“ALL QUIET ” FILM

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1044, 7 August 1930, Page 15

“ALL QUIET ” FILM

COMES TO THE CIVIC TODAY Universal’s audible screen produc- i tion of Erich Maria Remarque’s sen- j sational best seller, coming to the Civic Theatre today, is so magnificent, I so powerful, that it hardly behoves j mere words to tell of its heartrending appael of its dramatic fire, its breathtaking battle shots in which men stab and kill each other, for the glory of war. It is not only a great motion picture because it has been built firmly and , consistently upon the plot of a great [ i book: It smacks of directional genius . ! —nothing short of this, sensitive per- ’ ! formances by a marvellous cast and j the most remarkable camera work which has ever been performed on . | either sound or silent screens, i J The director's treatment is superb. : His sense of the dramatic is unpari alleled. Ilis knowledge of what tricks the camera man can do to spellbind audience is amazing. His understanding of the true and tender details which play on the spectator’s sympathy is perfect His sense of casting couldn’* - possibly have been better. We have Lewis Ayres, a compara tive newcomer to the screen; a 20-year-old youth with deep, dark eyes and a sensitive face, portraying Paul Baumer the schoolboy, who faces hunger, despair and death—but isn’t afraid. His companions in battle are a sextet of German schoolboys—all eager to fight, vigorous and high in spirit, when they enlist. But they suffer one disillusionment after another in this struggle of terror. However, youth does not easily lose nerve. And even though one dies a horrible death, another goes mad — and one by one the rest are killed off. they philosophise and there are a couple of light touches to prove that even war is not altogether unbearable. Girls. Liquor when available. Com radesli ip. War does something to young boys. When Paul returns homo on furlough, he realises that he doesn’t belong; that he cannot stand the “home fighters. I j that even his mother doesn’t underj| stand him now, cannot see how her, baby has grown up, ! 1 | '