ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930), 1917 (2019)

In the trenches in All Quiet on the Western Front

There is a lot of criticism of a lot of the early Best Picture Academy Award choices, but the 1930 Best Picture choice of All Quiet on the Western Front is a decision that has stood the test of time. Even prickly alternative Oscar writer Danny Peary thinks the Academy got this one right.

The film is of course based on the anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque and depicts a group of young soldiers excitedly joining the German army during World War I only to find their dreams of heroism brings them mostly horror and death. I don't think that there were any war films like this in the early talkie era and one can only imagine the impact the sounds of warfare had on audiences of the time.

Read the book...see the movie.. then.go do something to make the world a better place.

Corporal Schofield (George Mackay) tries to get a message

 to the front in 1917

All Quiet on the Western front was only ten years removed from the end of World War I and this year we have another Oscar contender one-hundred years removed from the event. The film is 1917 and is director Sam Mendes's recount of stories passed down from his grandfather Alfred Mendes about the Great War.

The story depicts about soldiers in the British Army who have to get a message to company commanders to cancel an attack that aerial surveillance has discovered to be a set-up from the enemy. 1917 follows these soldiers (Schofield and Blake) as they try to make it to the front in time. The film is noted for being shot in one take and that is a most impressive technical trick. The set design is really stunning. I may watch this whole film again and just try to catch everything that is going on in the background! There has been some criticism that the movie is made for the video game generation. Maybe a little. I can see 1917 on Nintendo being a thing...But  it's still an impressive work and the latest Awards Watch post has 1917 as winning Best Director and Best Picture. Roger Deakins should be a shoo-in for the Cinematography Award and the picture may clean up on many other technical award categories. Except editing, of course. We'll see on February 9th.

1930 BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR!

This is my choice (choices) for Best Picture for the year 1930.  My criteria is that I can only use films that are on the 1001 list. To make it a little easier on myself, I am using the rules of the first Academy Award and name a winner for Best Picture (won by Wings for 1927-1928) and Best and Unique and Artistic Picture (won by Sunrise from 1927-1928). 

I found this year to have one easy choice and one difficult one.

And the nominees on the entries from every edition of 1001 Movie You Must See Before You Die are...
The Blue Angel
L'Age of d'Or
Earth
Little Caesar
All Quiet on the Western Front
A Nous la liberte'
Le Million

                    

And the winner for the Best Picture of 1939 is…All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

I would be hard pressed not to put All Quiet on the Western Front as Best Picture. The only question is whether to put it under Unique and Artistic Production or as Best Picture. Despite it's literary pedigree, I'm putting it as the winner of Best Picture as it was a hit and is still regarded as one if not the classic American movie of the early talkie era.

All Quiet on the Western Front

And the Award for Unique and Artistic Picture of 1939 is...The Blue Angel

The Blue Angel

Despite stiff competition here from three French films, I'm going with Von Sternberg's classic tale of Lola Lola the cabaret singer portrayed to the hilt by Marlene Dietrich. But it is the sad descent of the academic Professor Rath (Emil Jannings) that is the movie's somber heart and center.

I do wonder if I should see A Nous a Liberte' again. Would that have been a better choice? It's just been a few years since I've seen it now. No wonder so many Academy winners are movies released late in the year!

The Blue Angel

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 20 of 20)

Lew Ayres and a fallen adversary in
All Quiet on the Western Front

There is a lot of criticism of a lot of the early Best Picture Academy Award choices, but the 1930 Best Picture choice of All Quiet on the Western Front is a decision that has stood the test of time. Even prickly alternative Oscar writer Danny Peary thinks the Academy got this one right.

The film is of course based on the anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque and depicts a group of young soldiers excitedly joining the German army during World War I only to find their dreams of heroism brings them mostly horror and death. I don't think that there were any war films like this in the early talkie era and one can only imagine the impact the sounds of warfare had on audiences of the time.

Read the book...see the movie.. then.go do something to make the world a better place.

 

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Tall and lanky Slim Summerville got his start in movies during the silent era as a supporting foil in numerous the comedies of Charlie Chaplin, Sydney Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckile, as well as one of Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops.

Once the talkie era came, Slim continued to have numerous supporting roles in many films and even teamed up with comeddiene Zasu Pitts for a series of low-budget comedies. The interesting caveat to Slim's career seems to be that he occasionally got a good supporting part in dramas, including All Quiet on the Western Front. His scene in this film of trying to woo the local French girls with goodies is a rare light moment in the film.

Slim was actively performing  in films up until his death in 1946 at age 53.  

Slim Summerville in All Quiet in the Western Front

 Zasu Pitts and Slim Summerville in
Miss Polly (1941)

OF MICE AND MEN (1939)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 9 of 20) 

Lon Chaney Jr. and Burgess Meredith

in Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck's classic novel about two migrant workers looking to better themselves financially while staying out of trouble was first brought to the screen by Hal Roach productions in 1939, and starred Burgess Meredith as George. I think it's a successful adaptation of the novel...though some may prefer the 1992 version with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich. At the very least read the book. It's a fine character study and and Steinbeck puts you right in the middle of the depression (as good books tend to do).

Totally unnecessary fact to share: I wanted to name our two dogs George and Lennie...but I was outvoted.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Lon Chaney Jr. 

Cinefiles love Lon Chaney, Sr...the man of a thousand faces, who created so many great characterizations during the silent era and died before his career in talkies could take off.

Lon Chaney Jr. carried on the family tradition of make-up heavy roles, but he is not held in reverence by the movie public like his dad. Part of that may be because of being in so many B-movies, especially later in his career in films like Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Alligator People and The Man With the Atomic Brain. His best know role is as The Wolfman, which he brought to life in Universal's 1941 adaptation.

However, it's his performance as Lenny, the feeble minded traveling companion of George in Of Mice and Men that may be his best. You feel sympathy for this gentle giant who can't stay out of trouble no matter how hard he tries. His journey ends in tragedy, of course. And anyone who's seen the movie or read the book is sure to remember George and Lenny's final dialogue:

George: [talking about their dream] We're gonna get a little place.  

Lennie: Okay, yeah, we're gonna get a little place and we're gonna...  

George: We're gonna...

Lennie:...have...   

George: [Lennie mouths what he says] We're gonna have a cow, and some pigs, and we're gonna have, maybe, maybe, a chicken. Down in the flat, we'll have a little field of... Lennie: Field of alfalfa for the rabbits. George: ...for the rabbits. 

Lennie:And I get to tend the rabbits?

(And we probably know what happens next.)

Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie 

in Of Mice and Men

 

Lon as the werewolf

in The Wolfman

Lon still loving cute little creatures in

the so bad it's good

Dracula vs. Frankenstein.