Victor Young Conducts his score for "For Whom The Bell Tolls"

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" ranks as one of Ernest Hemingway's greatest novels, standing side by side with "The Sun Also Rises." The action centers around the exploits of Richard Jordan, a character modeled by Hemingway as himself during the Spanish Civil War of the middle 1930's. Jordan has to come back to Spain to help blow up an important bridge with a band of guerillas. One of the people he meets is Maria whose entire family was wiped out by the Republicans. The decision by Jordan to fight for the right side conflicts terribly with his love for Maria as against the cause. The novel itself describes the utter senselessness and total brutality of war. All of the stars were chosen by Hemingway. These included his close friend Gary Cooper and an endearingly voluptuous Ingrid Bergman, never looking so beautiful as here in all of her youthful glory. This 1943 masterpiece was nominated for nine Academy Awards but won only one for Greek actress Katina Paxinou. The music by Victor Young is one of his finest with big arching melodies contrasting with a sense of romance and foreboding mixing in a boiling cauldron of fire that resembles the deep passions stemming from frenzied activity.