THE SUN ALSO RISES was 20th Century Fox's big-budget 'prestige' film for 1957, based on one of Hemingway's best-known novels, shot on location in Paris and Mexico (substituting for Spain),and starring the studio's long-reigning superstar, Tyrone Power, surrounded by some of the screen's most legendary actors (Ava Gardner, Errol Flynn, Mel Ferrer, and Eddie Albert). With all the talent assembled in front of and behind the camera, producer Darryl F. Zanuck felt confident that the film would be an enduring classic for both his own independent company, and his studio.

It wasn't, unfortunately...

The problem with the film was a fundamental one; the 'Lost Generation' Hemingway wrote of were disillusioned young Americans, who, shattered by the horror and brutality of a meaningless 'Great War', lost their innocence, and became a 'live fast, die young' crowd of expatriates, settling in Paris. These were men and women in their twenties and thirties...yet the actors chosen to portray them were all ten to twenty years older! The most glaring example of this can be seen in the film's star, Tyrone Power. As newspaperman Jake Barnes, a vet whose war injuries render him impotent, unable to satisfy the woman he loves (Ava Gardner),and, therefore, the 'perfect' observer of his love's romantic entanglements with other men, Power seems more a victim of a midlife crisis than a young man devastated about losing his manhood. In his next-to-last film, Power, at 44, was aging badly, his hair thinning and his slender, 'movie idol' good looks surrendering to a middle-aged paunch. Only when he smiles do the years seem to lift, a bit, and a ghost of the "too handsome to be true" younger man appears. Adding to his physical deterioration was an undiagnosed heart condition, which would kill him, in less than two years.

His co-star, Ava Gardner, at 35, was going through a decline, as well, but, as with her character, Lady Brett Ashley, her vices were the cause of her self-destruction. Both Brett and Ava were hedonistic women too fond of booze, bullfighters, and nightlife, and in Ava's case, once-classic features were beginning to develop bags and wrinkles that makeup and lighting couldn't hide. Seeing Power, Mel Ferrer, Flynn, and young future film mogul Robert Evans (as a bullfighter),all lusting after her can lead a viewer to wonder if the War had impaired everyone's eyesight, as well as their judgment!

Coming off best are Errol Flynn and Eddie Albert. Flynn, at 48, long past his 'glamorous' prime (he and Power had been Hollywood's best-looking 'swashbucklers' of the early 40s),had become a very credible character actor, usually portraying variations of himself. His 'Mike Campbell', an alcoholic who is impoverished but still clinging to his pride, was, sadly, a dead-on assessment of Errol Flynn, as well. Like Power, he would be dead in two years, a victim of his own excesses. On the other hand, Eddie Albert, at 49, had long been health-conscious, and his performance as a drunk was simply good acting; paired with Flynn, they 'steal' the film, particularly during the famous Pamplona bull run, when the duo flee for their lives (while guzzling wine),and Flynn attempts to use a bad check as a cape to 'fight' a bull!

The drama seems overdrawn, the romance lacks 'fire', and the resolution is a hollow one. Even with the pretty scenery, Hugo Friedhofer's soaring film score, and Henry King's skill as a director, THE SUN ALSO RISES fails to generate more than a curiosity value, at the sight of so many actors, past their prime, trying to seem youthful and dynamic.

The studio just released the film on DVD; seeing photos of Power, Flynn, and Gardner between takes, and hearing director Henry King's audio reminiscences of the production are possibly more entertaining than the feature, itself!

Two insurmountable problems keep The Sun Also Rises from being a great film classic. The first was the ever present Code which prevented the frank discussion of impotency and secondly the fact that the cast was 15 to 20 years older than the roles they were portraying. Maybe had the film been identified as 1932 instead of plainly set in 1922 Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, and Ava Gardner and the rest could have gotten away with those performances. The pity is that they all try very hard under an impossible burden of age. They would have been a dream cast around 1946. Ironically this cast is a lost generation unto itself.

Tyrone Power is in the lead as Jake Barnes, the hero modeled after author Ernest Hemingway himself. Barnes received a war wound below decks just as Hemingway did in World War I. The close brush with impotence himself no doubt inspired Hemingway to write The Sun Also Rises. That fact has kept him from resuming a relationship with the love of his life, Lady Brett Ashley as played by Ava Gardner.

As a jaded sophisticate Gardner is great, but Hemingway again wrote about a lusty young woman with all her sexual appetites intact and unfulfilled. All Power can do is watch how she collects the men around her.

And they do flock be it, exiled Count Gregory Ratoff, dissolute British army veteran Errol Flynn, self conscious Jew Mel Ferrer, and eager young bullfighter Robert Evans. None of them measure up to Power, but Power can't give the lady what she most needs.

The location cinematography is great from Paris to Mexico which substituted Spain for the famous bull fighting scenes and the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona. I'm guessing that Henry King did not film in Spain because the Franco dictatorship did not want a film that glorified the days before his dictatorship even under the monarchy which Franco swore to restore. Ernest Hemingway being a veteran for the Republic was also not an author looked kindly on by the Caudillo.

Ernest Hemingway has had accusations of anti-Semitism hurled at him and no doubt because of the way Mel Ferrer's character of Robert Cohn is written. Cohn has sustained a lot of prejudice in his life, he became a boxer in college to help deal with it. He's also a bumptious sort, Power tolerates him even likes him on a certain level. The others in the group make it plain every way they don't want him around. But he's under Gardner's spell and there's no talking to him. In many ways Mel Ferrer does the best acting job in the film.

The Sun Also Rise marks Power's farewell film at the studio which carefully nurtured his stardom, 20th Century Fox. It also was his ninth and last film with director Henry King. It was at Fox where Power got his breakthrough role in Lloyd's Of London, also directed by Henry King. They had quite a screen partnership themselves and are rarely discussed as a director/actor team.

This is one film that could stand a remake, but where could you get a cast as classy as this one today even if they are a generation behind to be making The Sun Also Rises.

This is a depressing movie on several levels, the first being the actual story, about the "Lost Generation" after World War I hanging out in Europe and being drunk and/or unhappy and disillusioned. For me it's one of those movies to watch when you really want to dwell on life's misery and wax philosophical and feel like there's something romantic about disenchantment.

The second depressing thing is the casting, which is a major problem. Tyrone Power had been the most important star at 20th Century Fox for many years - in fact, when he became a star in the late 1930s, each film he made was a bigger hit than the one before. He literally kept the studio solvent. He was cast in this film at the age of 42 which was near the end of his life. He and the rest of the actors are all too old. I suppose to have made it with younger actors would have made it less of a big movie, but in fact, people like Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Wagner (both Fox actors) and Natalie Wood were closer to the right age. But you can see how that would have made it seem a lighter film.

In Power's case, I have read several comments here about how bad he looked. Were he alive, I'm sure he would thank you, as his fondest desire in life was to lose his looks. As far as he was concerned, his impossibly beautiful appearance wrecked his acting ambitions. The funny part of it is, in candids taken during the filming, one of which is included in Mai Zetterling's All Those Tomorrows (she was his then girlfriend and on the set with him) he looks absolutely fantastic, healthy and tanned, not at all what is being described here. He also had all his hair for those who seemed to think he was balding. His hair was downright luxuriant in Solomon and Sheba, the film he was making when he died. In fact, in photos taken one hour before he died, he looked better than he did in "The Sun Also Rises." Go figure. Zetterling states that he reported to the set daily on 3 hours sleep and took pills to stay awake to attend social functions that he felt were necessary. He told Zetterling that he was pretty impressed with how bad Errol Flynn looked. Apparently he was envious. Zetterling felt once filming started that he looked exhausted and haggard, but he didn't seem to care. Frankly, I thought he looked fine, particularly in the beginning of the movie. I think you can tell the scenes where he was running on no sleep. And as far as looking bad, what about Ava Gardner? At 35, she was a mess. Someone in the comments said that with all these men chasing after Brett, people would think the war had made everyone's eyesight dim. That's really not so - Gardner until the day she died had men falling for her right and left, including the husband of one interviewer who brought her flowers every day his wife spoke with Gardner. She was a very magnetic and sexy woman, and we can assume Brett Ashley had the same gifts.

That all being said, the ages are wrong but the acting is right, even if it comes not from disillusioned youth but disillusioned middle age. This is particularly true of Power as the impotent Jake Barnes and Gardner as Lady Ashley. I would think as far as the emotions, the roles were very close to their own lives at that point. Power felt he had achieved nothing; he was supporting wives he no longer loved who lived in houses he paid for and would never enter, and he was only proud of a few films. In the last years of his film-making, Tyrone Power turned in some wonderful performances in this movie, Abandon Ship, and Witness for the Prosecution. A shame he wasn't able to continue and do the sorts of roles he wanted.

Gardner's activities are well documented. She drank all night and slept all day and bullfighters were her thing, though "my man Frank" as she called him was always in the background.

Flynn and Eddie Albert are terrific - the dissipation was starting to pay off well for Errol Flynn, but unfortunately he wouldn't live long enough to make much money from it. These two had the showiest roles - in fact, in a somewhat lifeless film, they lifted it up. Mel Ferrer's character wasn't sufficiently fleshed out to tell if he was doing a good job or not.

If you can put the ages aside, this is a good, not very good, and not great film - but great as far as production values and acting. Hemingway is very difficult to put on screen, as we all know from sitting through films based on his books and stories.

A final note: For those who didn't like Power's performance, consider Jake's wild enthusiasm over the bullfights. While Power was making Blood & Sand, he actually had to attend a bullfight. Of course, a great deal was made of him and he was sitting with his wife, Annabella, down front and center. Unfortunately he became violently ill over the whole thing. In order to leave with some dignity, Annabella said she was sick so they could get out of there. So give the man some credit - Jake sure did look like he was enjoying himself.