MOVIEGOER

With as much of an aura of the coming millennium as GWTW surrounding its approach, FWTBT--"For Whom the Bell Tolls"--seems to be a little battle-scarred but still on its feet. If Hemingway's story had hit the screen unpublicized it probably would have been picked out as a marvelous picture and knowing souls would shake their heads and say, "Now there's a fine picture. Why didn't those Hollywood people give it a better break?"

With the reams of blurb that have obstructed its path, however, the show has been somewhat anticlimactic. Gary Cooper is still the hero of Sergeant York etc. but he is cast well enough to make it seem right. The rest of the cast is as good an assemblage of true dramatic talent as the screen has offered these past few years.

Ingrid Bergman has made this spic her bid for an Oscar and she looks fair to get it. Her acting is superb and her part its her; in all, she proves her right to the inner circle of Hollywood actresses. The supporting cast is equally good, Akim Tamiroff's performance is one of his best, and a newcomer, at least to Hollywood, named Katina Paxinour, gives a stirring portrayal of the woman-head of the guerilla band.

But the book, Hemingway's noval, is not what it was cracked up to be, not for the screen at least. It is, however, so much better than the scenario about commandos which the boys on the outskirts of Los Angeles have been grinding out lately, with a carbon under it for the next commando picture, that it, becomes a shining example of fine celluloid drama.

A little slow-moving at first Hemingway ends up with a fast-action bang that seems to overdo itself to make up for the first half of the picture. But despite these flaws, the average is quite a bit higher than otlier recent films. It's worth going to see, even if only to argue about.

The big argument, of course, is politics. Did the movie tone down Hemingway's anti-fascist propaganda or didn't it? Quite obviously it did, but it also toned down the sex and the sweazing as all good Hayes office men will attest.

The toning down of the propaganda is not as reasonable, however, for it has been carried to a point where the picture certainly is milder than the swarms of commando picture blurbs. Beyond these limitations the book has been faithfully reproduced so that it can be truthfully said that the faults of the picture are the faults of the book as a screen play.