Celluloid : the film to-day (1931)

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT I33 except that it conforms with customary American standards. Lewis Ayres makes a restrained performance of Paul Baumer, Louis Wolheim portrays the redoubtable Katczinsky with notable skill, John Wray overacts the tyranny of Himmelstross, whilst the others are all more or less adequate. I would only add that there seems no conceivable reason for substituting at the last moment Beryl Mercer for Zasu Pitts as Paul's mother. The difference between these two actresses is so great that it is hardly credible that Zasu Pitts was forsaken in favour of Beryl Mercer. The very size and scope of All Quiet on the Western Front — they say it cost something in the neighbourhood of four hundred thousand pounds — cause it to project among the films of 1930. Not that its magnitude need alarm us. On the contrary, the bigger the picture the more futile and cumbersome it usually turns out to be. But Milestone's job assumes vast dimensions when we consider the amount of material he had at his disposal. No matter what any serious critic may say, the film is destined to go down to posterity as a true and faithful record of the War. The publicity department of Universal Pictures has made certain of that. Copies of the picture have been accepted by the corporations and councils of various cities throughout England to be stored away in their vaults as a historic record of the World War. It has been awarded the gold medal of artistic honour by the Faculty of Arts as being, in the opinion of that resplendent body, the best film to be produced in 1930. I cannot but wonder whether the judges of this institution happened to see a film called Earth, a peaceful