A Farewell to Arms (1957) on Netflix
Frederick Henry, an American officer in an Italian ambulance unit in World War I, is wounded and treated at a British base hospital by nurse Catherine Barkley. The two begin an affair.
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Trailer
Plot summary
On the Italian front during World War I, Frederick Henry serves as an American officer with an Italian ambulance unit. A wound sends him to a British base hospital in northern Italy, where Catherine Barkley, an English nurse, cares for him, and the two begin an affair. A doctor friend of Frederick's persuades the army that his knee is wounded far more seriously than it is, and the romance continues, though the two do not marry. Frederick's close friend Major Alessandro Rinaldi serves with the Italian forces. After Catherine smuggles alcohol to him at the hospital, head nurse Miss Van Campen separates them and reports that Frederick is fit for active duty.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Farewell to Arms (1957)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ernest Hemingway was told by David O. Selznick that he would get a $50,000 bonus from the film's profits, but, angry that Selznick had cast his nearly 40-year-old wife as the early-20s Catherine Barkley, Hemingway told him to convert the money into nickels and shove them up until they came out his mouth.
- David O. Selznick wanted to film Hemingway's novel for years, but Warner Bros. owned it and refused to sell; when Warner planned a remake of A Star Is Born, whose foreign rights Selznick owned, he traded those rights to the studio for the rights to A Farewell to Arms.
- Selznick hired John Huston to direct, but Huston tinkered with the script and spent an inordinate amount of time on preproduction; when Selznick raised concerns, Huston withdrew. Charles Vidor replaced him, and Selznick sent more than 10,000 memos during production.
- A Farewell to Arms was the last film David O. Selznick produced: after making it, he left the film industry and produced no other films.
