A Farewell to Arms (1932)

1932's A Farewell to Arms is the first film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's semi-autobiographical novel of the same title. Since pre marital sex is a major plot point this movie is very much pre-code. The film was directed by Frank Borzage, who at this point in his career had already won his two Academy Awards for best direction, in fact he won the very first Academy Award for best direction, that was for 7th Heaven in 1927. Borzage specialized in romantic and later religious themes in his movies, and his visual style was very much influenced by German directors such as F. W. Murnau, so this movie is often very visually impressive, and in fact won the cinematography Oscar that year.

Gary Cooper plays the lead Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American in the Italian ambulance corps during the first world war, he is good of course but it's his leading ladies movie. I had only ever seen Helen Hayes in film as an old woman before, she would have been 31 when they made this and quite beautiful, already a strong actress. This is a doomed romance picture, and while dated, I think the heart of it comes across. Paramount let its copyright on the thing slip through in 1960 so it is now widely available for free online, including in some very good quality prints, so worth checking out. ***1/2