They Were So Close!

But "close" is not really quite good enough.

I was recently watching the movie A Farewell to Arms (the 1957 version with Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones, rather than the 1932 version with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes).

Both movies are loosely based on Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name. The basic plot is: An English nurse and an American ambulance driver on the Italian front during World War 1 fall in love, but the horrors surrounding them challenge their romance to the limit.

But it was one scene in the movie that had me thinking, "Oh, they came so close!"

Oscar Holmoka as Dr. Emerich and Rock Hudson as Lt. Frederick Henry are in a little cafe in Switzerland shortly after the death of Jennifer Jones' character, Catherine Barkley. And in the panel behind them are two "coats of arms".

I put "coats of arms" in quotes, because I can find no real-life heraldry that matches either of the two shields here. Yes, the lower left portion of the left-hand shield is certainly reminiscent of Switzerland.* But the rest? A blue chief on a red field? Two black stars on red? What may be a stylized thistle? Not like any arms that I have been able to find. And trust me, I went through the Switzerland section of the Heraldry of the World website pretty thoroughly, as well as looking at a bunch of northern Italian arms.

So, they came close. I mean, the two shields kind of look a bit like heraldry. But they're not. And what a shame that is.

* There's an old joke that goes: Question: "What do you like about Switzerland?" Answer: "Well, their flag is a big plus."