A Bell for Adano

Based on John Hersey's bestselling novel, this film hit cinemas at about the same time as Rossellini's films depicting the impact of the occupation upon Italy and doesn't suffer from the comparison.

Done with grace and humour and full of life, it contains the most of the virtues and few of the vices of a Hollywood blockbuster of the period. (Both Joseph LaShelle's high-contrast photography and the use of sound to covey the acoustics of the requisitioned Town Hall add to the atmosphere).

John Hodiak is excellent in the lead and is flanked by a wonderful supporting cast ranging from Marcel Dalio (who at opposite ends of his acting career appeared in the anti-war epics 'La Grande Illusion' and 'Catch-22') to Henry Morgan (later Col. Potter in 'MASH'); while the cast also includes silent director Monty Banks (here billed as 'Montague') and future director Hugo Haas.

This is another of those very rare films that are like no other films, unique and differing from everything else, while of course you recognize most of the Italian expressions of temperament, emotion and human complications and outbursts from most other Italian films, but this American film actually succeeds in capturing the very Italian element and even the Sicilian element. The town of Adano does not exist and never did, but the inspiration for the Pulitzer winning novel by John Hersey has its source in a small Sicilian town on the south coast close to Agrigento called Licata, and if you know anything about Sicily you would immediately recognize the environment and mentality in the film as Sicilian, if you didn't know it beforehand. John Hodiak as major Joppolo, curiously like John Steinbeck, makes perhaps the role and perfomance of his life, and if you don't remember him for any other performance, you will remember him for this one. William Bendix, always reliable and indomitable as a character actor, is his closest associate and makes as usual a very memorable performance. You will perhaps be shocked to find Gene Tierney here as a blonde Italian, but she makes the best of it. Another character not to bypass, for a short but the more remarkable performance, is Richard Crenna as an Italian soldier and released prisoner. Perhaps the major highlight and most moving scene in the film is when the village, almost exclusively inhabited by women, receives back all its prisoners, sons and husbands that have been gone since the beginning of the war, while all the women go out to meet them in the square. It is one of the finest moments in any war film. The story is all about a church bell, missing when the major arrives to take charge of the village, while a clique of the villagers insist the return of the church bell being the most important need for the starving village, and the major goes through great pains to achieve that goal. The film ends in deep melancholy sadness but at the same time in glorious triumph. It's a great story, and no wonder the novel won the Pulitzer prize - Henry King's direction of the film goes meticulously about not missing anything of the great deserts of the novel.

I very much enjoyed this movie, so much so that I plan to search out the book. I write this though because many commenters asked why Gene Tierney was a blonde Italian. This would lead me to wonder what they were doing while the movie was running because they obviously weren't watching it. In what I would term a key scene, Hodiak's 'Mr. Major' explains that he was from the Bronx but he didn't see it as beautiful like his Italian immigrant parents do and he always wanted to escape and Tierney's Tina replies that that is why she has blonde hair, that she wants to get away to America but she is unable to leave the village so her escape was to dye her dark hair blonde.

I liked this film in most respects. John Hodiak was perfect as "Mr. Major." William Bendix, one of my favorite character actors, displayed much of his range, from humor to pathos. And Henry King's direction was superb. However, Gene Tierney was seriously miscast as the comely village girl.

Miss Tierney's Italian accent was practically non-existent. And that bleached blonde hair! I seriously doubt that an Italian girl of modest means in a fishing village would have made that a priority during World War II.

And why was John Hodiak talking about Jean Tierney's "dark skin" resembling that of his wife back home? If her skin was any lighter she could've been mistaken for an albino!

I gave this film an "8". It was one of those films where the plot line was taken too literally from the novel. The romance between Hodiak and Tierney didn't contribute much to the film. And Richard Conte's morbid description of the death of Tierney's boyfriend was way too heavy and mostly irrelevant to the rest of the film. Otherwise, "A Bell for Adano" would've have earned a "9" from me.

Ciao

Adapted from a famous novel ," a bell for Adano" seems sometimes too good to be true."Mister Major " is really a hand to kiss for he changed the life of the inhabitants of an Italian small town singlehandedly.John Hodiak portrays this officer with authority and humanity.On the other hand ,the users are right when they write that Gene Tierney -an actress who happens to be one of my favorites- is miscast;she could pass for half-Chinese in "Shanghai Gesture" ,she is not credible as a blonde (?) Italian .Besides ,it is not much of a part,and except for the scene where she's told about her fiancé's fate,she is lost in the crowd.

Marcel Dalio,on the contrary ,is well cast as the coward;this French actor was famous in his native country for his portrayals of villains,traitors ,collaborators,etc .The first scene is his: swearing he has never been a fascist but giving the infamous salute ,he is absolutely marvelous,so to speak!

It 's sometimes too good to be true but Mister Major is an endearing character,a military man who thinks that rules are made to be broken ,which ,for an officer, is not common."A bell for Adano" is a Christian movie almost as much as King's "song of Bernadette" was.

The first sequences of the village in ruins will remind you of the Italian Neo-Realism ,Roberto Rossellini's works ("Paesa" "Germania anno zero")