Jack Mylong Movies
Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a romantic drama set against the turbulent tapestry of the Spanish Civil War. Gary Cooper plays Robert Jordan, an idealistic American fighting with a Spanish guerilla band. He is assigned to blow up a crucial bridge in order to halt the enemy's progress. He falls in love with Maria (Ingrid Bergman), a young peasant girl who's joined the fight after being ill-used by enemy troops. Pablo (Akim Tamiroff), the eternally drunken leader of the guerillas, resents Jordan's attentions toward Maria, and he refuses to help Jordan in his sabotage work. Pablo's wife Pilar (Oscar-winner Katina Paxinou) takes over command of the guerillas and helps Jordan by arranging horses for the band's departure after their job is done. The man supplying the horses (Joseph Calleia) is killed, and Jordan is left to finish his task minus a means to escape. For Whom the Bell Tolls was a long, faithful adaptation of the Hemingway novel, with excellent performances, torrid love scenes, and first-rate Technicolor photography. Available for many years only in the 130-minute reissue version, it was restored to nearly its full original length of 168 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
- 1932
The pressbook for Kadetten (Cadets) claims that the film was written by Dr. Alfred Schirokauer, "after motives of a novel from Peter Muir." Whatever that means. The hero, played by newcomer Franz Fiedler, is a young cadet in a Prussian military school. Upon learning that his superior officer has tried to seduce his pretty young stepmother, Fiedler heads to the officer's home for a confrontation. Upon arriving, he discovers that the officer has been killed. Accused of the crime, Fiedler refuses to offer details to the police for fear of exposing his stepmother to scandal. This leads to tension-laden courtroom climax, dominated by that grand old trouper Albert Basserman. Incidentally, the "Peter Muir" who wrote the novel on whose "motives" Kadetten was based was a pseudonym for journalist Sven von Muller, the husband of actress Mady Christians. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Basserman, Trude von Molo, (more)
