All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) on DVD + The Road Back (1937) on DVD

Get the original film, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), and The Road Back (1937), for 20% off their individual prices!

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Starring Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Ben Alexander, Scott Kolk
Directed by Lewis Milestone

Print: black/white
Runtime: 132 min.
Genre: Drama


This is an English language film (made in America) adapted from a novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque. The film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality.

The Road Back (1937)

Starring John 'Dusty' King, Richard Cromwell, Slim Summerville, Andy Devine, Barbara 
Read, Louise Fazenda, Noah Beery Jr.
Directed by James Whale

Print: black/white
Runtime: 97 min.
Genre: drama


A handful of German soldiers readjust to civilian life in the bitter wake of World War I in this 
follow-up to the classic All Quiet On The Western Front, which like the first film was based 
on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. After the signing of the armistice, Capt. Von Hagen 
(John Emery) dismisses what is left of his troops, who march home to an uncertain future. 
Tjaden (Slim Summerville) finds himself helping to fend off rioters demanding food from a 
shop owned by the town's mayor (Etienne Girardot); the grateful mayor in turn offers Tjaden 
his daughter's hand in marriage. Weil (Larry Blake) becomes a political activist and finds 
himself acting as a spokesman for another group of citizens demanding precious food; this 
time, Weil is shot by troops led by his former commander, Capt. Von Hagen. Willy (Andy 
Devine) visits his former schoolteacher, who presents him with an ironic gift — a toy gun he 
took away from Willy when he was a boy. And Albert (Maurice Murphy) comes home to 
discover his fiancée has wed another man, a man who avoided the war but found ways to 
profit from it at home. In a fit of rage, Albert kills the man, and finds himself on trial for his 
life. Combining a strong anti-war message with prescient warnings about the dangers of 
the rising Nazi regime, The Road Back was intended to be a powerful and controversial 
picture, and Universal entrusted it to their finest director, James Whale. However, by the 
time shooting was completed, new management had taken over the studio, and Nazi 
officials began applying pressure to Universal (as well as members of the film's cast) to 
delete the material critical of the Nazis, threatening to scuttle European distribution of future 
Universal product if their demands were not met. Universal bowed to their wishes, and the 
film was partially reshot with another director, and the remainder extensively re-edited, 
leaving the final product a pale shadow of what Whale had originally intended.