Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man *** (1962, Richard Beymer, Paul Newman, Susan Strasberg, Arthur Kennedy, Jessica Tandy, Diane Baker, Corinne Calvet) – Classic Movie Review 10,733

Director Martin Ritt’s 1962 drama Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man stars Richard Beymer as Ernest Hemingway’s young, immature and restless semi-autobiographical hero, here called Nick Adams, who leaves his rural Michigan home to experience that crazy little thing called Life on his way to manhood. It is a fairly rare example of the author’s name being included in the movie title. It was nominated for five Golden Globes but no wins and no Oscars.

As in a skewered version of Hemingway’s own real life, Nick encounters The Battler, punch-drunk damaged blue-eyed fighter Ad Francis (Paul Newman), then New York where he fails to get a job as reporter, and then World War One when he enlists in the Italian army as an ambulance driver, and nurse Rosanna (Susan Strasberg) after being wounded.

It is interesting stuff, and given a prestige production, but the handsome Beymer just isn’t up to the demands of this exacting role, and nor are Susan Strasberg and Diane Baker as his love interests, while director Ritt lets his film dip and drift away over the incredibly long running time of 145 minutes, unable to keep up a dynamic momentum in what is a series of short stories rather than an actual story.

But many individual scenes and performances are attractive and appealing for the patient viewer, and there is always Lee Garmes’s striking photography in DeLuxe color and CinemaScope and Franz Waxman’s compelling score to distract the attention. The art direction/ set decoration evoking the early 20th century is impeccable and the location shooting in Italy and Wisconsin pays off handsomely.

That extraordinary cast, also, must be worth the price of admission. Arthur Kennedy as Nick’s doctor father and Jessica Tandy as the bitter mother are outstanding. Paul Newman, Juano Hernandez, James Dunn, Dan Dailey, Fred Clark, Ricardo Montalban and Eli Wallach are also remarkable, and Ritt shows his particular skill as a sensitive director of actors.

Newman might have been perfect in the main part. Newman had played The Battler in an 18 October 1955 TV version of the story also adapted by A.E. Hotchner when Dewey Martin played Nick.

It is interesting to compare it with the 1996 In Love and War.

It is also known as Adventures of a Young Man.

Screenwriter A E Hotchner adapts ten Nick Adams stories: Indian Camp, The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife, The End of Something, The Three Day Blow, The Battler, A Very Short Story, In Another Country, Now I Lay Me, The Way of the World and A Way You’ll Never Be. The end part of the film in Italy draws on A Farewell to Arms.

Also in the cast are Diane Baker as Carolyn, Corinne Calvet as Contessa, Juano Hernandez as Bugs, Fred Clark, James Dunn, Paul Newman, Ricardo Montalban, Dan Dailey, Arthur Kennedy, Susan Strasberg, Jessica Tandy, Eli Wallach, Michael J Pollard, Simon Oakland, Edward Binns, Tullio Carminati, Pat Hogan, Philip Bourneuf, Charles E Fredericks and Marc Cavell.

Whit Bissel had his scenes deleted. Sharon Tate is said to be in the film but she has not been identified.

Hemingway wrote the opening and closing narration and was to speak it but he committed suicide  at his home in Ketchum, Idaho, before the film was completed. The cast and crew were in Verona, Italy, filming on a location suggested by Hemingway.

Gary Cooper was to have played Nick’s doctor father but died in 1961.

Warren Beatty was also in the running for the role of Nick until negotiations broke down.

The European version at 145 minutes is six minutes longer than the US release.

Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man [Adventures of a Young Man] is directed by Martin Ritt, runs 145 minutes or 139 minutes, is made by Jerry Wald Productions, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by A E Hotchner, based on stories by Ernest Hemingway, is shot in DeLuxe color and CinemaScope by Lee Garmes, is produced by Jerry Wald and scored by Franz Waxman, with Art Direction by Paul Groesse and Jack Martin Smith.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,733

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