All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Director:

Lewis Milestone

Writers:

Erich Maria Remarque (by)
Maxwell Anderson (adaptation)
(more)

Release Date:

24 August 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

At last....the motion picture!

Plot:

A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

Plot Keywords:

Soldier | Death | Orchard | War Veteran | Knife

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Louis Wolheim	...	Kat
Lew Ayres	...	Paul (as Lewis Ayres)
John Wray	...	Himmelstoss
Arnold Lucy	...	Kantorek
Ben Alexander	...	Kemmerich
Scott Kolk	...	Leer
Owen Davis Jr.	...	Peter
Walter Rogers	...	Behn (as Walter Browne Rogers)
William Bakewell	...	Albert
Russell Gleason	...	Mueller
Richard Alexander	...	Westhus
Harold Goodwin	...	Detering
Slim Summerville	...	Tjaden (as 'Slim' Summerville)
G. Pat Collins	...	Bertinck (as Pat Collins)
Beryl Mercer	...	Paul's Mother
Edmund Breese	...	Herr Meyer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Zasu Pitts	...	Frau Bäumer - Silent Version Trailer only (scenes deleted)
Ernie Adams	...	2nd Medic Orderly (uncredited)
Marion Clayton Anderson	...	Anna Bäumer (uncredited)
Poupée Andriot	...	French Girl (uncredited)
Vince Barnett	...	Assistant Cook (uncredited)
Daisy Belmore	...	Frau Kemmerick (uncredited)
Glen Boles	...	Young Soldier (uncredited)
Heinie Conklin	...	Joseph Hammacher (uncredited)
Yola d'Avril	...	Suzanne (uncredited)
Renée Damonde	...	French Girl (uncredited)
Arthur Gardner	...	Student (uncredited)
Raymond Griffith	...	Gérard Duval (uncredited)
Ellen Hall	...	Young Girl (uncredited)
William Irving	...	Ginger - the Cook (uncredited)
Frederick Kohner	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Frank Leichtfried	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Tom London	...	1st Medic Orderly (uncredited)
Bertha Mann	...	Sister Libertine (uncredited)
Joan Marsh	...	Poster Girl (uncredited)
Edwin Maxwell	...	Herr Bäumer (uncredited)
Jack McHugh	...	Schoolboy (uncredited)
Maurice Murphy	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Robert Parrish	...	Schoolboy (uncredited)
Bodil Rosing	...	Mother of Hospital Patient (uncredited)
Wolfgang Staudte	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
Jack Sutherland	...	Minor Role (uncredited)
David Tyrell	...	Soldier (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon	...	Charwoman (uncredited)
Fred Zinnemann	...	Minor Role (uncredited)

Directed by
Lewis Milestone

Writing credits
Erich Maria Remarque		(by)
Maxwell Anderson		(adaptation & dialogue)
George Abbott		(screen play)
Del Andrews		(adaptation)
C. Gardner Sullivan		(supervising story chief)
Walter Anthony		(titles for silent version)
Lewis Milestone		uncredited

Produced by
Carl Laemmle Jr.	....	producer

Original Music by
Sam Perry		(silent version) (uncredited)
Heinz Roemheld		(silent version) (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Arthur Edeson
Karl Freund		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Edgar Adams		(film editor)
Milton Carruth		(non-dialogue version)
Edward L. Cahn		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Charles D. Hall
William R. Schmidt		(as W.R. Schmitt)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Nate Watt	....	assistant director

Sound Department
C. Roy Hunter	....	recording supervisor
William Hedgcock	....	sound technician (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Frank H. Booth	....	special photographic effects (uncredited)
Harry Lonsdale	....	special effects (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Tony Gaudio	....	camera operator: second camera (uncredited)
Cliff Shirpser	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Editorial Department
David Broekman	....	synchronization
Maurice Pivar	....	supervising film editor

Music Department
David Broekman	....	score supervisor
William Axt	....	composer: stock music (silent version) (uncredited)
Giuseppe Becce	....	composer: stock music (silent version) (uncredited)
Adolph Fink	....	orchestrator (non-dialogue version) (uncredited)
Sam Perry	....	music adaptor (silent version) (uncredited)
Andor Pinter	....	orchestrator (non-dialogue version) (uncredited)
Erno Rapee	....	composer: stock music (silent version) (uncredited)
Heinz Roemheld	....	conductor (uncredited)
Heinz Roemheld	....	musical adaptation (uncredited)
William Schiller	....	orchestrator (non-dialogue version) (uncredited)
Meredith Willson	....	composer: stock music (silent version) (uncredited)

Other crew
Carl Laemmle	....	presenter
George Cukor	....	dialogue director (uncredited)
Lewis Milestone	....	hand double: Lew Ayres (uncredited)
Hans von Morhart	....	advisor: military history (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1930) (USA) (theatrical)
• Deutsche Universal-Film (1930) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1930) (UK) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1934) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Universal Pictures (1939) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Universal Pictures (1950) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Universal Pictures (1952) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• MCA/Universal (1992) (USA) (VHS) (for MCA Home Video)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (1995) (USA) (VHS) (for MCA Home Video with restored footage)
• Universal Studios (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2001) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2002) (USA) (VHS)
• BFI (Access) (2003) (UK) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• ITV DVD (2009) (UK) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Universal Studios (2012) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray book) (Universal 100th Anniversary) (Collector's Series)
• Belle & Blade Studios (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Epoca (????) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Universal Pay Television (????) (USA) (TV) (An MCA Company)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

UK:145 min (cut) | UK:147 min (BBFC submission before censorship) | Germany:136 min | USA:133 min (restored version: Library of Congress) | 138 min (copyright length) | Spain:128 min (DVD edition) | USA:101 min (TV version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German | Latin

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:13 (original rating) | Australia:PG | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) (cut) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2003) (uncut) | UK:PG (video rating) (1986) | USA:Unrated | Iceland:12 | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating) | Austria:(Banned) (1931-1945) | West Germany:12 (re-rating) | Germany:(Banned) (1931-1945) | Norway:16 | Argentina:Atp (re-rating)

Filming Locations:

RKO-Pathé Studios - 9336 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

In the first classroom scene, two phrases are written on the blackboard: 1. in Greek, correctly written, the beginning of the Odyssey - Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, polytropon hos mala polla (the sentence breaks off, against grammar and sense); 2. Ovid, Remedia amoris, line 91 - Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur (Resist the first elements [of passion]; it's too late when you resort to medicine). A third phrase appears at the end of the scene: Quidquid agis, prudenter agas et respice finem (Whatever you do, do it wisely and keep in mind your purpose), an anonymous traditional maxim with biblical echoes.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the attack scene in the cemetery, a large piece of masonry hits Paul's helmet, denting it. Later, when he retreats and jumps into the shell hole, there is no dent.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Man cleaning doorknob:Thirty thousand.
Maid:From the Russians?
Man cleaning doorknob:No, from the French. From the Russians we capture more than that every day.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Beginning of the End (#6.17)" (1993)

Soundtrack:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Wilhelmine Perspective

Erich Maria Remarque's novel and the film made from it may possibly be the greatest anti-war statement ever created. All Quiet on the Western Front won a deserved Best Picture Academy Award in the year it came out and brought great prestige to Universal Pictures as the first Oscar in that category won by that studio.

Lew Ayres is the student leader of a bunch of German school boys in 1914 who listen to the voice of their school master and enlist in the war that's just been declared. The whole class enlists and that's not hyperbole because in Germany at the time it was the boys who got the education and the girls if they got it, got it separately from the boys.

I'm sure that viewers of All Quiet on the Western Front today probably are asking why that school master and so many of his generation were urging their youth on to such folly. Very simply that their generation had a quick victory in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian War. Every generation since wars were recorded figures their war experience will be the same for their children.

Only it wasn't. On the western front the Allied and Central Powers armies were locked in a bitter stalemate that ran diagonally across France and Belgium from the English Channel to the Swiss border. This went on for a little over four years. In fact had it not been for the fact that America joined the Allied side and the French and British held out until they did, I'm sure an honest armistice would have been declared long before November 11, 1918.

You lived, fought and died in those trenches. Either you were defending or you were attacking the other guy's trenches against murderous automatic weapon fire and long distance artillery batteries. All Quiet on the Western Front was the first great war film of the American sound era and graphically shows that.

And it shows that from the enemy perspective. That's something today's audience can't appreciate, the fact that the film was from the Wilhelmine German perspective. Remember these were the enemy a dozen years before. But the experience in the trenches was universal.

Lew Ayres became a star with this film and it effected him so deeply that he became a committed pacifist which caused later problems in his career. He's the voice of reason and civilization and the voice of a lost generation of Germans who would never have listened to the demagogic appeals of the Nazis.

Louis Wolheim plays the veteran soldier who befriends Ayres and his school boy chums and teaches them how to survive in the trenches. It turned out to be his greatest role. He was a brutish looking man and played mostly those types in silent films. All Quiet on the Western Front would have been the start of a whole new career opening. But Wolheim died the following year just as he was to start filming The Front Page. Adolphe Menjou took the part of Walter Burns in that film which Wolheim was to have.

The third really stand out performance is that of John Wray who some might remember as the brutal prison guard in Each Dawn I Die. Wray plays an officious mail man who is in the German Army Reserve. He gets called up and this little nobody gets rather impressed with himself and his new found authority as a training sergeant to Ayres and his friends. Later on at the front, he gets a view of combat he wasn't quite ready for.

All Quiet on the Western Front with its eternal message of peace and life will be one eternal film, it will be shown and appreciated for many generations to come.