For Whom the Bell Tolls

Set during the Spanish Civil War, this film follows Robert Jordan, an American volunteer fighting with the Republican side. A specialist in sabotage behind enemy lines, he is sent into the mountains to join a small band of fighters and destroy a bridge that carries enemy supplies. The group is led by Pablo, whose reluctance puts him at odds with his stronger-willed wife, Pilar, who takes charge of the operation. Among the fighters is Maria, a young woman taken in by the group, and she and Robert fall in love as the mission approaches.

Sam Wood directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Dudley Nichols. It was adapted from Ernest Hemingway's novel. The film stands as the seventh of the eight features Wood directed, following Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Gone with the Wind and Our Town and The Pride of the Yankees, and arriving after his earlier Marx Brothers comedies. Gary Cooper plays Robert Jordan, with Ingrid Bergman as Maria, Akim Tamiroff as Pablo, Arturo de Córdova as Agustín, Vladimir Sokoloff as Anselmo and Mikhail Rasumny as Rafael among a credited cast of sixty-five.

Made for a budget of three million dollars, the film earned around eighteen million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.8 from just over ten thousand votes, and on TMDB 6.5 from 216 votes. A critics' rating of 6.4 from fifteen reviews places it close to both audience scores.