...in all the wrong places
Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 08/25/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"SYNOPSES:
"Anna Karenina" - Based on Tolstoy's novel about a married woman having an affair with a military man. Not as good as the 1935 Greta Garbo version, although Leigh gives it her best effort.
"A Farewell to Arms" - During WWI, an injured ambulance driver falls in love with his nurse. Based on the Hemingway story, to modern sensibilities this plays like a warning against pre-marital sex. The most likeable character in the film, Menjou's Major Rinaldi, turns out to be a bit of a rat.
"Love Affair" - Nominated for six Academy Awards. An ex-showgirl falls in love with a French playboy aboard a cruise ship. They arrange to meet six months later atop NYC's Empire State Building to decide if matrimony is in their future. Directed by Leo McCarey, who also worked with the Marx Brothers, Laurel & Hardy, Mae West and other comic greats.
CLASSIC LITERATURE ON FILM 10 MOVIE PACK is exactly that: ten cinematic adaptations of stories by Thackeray, Bronte, Maugham, Fitzgerald and others.
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Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.
(6.3) Anna Karenina (UK-1948) - Vivien Leigh/Ralph Richardson/Hugh Dempster/Sally Ann Howes
(6.4) A Farewell to Arms (1932) - Gary Cooper/Helen Hayes/Adolphe Menjou
(7.3) Love Affair (1939) - Irene Dunne/Charles Boyer/Maria Ouspenskaya"