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1930s

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)

U.S. (Universal Pictures) 131m BW

Language: English / French

Director: Lewis Milestone

Producer: Carl Laemmle Jr.

Screenplay: Erich Maria Remarque, Maxwell Anderson

Photography: Arthur Edeson, Karl Freund

Music: David Broekman, Sam Perry, Heinz Roemheld

Cast: Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy, Ben Alexander, Scott Kolk, Owen Davis Jr., Walter Rogers, William Bakewell, Russell Gleason, Richard Alexander, Harold Goodwin, Slim Summerville, G. Pat Collins, Beryl Mercer

Oscars: Carl Laemmle Jr. (best picture), Lewis Milestone (director)

Oscar nominations: George Abbott, Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews (screenplay), Arthur Edeson (photography)

Undiminished by time (and restored in 1998), this classic antiwar film, adapted from Erich Maria Remarques novel, is a landmark for its vivid depiction of the tragedy of World War I from a German soldiers point of view, for its technically inventive, spectacular battle scenes (at the dawn of sound in film), and for its prescient denunciation of fanatic nationalism and militarism. Lew Ayres, only twenty-one years old, became an international star for his beautifully natural performance as the schoolboy eager to serve but disillusioned by the futility and horror of war. The final shota close-up of his hand reaching out to a butterfly, quivering as a gunshot cracks and falling still in deathis an amazingly poignant image.

All Quiet on the Western Front was only the third film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and war veteran Lewis Milestone received his second Oscar for direction. Interestingly, German censors passed the film despite violent protests by Nazi groups. In a cruel irony, Ayerss career was all but ruined by public condemnation of his stand as a conscientious objector in World War II, despite his heroic service as a medic rather than a combatant. A 1979 TV remake was strong, if far less remarkable than the original. AE

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1930s

À NOUS LA LIBERTÉ (1931)

Two conmen, Louis (Raymond Cordy) and Emile (Henri Marchand), plan their escape from prison. Upon breaking out, Emile is recaptured but Louis runs free and builds an empire on the

assembly-line principle. Eventually Emile is paroled and heads to Louiss factory. Within its walls he becomes smitten with a secretary named Jeanne (Rolla France) and asks his old friend for help. According to the rules of comeuppance, Louis is then threatened with discovery as an escaped felon, after which the two men earn lasting freedom as hobos on the road.

Unlike Charlie Chaplins Modern Times, a film later sued for plagiarism by Tobis, the production company of À Nous la Liberté, Rene Clairs film is an exaltation of industrial society. Opening on an assembly line and closing in a mechanized factory, the fears often associated with modernization are wholly absent here. Instead these are substituted with values of loyalty and the comedy of circumstance.

Interestingly, much of the humor in À Nous la Liberté stems from carefully manipulated screen space and sequence. First the assembly line hiccups. Then a worker forgets his place, disrupts another worker, angers his boss, and so on. Its a formula freed from dialogue and adopted directly from the silent cinema as a transitional vehicle into the talkies. GC-Q

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1930s

LE MILLION (1931)

THE MILLION

France (Sonores Tobis) 89m BW

Language: French

Director: René Clair

Screenplay: René Clair, from play by Georges Berr and Marcel Guillemaud

Photography: Georges Périnal, Georges Raulet

Music: Armand Bernard, Philippe Parès, Georges Van Parys

Cast: Jean-Louis Allibert, Annabella, Raymond Cordy, Vanda Gréville, René Lefèvre, Paul Ollivier, Constantin Siroesco, Odette Talazac

René Clairs The Million opens on a Parisian rooftop. Two lovers flirt and retire to their respective apartments, after which the camera dollies along the skyline in a one-shot sequence using forced perspective, miniatures, and matte paintings. Such a tricky sequence demonstrates a profoundly advanced cinematic style while also revealing how Clairs film is no throwaway musical comedy.

A poor artist named Michel (René Lefèvre) owes money to various creditors. Engaged to the pure-hearted Beatrice (Annabella), he disregards her to chase after the floozy Wanda (Vanda Gréville) and otherwise keeps up with his friend Prosper (Louis Allibert). When the gangster Grandpa Tulip (Paul Ollivier) races into the apartment building to avoid the police, Beatrice gives him an old jacket of Michels out of spite. Afterwards, Michel and Prosper realize that a lottery ticket they purchased is a millionaires prizebut the ticket is in the jacket Beatrice gave Grandpa Tulip, who in turn pawned it to the tenor Sopranelli (Constantin Siroesco), who will soon travel to America. Thus the caper comedy of The Million is set in motion. Mix-ups, misidentification, disguises, upsets, reconciliation, and musical numbers follow, all of it to bring Michel and Beatrice together and restore the lottery ticket to its rightful owner. Along the way a thug in tuxedo tails cries for a love song, a race for the jacket is scored to the sounds of a rugby match, and the opportunistic demands of Michels creditors and neighbors weigh in on his perceived riches.