REMARKABLE FILM

Evening Star, Issue 20592, 18 September 1930, Page 10

REMARKABLE FILM

•ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT' EMPIRE'S PRIVATE. SCREENING Poignant and disquieting in the extreme, ‘ All Quiet On the Western Front ’ is a film which may rack nerves as did tho war itself, but it teaches a striking lesson, and provides one with a glimpse of the reality and hopelessness of the war and those taking part in it, Erich Maria ; Remarque’s arresting novel, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front ’ caused a world-wide sensation and endless discussion, and tho talking picture faithfully follow’s tho book —the film is one of the greatest achievements of the talking screen. There' is no compromise —no conventional attempt to provide ordinary entertainment against the usual background of war. The picture goes a long way deeper than that. There is revealed tho grim and realistic record of tho greatest tragedy in tho history of tii© world, seen through tho eyes of a generation of young; Germans sacrificed for a cause of which they knew but little. , This picture, which had a private screening at the Empire Theatre this morning, is relentless in its indictment of war. It show's how men fought and died, but it does riot attempt to display in any way the glamour and tho romance of war, as is so often done in the film of romance. Tho characters are shown as mere automatons, fighting, defending their lives against other men of flesh and blood, all the while wondering vaguely the reason for it all. It would bo all the same whether these, men were Frenchmen, Britons, or Germans. They played their parts blindly, fighting for a Fatherland without knowing what it was their country w r as seeking. The director of this stupendous motion picture achievement is Mr Lewis Milestone, and he lias evolved from a novel without any . ordinary structure or plot a film which is a striking panorama of war. ' He has done this most delicately, without tho , least suspicion of coarseness, indecency, or vulgarity. On the other hand, tho horror, tho cruelty,, the sickening and primitive savagery of war, as written by Remarque, have been transferred to the screen in a masterly adaption that leaves nothing of the sordidness of trench warfare to tho imagination. Every one of the picture’s grimmest and most poignant chapters of frontline experiences is set amid the smoke, roar, and terror of battle itself, and, following the scenes of patriotic fervour at (he outset, there is unfolded the story of how tho young recruits are taught something of the meaning of field discipline by Sergeant Himmelstoss, tho ex-postman, who is certainly inclined to make tho fullest use of his position of authority. The boys, who nave just left school in search of glorious adventure, return some of the humiliations that have been heaped upon them when they make poor old Himmelstoss the victim of an amusing practical joke. Before long, however, they are all faced with the stark reality and the awfulnes of w r ar, and the story revolves around the first introductions to, frontline warfare of half a dozen boys as they face the shelling, maddening machinegun fire and bayonet attacks of the French. The reactions of the various characters to their experiences are show’n, and there is also depicted the visit of the men to the hospital to see their wounded comrades, the hardened attendants, arid the poignant scenes enacted inside tho grim interior of tho dressing station. The scenes inside the rat-infested dugouts are so vivid and realistic that One can almost feel tho cold oneself And then there is the return of ono boy to his little home and his mother, the one or two brief periods of forgetfulness;' again his return to tho trenches, and finally his tragic death. The picture is no romantic delineation of storybook bravery. It is the_ gripping drama of the trials and suffering of a few men, old before their time, a tale of mud, suffering, and hopelessness. And underlying it all there is a glimpse of the courage that belongs to the brave of every nation. Every member of the cast plays his part magnificently, and one of, the outstanding characterisations is that of Louis Wolheim, who plays the party of Katn, the man with a genius for looking on the best side of things., Paul Baumer is played by Lewis Ayres, who also gives a fine portrayal. Russell Gleeson, Harold Goodwin, Walter Rogers, William Bakewell, Ben Alexander, and Owen Dongas are all included in the cast, and, if one or two of them show a pronounced nasal twang that is soon forgotten in ’the tensenes of the scenes they enact. “Slim” Summerville lends a comedy touch at times, and John Wray is the petty martinet, Himmelstoss, Raymond Griffiths being the dying French poiln. The director has cleverly struck the very note that was conveyed by Remarque in the novel. Ho has successfully endeavoured to show the dreadful wastage of youth that a war entails, and the picture is one that should be seen by every thinking man and woman. It opens at the Empire Theatre to-mor-row afternoon and night. ....