For Whom the Bell Tolls on TCM tonight (Thursday)

[Phil C]

It will be on from 9 P.M. to 12 P.M. It is set in Spain's civil war in 1938 and is based on the book by Ernest Hemingway of the same title. The movie was made in 1943 and won the best picture oscar for that year. It is a great movie and has much suspense especially at the end. It is not to be missed if you haven't seen it. It stars Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. I have read the book and seen the movie and this movie unlike many based on books is one of the most faithful to the book. In fact if you watched this movie you could do a book report for English class. It is in beautiful color too. Don't miss this one.

[Phil C]

I double checked and it didn't win the oscar as best picture but was nominated. (Casablanca won it for that year). Cooper and Bergman were nominated as well as Akim Tamiroff who is great as Pablo. Katina Paxinou as Pilar did win the best supporting actress award and well deserved. The acting in this movie is great and it is a great movie.

Ironically when Ernest Hemingway wrote this book he knew it might become a movie and the character Robert Jordan (who Cooper portrayed) was written with Gary Cooper in mind. Fortunately he got his wish.