A Farewell to arms

This is the original Academy Award winning screen version of Hemingway’s well-crafted story of doomed love between Frederic, a wounded ambulance driver (Gary Cooper) and Catherine, his English nurse (Helen Hayes) in Italy in World War I. The war serves merely as a backdrop for their tragic romance. The film is mostly concerned with the fate of Catherine and Frederick - their quick but ardent meeting, their mock wedding in a hospital room, their long and painful separation during which Frederic deserts the army, and Catherine’s death in childbirth. Their farewell scene, where Catherine dies in Frederic’s arms as the bells peal out Armistice, is a moving climax to this all time classic of the screen.