have she not be marry to the producer and jennifer jones would not have be the most obvious choice for the lead female role in this tragic tale of an affair between an american soldier and an english nurse and set against the backdrop of the first world war . her british accent be not perfect and and in the fifty it be unusual for a big romantic lead to go to an actress in her late thirty and even one as attractive a miss jones and especially when she be several year old than her leading man . there be a number of beautiful young british actress in hollywood around this time and such a audrey hepburn and elizabeth taylor and jean simmons and joan collins and any of whom might have be more convincing in the role and but miss jones have one important attribute they all lack and namely a marriage certificate with david o. selznick name on it . in the event and the film turn out to be such a turkey that they be doubtless grateful not to have it on their cv . the film tell and at great length and the story of the romance between frederick and an american volunteer serve with the italian army a an ambulance driver and catherine and a nurse with the british red cross . after the italian defeat at the battle of caporetto and frederick be wrongly accuse of be a german spy and sentence to death . ( the film paint a very harsh picture of italian military justice while it would appear that italian court martial have the power to pass the death sentence after a trial last all of thirty second without hear any evidence and without allow the defendant to be legally represent or to speak in his defence ) . frederick manages to escape and to cross the border into neutral switzerland and accompany by the pregnant catherine . hemingway novel have not always be a great success when film . howard hawk succeed in make a good version of to have and have not and a film that be considerably well than the book on which it be nominally base and but that be because he largely ignore hemingway plot and turn the film into a remake of casablanca and set in martinique rather than french morocco . like the 1943 version of for whom the bell toll and a farewell to arm be overlong and fatally slow moving . it be also miscast . jennifer jones never make catherine come to life . a for rock hudson and his assumed christian name could be unfortunately appropriate . he could be as solid a a rock but also as impassive a one and and in this film his frederick seem an impersonation of the great stone face . despite the passion and emotion inherent in hemingway plot and the emotional temperature be always far too cool . the picture have little go for it apart from some attractive picture postcard view of italian and swiss scenery . it be hardly surprising that it be not a success and that it failure end selznick career a a producer . 4/10a goof . shortly before the battle of caporetto and an italian officer state that russia have already conclude a separate peace with germany . that battle start in october 1917 and at a time when kerensky russia be still fight alongside the ally . the russian revolution do not take place until november while it be only the october revolution by the old julian calendar . the new bolshevik regime sign an armistice with germany in december 1917 and but a separate peace be not sign until the treaty of brest litovsk in march 1918 .