BrianKoller's Full Review: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway won a Pulitzer Prize for his dramatic novel about an American saboteur briefly joining a loyalist guerilla band during the Spanish civil war. For the screen adaptation, he supposedly insisted upon Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman as the leads, against the wishes of studio moguls who had already cast (and cropped the hair of) Vera Zorina.
Cooper has orders to blow up a bridge during a loyalist offensive. In this operation, he is aided by a small band of rebels led by Pablo (Akim Tamiroff) and his 'woman' Pilar (Katina Paxinou). Others at the camp include elderly patriot Anselmo (Vladimir Sokoloff) and a comic relief gypsy.
Cooper, as always, plays the stolid hero well, with his eyes showing much more emotion than his voice or expressions. Bergman, surprisingly unattached despite living for months with a nearly all-male guerilla band, predictably falls immediately and deeply for Cooper. The screenplay has a heavy emphasis on their courtship, with many of the lines either tedious or unintentionally humorous. Much drama is also made of Pablo's character, a grating 'cowardly' drunkard whose loyalties are always in question.
The screenplay was de-politicized by Dudley Nichols, removing references to Franco, loyalists, and Falangists. However, there is a prophetic comment about German and Italian war machines using Spain for target practice. Despite the setting, only a handful of Spanish actors are used. Bergman's hair is blonde, Paxinou is Greek, with Tamiroff and several others ethnic Russian.
The Academy was duly impressed, and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" received nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper), Best Actress (Bergman), Best Supporting Actor (Tamiroff), and Best Color Cinematography (Ray Rennahan, whose nomination was well deserved). Paxinou was the only winner, taking home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. (66/100)
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