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132 CELLULOID
to bring out the whole tragedy of the boy's abrupt death. And in both cases he introduces sound as a powerful adjunct to the visual images.
Although Milestone has a certain flair for selecting good camera angles, he has not the unerring instinct, such as Pabst possesses, for choosing precisely the right set-up to bring out the mood of the scene. This is noticeable in the shots of the French sniper during the final scene of Paul's death. I can convey my point best, perhaps, by drawing a comparison between this scene and that wherein Bair shoots a fox in the opening sequence of Pudovkin's Storm Over Asia. The infinite pains taken by Bair to ensure that his bullet will not miss are almost identical with those of the French sniper as he takes aim at Paul. But Pudovkin's approach with his camera to Bair, and the perfection of each angle as he photographs him from every side, is far more emphatic than Milestone's rather carelessly chosen angles on the French sniper. Pudovkin is scientific in his selection, whereas Milestone (in this particular instance) is unscientific and without method. There are, however, some moments in All Quiet on the Western Front when Milestone selects well, as in the shots taken from below of the Frenchmen leaping over the shell-hole in which Paul is sheltering, and in the shots of the galloping gun-teams in the village street towards the beginning of the picture. It is such unevenness in the quality of the direction that causes me to rate Milestone only as a very efficient director, and not as the genius that Universal consider him to be.
Of the " acting," such as it is, little need be said