Romantic triangle war drama, initially written by William Faulkner (in 'five or six days') from his own short story. Then MGM insisted it was to be a Joan Crawford picture, even though there was no female character in it (how very thirties Hollywood!), so Hawks added her as an ambulance driver. Peter suggests that the opening of the film (Gary Cooper comes to Kent to rent a house from Crawford, whose father has just been killed in action) isn't even like a Hawks picture - but you have to set the story up somehow.
One thing I found a bit arch was the dialogue between Crawford and her brother Franchot Tone in its odd clipped staccato, but according to the director, Crawford wanted 'to have the same kind of dialog as the boys' so that's down to her.
Anyway - I should mention it's 1916, by the way - the film picks up when we get to France. Childhood sweetheart Robert Young and Tone are in the navy, Gary Cooper is a flyer - they show each other a taste of their own wars, and it's these scenes in the air and at sea that are still so good and exciting. And the usual Hawks camaraderie and drinking. And the ending has oomph.
With Roscoe Karns, Louise Closser Hale. Photographed by Oliver T Marsh, made for MGM. With credit for co-director to Richard Rosson.
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