infamous salute ,he is absolutely marvelous,so to speak!

It 's sometimes too good to be true but Mister Major is an endearing character,a military man who thinks that rules are made to be broken ,which ,for an officer, is not common."A bell for Adano" is a Christian movie almost as much as King's "song of Bernadette" was.

The first sequences of the village in ruins will remind you of the Italian Neo-Realism ,Roberto Rossellini's works ("Paesa" "Germania anno zero")

This film showed that John Hodiak could act, though I guess he didn't get that many chances to star in the movies he appeared in during his career. He's wonderful as the commanding officer in charge of a post-war Italian village. He tries everything he can to rebuild the town--both physically and in spirit. However, the one thing he really can't do is restore the bell stolen from the town by the Fascists. The townspeople see this as a point of pride; i.e., if they get a new bell it proves they are a real and growing town. At first Hodiak isn't the least bit sympathetic to their plight. However, over time he begins to see that maybe there is something to be said about restoring civic pride. A cute and quite unusual film well worth watching.

Based on John Hersey's bestselling novel, this film hit cinemas at about the same time as Rossellini's films depicting the impact of the occupation upon Italy and doesn't suffer from the comparison.

Done with grace and humour and full of life, it contains the most of the virtues and few of the vices of a Hollywood blockbuster of the period. (Both Joseph LaShelle's high-contrast photography and the use of sound to covey the acoustics of the requisitioned Town Hall add to the atmosphere).

John Hodiak is excellent in the lead and is flanked by a wonderful supporting cast ranging from Marcel Dalio (who at opposite ends of his acting career appeared in the anti-war epics 'La Grande Illusion' and 'Catch-22') to Henry Morgan (later Col. Potter in 'MASH'); while the cast also includes silent director Monty Banks (here billed as 'Montague') and future director Hugo Haas.

I very much enjoyed this movie, so much so that I plan to search out the book. I write this though because many commenters asked why Gene Tierney was a blonde Italian. This would lead me to wonder what they were doing while the movie was running because they obviously weren't watching it. In what I would term a key scene, Hodiak's 'Mr. Major' explains that he was from the Bronx but he didn't see it as beautiful like his Italian immigrant parents do and he always wanted to escape and Tierney's Tina replies that that is why she has blonde hair, that she wants to get away to America but she is unable to leave the village so her escape was to dye her dark hair blonde.