All Quiet on the Western Front
(Universal). This picture would never have flashed and chattered from a screen if, as a book, it had not sold so plentifully. It is sprawly narrative, lacking a great climactic situation, lacking a love story. But it was artistic and immensely profitable. Also, it was German. Producer Carl Laemmle and his son Junior are German. They control Universal Pictures. They purchased and produced All Quiet.
They hired for the job Lewis Milestone, a chunky Russian who once worked in a raincoat factory; whose high character and uncompromising ability...