A bowdlerized version of one of Hemingway's most famous works, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS makes its most overtly political move by cutting Ingrid Bergman's hair so short. Otherwise, it's pretty much of a yawner, with people (in Spain, right?) doing something or other to fight some kind of
oppression. At one point during the film's three agonizing hours someone hints at fascism, but since that's such a difficult concept, HUAC "friendly witness" Wood and his writers largely drop it in favor of boy meets girl. Butch Bergman meets stoic Cooper and we're off!
Even more taciturn than usual, Cooper is in many ways a perfect Hemingway hero (as he showed in the romanticized but lovely A FAREWELL TO ARMS). He has his moments, but otherwise seems a bit too respectful of the whole noble undertaking. Obviously remembering her luminous Ilsa from CASABLANCA,
Bergman strives mightily to endow the film with romantic resonance, but she's treading on tenuous ground. The famous "I would kiss you but where do the noses go" is, depending on your mood, either the most dauntingly romantic moment this side of CASABLANCA's "Is that cannon fire or my heart
pounding" or it's completely laughable. Cast mostly with Russians in all the Hispanic roles, this glamourfest is Hollywood politics at its most apolitical, lacking even the energy of a good B movie.
When critics with an interest in reality accused Paramount of fence-sitting (reports claimed that Franco's envoys and the Catholic Church pressured the studio into a nonpartisan stand), studio chief Adolph Zukor came back with one of the great double-edged truths about commercial cinema: "It's a
great picture, without political significance. We are not for or against anybody." leave a comment
