Helen Hayes
Catherine Barkley
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Synopsis
An American ambulance driver and an English nurse meet on the Italian front during the First World War. Their tentative attraction becomes a relationship that military duty repeatedly interrupts. Frank Borzage's adaptation concentrates on the couple's effort to create a private refuge while the wider conflict keeps dictating the terms of their lives.
Cast
DirectorsFrank Borzage
Inspirations
The film adapts Ernest Hemingway's novel and the stage version by Laurence Stallings. Hemingway's wartime experience informed the book, but the lovers and their story remain literary constructions. Frank Borzage's direction places particular emphasis on the romance within the war setting.
Reception and legacy
The production won Academy Awards for cinematography and sound recording. Those awards recognise two important parts of its effect: expressive visual composition and the relatively new possibilities of sound cinema.
Sources and availability
The synopsis and editorial text were written for this collection. The references below were cross-checked to identify the film and its copy; each editorial section identifies its reference.
Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.
The reference concerns the original work. Restorations, colorization, translations and other territories may have different conditions. This site uses the player enabled by the channel.
Availability checked on September 10, 2026.
Photograph credit
Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.
- Helen Hayes — Toronto Star · Public domain
- Gary Cooper — Eiga no Tomo · Public domain
- Adolphe Menjou — CBS Radio · Public domain
- Mary Philips — film screenshot (Paramount Pictures) · Public domain
