All quiet on the Western front 1930 - Timeless anti-war message

IMDB Link

IMDB rating: 8,1

Director: Lewis Milestone
Main Cast: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy

"One of the most powerful anti-war statements ever put on film, this gut-wrenching story concerns a group of friends who join the Army during World War I and are assigned to the Western Front, where their fiery patriotism is quickly turned to horror and misery by the harsh realities of combat. Director Lewis Milestone pioneered the use of the sweeping crane shot to capture a ghastly battlefield panorama of death and mud, and the cast, led by Lew Ayres, is terrific. It's hard to pick a favorite scene, but the finale, as Ayres stretches from his trench to catch a butterfly, is one of the most devastating sequences of the decade. The unusual film - being told from the viewpoint of German soldiers fighting in World War I - won Oscars for Best Picture and for Milestone's direction, and trivia buffs should note that the actors were coached by future luminary George Cukor." - www.allmovie.com

DVD links: 

Bad girl 1931 - Rare Oscar winner is a forgotten treat

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021635/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 6,7

Director: Frank Borzage
Main Cast: Sally Eilers, James Dunn, Minna Gombell

"Modern audiences will likely be amazed to learn that Bad Girl (Based on a novel by Vina Delmar) was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar (and won Oscars for its screenplay and direction). Terribly dated, Bad Girl is not a bad film, but it hardly seems worthy of such honors. Edwin H. Burke's screenplay is overly familiar in many places, but it does attempt to tell a fairly realistic story of two poor people struggling through the challenges of the Great Depression. There's some nice, tasty dialogue served up along the way, peppered with plenty of Depression-era slang, but these alternate with patches of stilted, unconvincing dialogue. Burke also can't keep his hands off a few contrived and jarring plot twists. Frank Borzage's direction is considerably better. This is the kind of "love conquers all" material that was Borzage's meat, and very few directors had such an affinity for romance and could put it on the screen in such a heartfelt manner. Yet it's still not Borzage's best work, surprisingly stiff in a few places and not as cohesively packaged as might have been expected. The acting is generally good, with Sally Eilers and James Dunn affecting and quite realistic. While not one of the great tearjerkers, Bad Girl is worth catching for fans of the genre and for fans of the director." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/bad-girl-v68588/

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