THE SUN ALSO RISES (1957)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Henry King

SCREENWRITER: Peter Viertel

FILM STARS: Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn, Mel Ferrer, Errol Flynn, Eddie Albert, Gregory Ratoff, Juliette Gréco, Marcel Dalio, Henry Daniell, Bob Cunningham, Danik Patisson, Robert Evans, Lilia Guízar

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Ernest Hemingway

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Pan

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1957

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1926

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title.

NOTES

GENRE: Drama

WORDS:

I saw this film and read this book so long ago I’m not sure if I am doing them a disservice speaking about them now. But, hey, if film watched and book read were to be recent I’m not sure how many posts I would do a year. In any event the blog was meant to be a celebration of film tie-in cover art which, morphed, into something more wordy, as a result of my enthusiasm for some books or films.

Groan.

OK, I saw the film in 1984 as a teen and despite liking it, I have not watched it since. I must … I should …

The novel I read in 1985 and, despite loving it, I have not re-read it but I do dip into it every now and then.

I was on a serious Hemingway kick at the time and I still rate and love Hemingway.

The Sun Also Rises (1926) (published as Fiesta in Great Britain in 1927) follows a group of disillusioned American and British expatriates traveling from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the bullfighting festival in Pamplona, Spain. It is a evocative of a time and place, so much so that it becomes the definitive portrait of the “Lost Generation” navigating post-World War I trauma, aimlessness, and broken relationships. Reading it as a kid I felt like a “grown up” because Hemingway’s dealing with the characters was adult and real. The characters disillusionment was pervasive. It was the second or third Hemingway novel I had read and unlike the earlier For Whom the Bells Toll or To Have and Have Not it was light on “action”, but it reinforced my love of all things Hemingway. I knew I did not relate to any of the characters but their story, and the time and place played out like a A-list Hollywood film, the A-List film I had seen the year before.

Hemingway is a writer I still love. Simple lines but packed full of information not spelt out. He wore his heart on his sleeve and here in his first novel he writes as many do for ‘firsts” … about himself (at least i part) –

“The novel is a roman à clef: the characters are based on people in Hemingway’s circle and the action is based on events, particularly Hemingway’s life in Paris in the 1920s and a trip to Spain in 1925 for the Pamplona festival and fishing in the Pyrenees. Hemingway converted to Catholicism as he wrote the novel, and Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera notes that protagonist Jake Barnes, a Catholic, was “a vehicle for Hemingway to rehearse his own conversion, testing the emotions that would accompany one of the most important acts of his life.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Also_Rises

The 50s was awash with adult melodramas about people (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), This Earth Is Mine (1959),  East of Eden (1955), A Summer Place (1959), Some Came Running (1958), Home from the Hill (1960), and anything by Douglas Sirk)) and I loved them. I was a kid brought up on westerns, adventure films, Martin & Lewis, Abbott & Costello and Elvis movies but I was branching out. I had learnt to love Hollywood film through “star power”. The more stars, the better. As a result I found myself in genres I would not have otherwise explored, at least not as a teenager. The multi character Hollywood melodramas  was one limb. The bonus here is that the melodrama is based on a great novel by Hemingway, and set in errr European locales.

And, this film had star power … and not just Tyrone (you like how I did that) but Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, Errol Flynn, Eddie Albert. All are great with Power (solid as melancholy Jake Barnes) and Flynn (as the drunken Mike Campbell) standing out. The much maligned Flynn’s career was in a downturn and he took this second lead role, probably because he need the money and it was a big budget A-Film, and he was perfect because he was playing Errol Flynn in many ways. All three leads, Power, Gardner and Flynn had been criticised as and categorised as good looking movies stars rather than actors, and perhaps they were but better casting you could not find, even if they were all way too old for their roles (as was Eddie Albert). And i don’t mind future Hollwood movie mogul, Robert Evans as a Spanish  bullfighter … not at all bad for a Jewish kid from NYC.

Filming started March 1957 in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico. Apparently it had been intended to shoot in Pamplona but the trees were not in foliage and the production could not afford to wait. There was some second unit shooting in Spain and France. Directed by Tyrone Power favourite Henry King (King and Power, 20th Century Fox studio regulars, made 11 films together Lloyd’s of London (1936), In Old Chicago (1937), Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938), Jesse James (1939), A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941), The Black Swan (1942), Captain from Castile (1947), Prince of Foxes (1949), King of the Khyber Rifles (1953), Untamed (1955), The Sun Also Rises (1957)) this film is lush in colour (filmed by Leo Tover who could do this in his sleep – When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950), The President’s Lady (1953), Untamed (1954), The Tall Men (1955), Soldier of Fortune (1955), The Conqueror (1956), The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Follow that Dream (1962)) and evocative of place, something King had a knack for (Captain from Castile (1947), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), Carousel (1956), The Bravados (1958), This Earth Is Mine (1959), Beloved Infidel (1959)), even if the filming took place elsewhere. King is a most underrated director, or perhaps, I should say that King, well regarded at the time is a a largely forgotten director by the casual viewers and he rarely turned in a bad film. With his feet solidly in the silents (he started directing in 1915 and did amongst many others Tol’able David (1921) The White Sister (1923), Romola (1924), The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926)) and let his framing do a lot of the talking. Twice nominated for best director Oscars (if that is any indication of anything (for The Song of Bernadette (1943) and Wilson (1944)), he never won (the Oscars aren’t an indication of anything).

Novelist (The Canyon (1940), Line of Departure (1947), White Hunter Black Heart (1953) and others) and screenwriter (the Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Five Miles to Midnight (1962), his own White Hunter Black Heart (1990) and others) Peter Viertel had been bouncing around Hollywood for a while writing screenplays (Saboteur (1942), The Hard Way (1943), We Were Strangers (1949)) and doctoring other screenplays (The African Queen (1951), Beat the Devil (1953)). He liked literate subject matters and had a knack of making wordy things flow faster than they would otherwise.

This is an A-list Hollywood studio product (20th Century Fox under Darryl F. Zanuck’s vice grip control) with the right amount of sensitivity to the source material with an eye on what was acceptable at the time but both shrouded in commercial considerations. Tarantino has said somewhere that he doesn’t like 50s films because they were self censored and could not be explicit. He may have a point but I also like them for that reason … the film makers had to think up ways of getting across the source material without the censors knowing. Lead character Jake Barnes is impotent in the book and is still impotent in the film. Though, how impotent isn’t answreed. A lot of people will decry the self censorship used to not upset the censors, but the filmmakers also knew that many of the audience has probably read the book (it was a best seller) so they already knew of Barnes’ impotency (not that the book is explicit (leading some to suggest he is actually missing his penis – Jake Barnes’s impotence is never described with explicit anatomical details by Hemingway)) . So, you know, we get it … it doesnt have to be put on a billboard.

As you wuld expect from Hollywood in the 50s, the film is not as grim as the novel. There is also some comic relief (Eddie Albert as Bill Gortin and to a lesser extent Errol), less antisemitism to the Robert Cohn Jewish character (played by Mel Ferrer), less promiscuity and brazeness from Lady Brett Ashley’s character (as played by Ava Garner), and there is the optimistic ending … the book ends on a famously grim and cynical note with Jake and Brett riding in a cab, where Brett says, “Oh, Jake, we could have had such a damned good time together,” and Jake replies, “Yes. Isn’t it pretty to think so?” The film changes this to a hopeful, romantic ending, with Brett stating, “There must be an answer for us—somewhere,” and Jake stolidly replying, “I’m sure there is”.

That’s Hollywood … but it still works.

Though Hemingway didn’t think so – he saw the film but walked out after 25 minutes stating allegedly, “I saw as much of Darryl Zanuck’s splashy Cook’s tour of Europe’s lost generation bistros, bullfights, and more bistros…It’s pretty disappointing and that’s being gracious. Most of my story was set in Pamplona so they shot the film in Mexico. You’re meant to be in Spain and all you see walking around are nothing but Mexicans…It looked pretty silly. The bulls were mighty small for a start, and it looked like they had big horns on them for the day. I guess the best thing about the film was Errol Flynn”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Also_Rises_(1957_film)

Though I note here that if Hemingway walked out after 25 minutes claiming Flynn’s performance was the only good thing, he couldn’t have seen it as Errol didn’t appear until 54 minutes in.

I love the book and like the film.

The book was a best seller, the film made money but not a lot because, errr, the star power cost too much …..

LINKS

TRAILER

some links to interesting articles on the film
https://brightlightsfilm.com/immovable-feast-another-look-henry-kings-sun-also-rises/
https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2023/11/all-star-downer-sun-also-rises-1957.html