Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Louis Wolheim | ... | Kat | |
Lew Ayres | ... | Paul (as Lewis Ayres) | |
John Wray | ... | Himmelstoss | |
Arnold Lucy | ... | Kantorek | |
Ben Alexander | ... | Kemmerich (as Kemmerick) | |
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 |
This is an English language film (made in America) adapted from a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality. Written by Michele Wilkinson, University of Cambridge Language Centre, <mw125@cus.cam.ac.uk>
I was in high school when I first saw this great war film and I am now a senior, senior, citizen and have seen it a few more times. ALL QUIET remains right at the top of my list of outstanding war pictures. Here was a unique depiction of life in the trenches from an enemy point of view, a novel approach.
Lew Ayres gives a memorable performance as Paul Baumer, the sensitive German soldier, and has a fine supporting cast. The vivid battles in the trenches remain in my thought, and though they lack the technological know how of today, are indelible.
One of the most touching scenes is when Baumer kills the Frenchman in the shell hole and remorse overcomes him. Another tragic part is when his buddy is dying in the hospital and is visited by his comrades. A lighter scene is when the company has an over abundance of food due to its losses and the men become satiated. They are so comfortable that they are inclined to philosophize about the causes of war and its solution.
When Paul loses his friend, his depression grows and his death at the hands of a sniper is a fitting end to it all. The remake, with Ernest Borgnine, was satisfactory, but could not approach the quality of the original which I often find to be true.