Look at the opening credits of David O. Selzneck and Charles Vidor‘s A Farewell to Arms (’57) — the words of the title do the same right-to-left horizontal crawl that Selznick’s Gone With The Wind used.

I’ve never actually watched all of this reportedly mediocre film, which is based, of course, on Ernest Hemingway’s drawn-from-real-life 1929 novel. But I’d like to see it regardless for the authentic Italian locations — the Italian Alps, Venzone in the Province of Udine in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio and Rome.

The Gary Cooper-Hleen Hayes Farewell to Arms Bluray is purchasable, but not the Hudson-Jones. The latter is on EBay, however, and there’s also a shitty-looking version on YouTube.

Selznick’s wife Jennifer Jones, then pushing 40, played the lead role of Catherine Barkley, a British nurse who was described by Hemingway as being in her mid 20s.

According to Carlos Baker’s 1969 Hemingway biography, the 58-year-old Hemingway was informed by Selznick that he would receive a $50,000 bonus from the film’s profits.

Unhappy with the Jones casting, EH replied: “If, by some chance your movie, which features the 38-year-old Mrs. Selznick as 24-year-old Catherine Barkley, does succeed in earning $50,000, I suggest that you take all of that money down to the local bank, have it converted to nickels, and then shove them up your ass until they come out your mouth.”

One of my favorite Los Angeles restaurants during the Bush and early Obama years was Typhoon, located adjacent to the Santa Monica Airport runway. The proprietor was Brian Vidor, son of director Charles. Excellent vibe, good people, delicious eats, exotic vibe…the kind of place that the characters from Only Angels Have Wings might have frequented.