In A Farewell to Arms (1932), Gary Cooper played Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver in Italy during World War I who falls in love with English nurse Catherine Barkley, played by Helen Hayes. Directed by Frank Borzage from Ernest Hemingway’s novel, the film follows Frederic and Catherine as war, desertion and loss test their love.
Cooper gave Frederic a quiet, romantic intensity, and his chemistry with Hayes made the film one of the great early sound romances. The film won Academy Awards for cinematography and sound, and it established Cooper as a dramatic leading man.
A Farewell to Arms remains a signature Cooper role because it showed his gift for romance and tragedy, and because Frederic’s farewell to war still moves audiences.