A Farewell to Arms (1932 film) are passed over too abruptly, being suggested rather than told ... Gary Cooper gives an earnest and splendid portrayal [and] Helen Hayes is admirable as Catherine ... another clever characterization is contributed by Adolphe Menjou ... it is unfortunate that these three players, serving the picture so well, do not have the opportunity to figure in more really dramatic interludes." Dan Callahan of "Slant Magazine" notes, "Hemingway ... was grandly contemptuous of Frank Borzage's version of "A Farewell to Arms" ... but time has been kind to the film. It launders out the writer's ... pessimism and replaces it with
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber who is both betrayer and murderer"; and she emphasizes the connection between "shooting and sex." Francis Macomber has lived most of his adult life under the manipulative and domineering influence of Margot. He cannot bring himself to face her and assert his leadership in their marriage, allowing her to step all over him. The text implies that the affair with Wilson is not the first time Margot has cheated on her husband. Macomber, fleeing from the lion, is unimpressive when compared with Wilson, the seasoned hunter and safari-veteran, cool and collected in the face of danger. The loss of Macomber’s