Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

May 10, 1930 EXHIBITORS HERALD -WORLD 31 ! BBga SERVICE ( ON PICTURES ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT THEY DID NOT WANT TO DIE! Produced and distributed by Universal. From the novel by Erich Maria Remarque. Adaptation and dialog by Maxwell Anderson and George Abbott . Directed by Lewis Milestone. Photographed by Arthur Edeson. Cast: Louis Wolheim , Lewis Ayres , John Wray , Raymond Griffith , Slim Summerville, Russell Gleason , William Bakewell , Scott Kollc , Walter Browne Rogers , Ben Alexander., Owen Davis , Jr., BeryZ Mercer , Edwin Maxwell, Harold Goodwin, Marion Clayton , Richard Alexander , Pat Collins, Yola D* Avril, Arnold Lucy, Bill Irving , Renee Damonde, Poupee An driot, Edmund Breese, Heinie Conklin, Bertha Mann, Bodil Rosing, Joan Marsh. Footage, 12,500. Pre-release, April 29. General release , approximately June 1, Seen by DOUGLAS FOX in New York A.LL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT” is ,a great picture because it is the human document, magnificently done, of the inhumanity of war. Following the episodic trend of Remarque’s great book it shows the young school fellows exhorted to a physical manifestation of patriotism by their preceptor, who tells them in glowing rhetoric how splendid it is to die for their country. They enlist in a body and find themselves placed under the guidance of their former postman, a man dull, ignorant and cruel, who tells them to forget everything they ever knew and learn to be soldiers, who makes them into an efficient, resentful squad still eager, however, to fight for their Fatherland. Going up they encounter fear. In replacing barb wire entanglements they have their first taste of shell fire. One of them is killed. Later, in the dugout, waiting for the bombardment to stop, the attack to begin, fear again gains the upper hand. It is only after they have been through the ghastly fury of battle, have become accustomed to the shambles of the front that they realize that food, cigarettes and freedom from rats are the things that, outside of life itself, are really important. They are young men and they do not want to die. But die they do, some with heroism, some without knowing it, some in agony and fear. Then comes leave. Paul Baumer, one of the principal characters, goes home for a short stay. There the people do not understand. They talk of patriotism, of pushing on to Paris, of how the war should be fought and unconsciously belittle the trials of those in the trenches. They refuse to see the truth of things and, not having to do it, still believe that it is glorious to die for one’s country. It is too much for Paul. Better the blood and mud and lice and hunger of the trenches, with honest comradeship and death for bedfellows than the airy rantings of the best meaning people in the world. More war. Sixteen year old children replacing the gaps in the ever thinning ranks, guns so worn that they drop shells on their own detachments, bread that is mostly sawdust. Another attack. Then an interlude in a French village on a canal. Rough humor. Girls. Contacts that seem incredible and heavenly after life in the golgotha of the front line. War again. Hand to hand fighting. Paul drops into a shell hole. A Frenchman jumps in, too. Paul stabs him with a trench knife. The French are repulsed. Paul and his dying Frenchman spend a night and a day in a shell hole in No Man’s Land. By T. O . Service HERO OF THE WEEK LOUIS WOLHEIM, who, says Douglas Fox, has given his greatest performance in Universal* s "All Quiet on the Western Front." Paul pleads with his enemy to live. The man dies and the corpse leers at the young soldier. Back to his own trenches. Back to a billet in a shattered village. A British bomber out for what he can get. Paul’s best friend is hit in the shin. Paul carries him to a dressing station. Another bomb falls near. At the dressing station Paul discovers that a fragment of the last bomb killed his burden. A useless journey. Eventually, in the trenches, on a day so devoid of incident that an official communique reads “All Quiet on the Western Front,” a French sniper kills Paul as his hand is stretched out to grasp a butterfly. The hand slowly opens, is still. That, roughly, is what the picture is about. The photography, the hand to hand fighting, the bigger battle scenes, the little flashes here and there are simply magnificent. No war picture, in scope, has ever touched it. It is two or three Big Parades put into one, directed and cut with an intelligence that it will be hard to surpass. The cast, without exception, was excellent, from Himmelstoss, the village postman drill sergeant, to Louis Wolheim, as Katczinsky, the supply sergeant, best friend of Paul Baumer and, to my mind, the hero of the whole business. Knowing, kindly and hard boiled at one and the same time, Wolheim gives the performance of his life. The picture is worth attending just to see him. From a photographic standpoint, “All Quiet” is unsurpassed. Universal made splendid use of its camera crane and achieved remarkable action pictures that it would have been impossible to take without it. Women may not care to see this picture. It isn’t pretty enough, thank God. But, to my mind, they should be made to see it. Which is all by the way of saying that I consider “All Quiet on the Western Front” the greatest war picture ever filmed. SHOW GIRL IN HOLLYWOOD STAY EAST, YOUNG WOMAN! Produced and distributed by First National. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. From a story by J. P. McEvoy. Adapted by Harvey Thew. Photographer Sol Polito. Sound footage 7213 feet. Released April 20 with Alice White, Jack Mulhall, Ford Sterling , Blanche Sweet , John Miljan, Virginia Sale, Spec O'Donnell and Lee Shumway. Seen by HARRY TUGEND in New York T I HE story of backstage Hollywood will always intrigue the movie fan. This picture of a show girl’s meteoric rise to stardom will no doubt prove sufficiently entertaining. Ford Sterling, as the producer who insists that his assistants “yes” him individually, and not in chorus, gives audible proof that his ability to draw laughs is not dependent upon slapstick situations and makeup. Alice White falls a little short of giving a really good performance. So does Jack Mulhall. When “The Rainbow Girl” flops in New York, Dixie Dugan goes to Hollywood to sign a contract promised her by Buelow, one of Hollywood's most promising directors. Jimmy Doyle, author of the show, and her beau, is unable to dissuade her. She is stranded when Buelow is fired, and wires Jimmy for return fare. Jimmy arrives in response to a call from the studio which is going to produce his play. He gives Dixie the leading role whereupon she becomes unbearably temperamental and is fired. She is shown the stupidity of her ways and goes back to work with an earnestness that results in spectacular success. There are some exceptionally well done technicolor sequences and unusual camera shots. The producers occasionally take a sly, satirical dig at themselves in a manner most commendable. “THE CUCKOOS” Produced and distributed by Radio Pictures. Directed by Paul Sloane. From the stage play **The Ramblers ** by Guy Bolton, Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar. Adapted by Cyrus Wood. Music and lyrics by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar. With Bert Wheeler , Robert Woolsey, June Clyde, Dorothy Lee, Ivan Lebedeff , Hugh Trevor, Marguerite Padula, Mitchell Lewis, Jobyna Howland. Photographed by Nick Musuraca. Dances by Pearl Eaton. Released May 4. Seen by TOM HACKER in Hollywood T JL HE appropriately titled “Cuckoos” is that pure undiluted nonsense presented in a big way. Catchy songs, dancing girls, beautiful settings and a couple of smart, smartcrackers keep it clicking. It slows down in spots only where the juvenile leads break into well regulated love making, foreign to the rest of the picture, and bits of singing and dancing in duet fashion. Lovely. “Cuckoos” is adapted from the stage “Ramblers” and directed by Paul Sloane for R K 0. Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey share laugh honors which is reminiscent of the Marx