| Show I L 4 f p 4 4 4 I e I 1 S Lt l f da a S 'S Se a. a e 4 1 h Fd 1 45 1 ih 4 k 1 j jErnest Ernest Hemingway The movie move version of his book For Whom the Bell Tolls is h sending Hollywood off on one of its ts sillier dithers Three-Hour-Long Three Film Gives Studio Case of Dithers Robbin Coons Our HOLLYWOOD Our town is off olf again on one of its sillier dithers dither this one springing from a teapot- teapot tempest over the length of one of its newer epics The boys and girls in New York took a look at the long-ballyhooed long For Whom the Bell Tolls and some of them said it was too long Immediately the dithers set in inhere Inhere inhere here and there was great concern at Paramount The he picture as previewed previewed pre pre- viewed here ran three h hours urs In Including in- in eluding a minute 10 intermission pre pre-I Whether they decided to snip 10 minutes or so from the picture picture pic pie I ture will be apparent nt when it hits your local serene But what I never can understand Is the seeming seeming seeming seem seem- ing Importance of a f few w minutes more or less If an individual movie moviegoer moviegoer moviegoer goer is to get fidgety over sitting three hours he be will doubtless get equally Jumpy over sitting two hours and 50 minutes In either Instance his sitting weariness will wUl spring from the fact that he is not interested nor amus amused d nor excited If the picture captivates him he wont won't notice the time If it doesn't the time will wUl seem longer than it is Its It's as simple as that As an old hardened sitter from way back I found the Bell well worth the sitting I have sat through some short movies that seemed longer and through countless countless countless count count- less two hour movies that seemed unable to find an ending It seems to me that that quibbling quibbling over the running running run run- ning time of a movie is like judgIng judging judging judg judg- ing a painting by the size of its canvas rather than by what the theartist theartist theartist artist put there The Be Bell is a big canvas and andI I think an important one Sam Sans Wood who directed it it said he was interested in making a great love story against a background of war The love story is there and both take second place to the parade of characters revealed in living detail as the story unfolds Ernest dealt in int t these ese at length length length-at at such length that some of us us reading it were fearful that the blowing up of the bridge the business at hand for forthe forthe forthe the hero would never be achieved But these characters added to th the books book's vitality and the movie draws much of its strength from them The Greek actress Katina Is a m magnificent Pilar dominating the picture and Akim Pablo is equally something something something some some- thing to remember The controversy over the films film's political aspects has already be be- gun Neither Director Wood nor Scenarist Dudley Nichols was out outto outto outto to fight the Spanish civil war again but the picture leaves no doubt that It It like the book is antifascist regardless of what neutral neutral neutral neu neu- Franco might think It and its hero are on oh h the side of ot an earthy group of loyalists confronted with overwhelming force torce If it shows in some of ot the most brutal scenes ever filmed the bloodthirsty tactics tactics' of a mob of loyalists it also tells through the lips of heroine Ingrid Bergman of fascist atrocities That makes it a fairly rounded picture of mans man's inhumanity to man which is the storys story's underlying theme political issues to the side |
