An Academy Awards Best Picture nominee, this is a very good film that, despite its occasional experimentation and evident striving for greatness, doesn't quite reach the mark it hopes to. Nonetheless, it's unmistakably high quality and remains very watchable, enduringly appealing, and, in places, impressive. The big glaring shortcomings are the experimental moments - which don't work and are distracting - and the…

Frank Borzage presents us here with quite an effectively abridged version of the Hemmingway story of wartime romance. "Frederic" (Gary Cooper) is an American soldier who finds himself in hospital being cared for by nurse "Catherine" (the almost porcelain-like Helen Hayes). Their's is quickly a love story that has to compete with the atrocities of the Great War as he and she are both transferred and it becomes harder…