It Didn't Move

"I've tried three times but I can't finish it," said Actress Maureen Stapleton. But Director John Frankenheimer was adamant. Before they started rehearsals for Playhouse 90's ambitious, two-part production of For Whom the Bell Tolls, every member of the cast had to read Ernest Hemingway's 472-page novel about the Spanish Civil War. Frankenheimer's request helps explain why the show was a disappointment. It reflected a reverence for Papa Hemingway's prose, an unfortunate reliance on words, phrases and tricks of speech that were downright embarrassing heard out loud on TV. Examples : the stilted, literally translated phraseology that Hemingway used to suggest Spanish ("What passes with you?" "How are you called?") and the mountainside love scene ("Oh, I die each time. Do you not die?" "No. Almost. But did you feel the earth move?").

Language was not the only trouble. The story itself seemed dated. When the book was published in 1940, Hemingway hardly had to explain why a teacher of Spanish from Montana would give up everything to fight in Spain. But today Robert Jordan, even in the hands of as good an actor as Jason Robards Jr., is hardly more than a cliche cut out of old newspapers. Maria Schell was moving enough as Maria, but the sentimentally written character scarcely seemed real, while Maureen Stapleton lacked the necessary hardness for Pilar. Eli Wallach was superb as the irresponsible gypsy Rafael. But in a far too slowly paced production, it was only Pablo, the broken guerrilla leader, who became a really moving figure; as played by Nehemiah Persoff, the wreck of a once brave man had touches of real tragedy, and strangely, the coward's lines rang truer, more human than the surrounding heroics.

Playhouse 90's disappointing failure was doubled by its tremendous effort. The frenzied direction of young (29) John Frankenheimer pushed the entire cast to the edges of endurance, while CBS shuddered and costs rose to nearly $500,000. For four weeks of rehearsals and ten days of taping, Frankenheimer sandwiched his work in between his cast's commitments to Broadway shows, even insisted that Robards move in with him so that he could keep the convivial actor under surveillance. One TV crew member summed up the strain in a ditty fitted to a My Fair Lady tune: "I'm getting murdered in the morning/ Ding dong the Bell is going to chime ..."

It was Maria Schell, talking of the love affair with Robert Jordan, who came closest to summing up. "Frankly," said she, "I doubt whether real life could maintain that relationship." Even though the second half this week may be better, it is doubtful whether TV's For Whom the Bell Tolls can maintain that relationship either.

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