All Quiet On The Western Front - 1930

Zasu Pitts was originally cast as Mrs. Bäumer (mother of Lew Ayres' character Paul Bäumer), but she was replaced by Beryl Mercer. Contrary to long-standing rumor, Zasu Pitts did not appear in the silent version of this film simultaneously produced for theaters not yet wired for sound. However, Zasu Pitts DOES appear briefly in the original 1930 trailer for the silent version, a scene of her in bed.

In the closing scene, director Lewis Milestone's hand is used for that of Lew Ayres, when he reaches for a butterfly.

During the film's German release, the Nazis (not yet in power) interrupted screenings by shouting martial slogans and releasing rats into the theaters.

To ensure authenticity, director Lewis Milestone instructed the studio to try to find out if there were any German Army veterans living in the Los Angeles area, so he could have them authenticate German uniforms, equipment, etc. So many of them were found that Milestone cast a lot of them as German officers in the film, and had them drill the extras playing German troops. (The scene where they are laying communication wire in the forward trenches was led by a former German soldier whose job during the war was to do exactly that.)

The Greek writing on the blackboard in the schoolroom is the beginning of Homer's Odyssey "Tell me Oh Muse of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide"

In part because of his experience in playing the part of Paul Baumer, Lew Ayres became a conscientious objector during the Second World War. His films were banned in over 100 Chicago theaters.

According to the reminiscences of director Lewis Milestone, audiences laughed when Zasu Pitts appeared as the mother in the original cut (sound version), and that is why he recast the role with Beryl Mercer.

The silent (synchronised sound, non-dialogue) version premiered 73 years after the film's release (in the UK, that is) at the Watershed in Bristol on Sunday 23 November 2003.

Visa d'exploitation en France: #10077 (reprise)

In the first classroom scene, two phrases are written on the blackboard: 1. in Greek, correctly written, the beginning of the Odyssey - Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, polytropon hos mala polla (the sentence breaks off, against grammar and sense); 2. Ovid, Remedia amoris, line 91 - Principiis obsta, sero medicina paratur (Resist the first elements [of passion]; it's too late when you resort to medicine). A third phrase appears at the end of the scene: Quidquid agis, prudenter agas et respice finem (Whatever you do, do it wisely and keep in mind your purpose), an anonymous traditional maxim with biblical echoes.

Future leading director Fred Zinnemann was briefly an extra on the film, before getting fired for impudence.

Future great director George Cukor, having recently been brought over from Broadway (where he was already a director) to Hollywood, was employed as a dialogue coach on this film. His job was to lessen the regional dialects of the actors so that American audiences could more greatly identify with the characters.

With the loss of limbs and gory deaths shown rather explicitly, this is undoubtedly the most violent American film of its time. This is because the Production Code was not strictly enforced until 1934, and also because Universal Pictures deemed the subject matter important enough to allow the violence to be seen.

As of 2006, Arthur Gardner and Glen Boles are the only surviving members of either the cast or crew.

The first sound film of director Lewis Milestone.

Nazi rabble rousers stormed screenings of the film in Germany, often releasing rats or stink bombs into the theaters, as the wounds of defeat in the First World War still ran deep. This led to the film ultimately being banned by the Nazi party. It wouldn't receive proper screenings in Germany until 1956, though it did play to packed houses in 1930 in neighboring Switzerland, France and the Netherlands with special trains and buses being laid on to transport Germans to screenings.

Made for the then considerable sum of $1.25 million, the production utilized over 2,000 extras. The knowledge that production began only a few months after the 1929 stock market crash puts into perspective the enormous gamble taken by Universal Pictures in making this film.

Lewis Milestone deliberately made the film without music so as not to take away from the seriousness of the subject. Much to his chagrin, however, some movie theaters added music in of their own choosing, as they weren't used to having films delivered to them without any form of background scoring.

Lewis Milestone's attention to detail - and desire to be as authentic as possible - was such that the chief sanitary inspector of Orange County, California, insisted that production be halted while he check on the sanitary conditions of the trenches built for the film.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and even the book's author, Erich Maria Remarque, were both considered for the lead role.

Banned in Italy until 1956.

[June 2008] Ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Epic".

The film was banned in Germany by the Nazi Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick_ on the grounds that it ignominiously represented Germans as cowards. Ironically, in neighboring Poland, that country's censorship board proscribed the film on account of its being "pro-German."

The first talkie war film to win Academy Awards.

Cast of All Quiet On The Western Front

Richard Alexander Westhus
Ben Alexander Franz Kemmerich
Lew Ayres Paul Bäumer
William Bakewell Albert Kropp
G. Pat Collins Lieutenant Bertinck
Owen Davis, Jr. Peter
Russell Gleason Müller
Harold Goodwin Detering
Scott Kolk Leer
Arnold Lucy Professor Kantorek
Beryl Mercer Mrs. Bäumer - Paul's Mother
Walter Rogers Behn
Slim Summerville Tjaden
Louis Wolheim Stanislaus Katczinsky
John Wray Himmelstoss