All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Quiz

Answer: Lewis Ayres

Lewis 'Lew' Ayres was a relatively unknown young actor when selected to play the part of Baumer. He was chosen ahead of Douglas Fairbanks Jr., one of the biggest stars of the day, and even Erich Maria Remarque himself, who was briefly considered to play his own fictional creation. The director, Lewis Milestone, recalled that, "I liked everything I saw about this guy."

Ayres was only 21 when he played the role of Baumer. His experience in the film influenced his choice to register as a conscientious objector during World War II, a decision that affected his subsequent career. He died in 1996, after a career of regular film and TV parts.

Answer: Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone was born Lev Milstein in Russia in 1895. He became a US citizen in 1917, after being brought up in Germany. To his frustration, his Oscar-winning direction of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' remained his masterpiece, despite a creditable directing career that included other gritty war movies such as 'A Walk in the Sun'(1945) and 'Pork Chop Hill'(1959), as well as 'Of Mice and Men'(1939), 'Ocean's 11'(1960) and 'Mutiny on the Bounty'(1962).

Answer: The set was mounted on springs.

This was an innovative set design by the film's art directors, William R.Schmitt and Charles D.Hall. A full-sized replica of a German dugout was mounted on a sprung platform. During simulated artillery bombardments, the film crew would stand either side of it and push it violently, with the actors inside it. Another example of the attention to detail was the building of, then half-destroying, a replica of a French village on the studio backlot.

The explosive devices used to simulate battle conditions were quite dangerous. Several extras were concussed and the director himself was hit by a piece of flying debris. Some of the crew even took to wearing German spiked helmets as head protection.

Answer: Postman

In the opening scenes, showing the boys' lives before they joined the army, we met the village postman, Himmelstoss, played by John Wray. As he went about his rounds, he informed one of his neighbours that, as a sergeant in the Reserves, he had been called up to serve as a training instructor.

The boys were initially amused to discover that their drill instructor used to be their local postman but Himmelstoss became transformed by his elevation to a position of authority over them. He bullied them relentlessly, motivated in part by his petty resentment of them, since they had been the ambitious high school students who had looked down on him as their harmless village postman.

Answer: Kantorek the schoolmaster

Kantorek the schoolmaster was played by Arnold Lucy. He delivered a rousing speech to his class of school leavers just before they went off to join the army together.

Much of his speech was pithily ironic: "It will be a quick war, and there will be a few losses. But if losses there must be, let us remember the Latin phrase that must have come to the lips of many a Roman when he stood in battle in a foreign land, 'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' - Sweet and fitting it is to die for the Fatherland".

Answer: They released mice, stink bombs and sneezing powder into the auditorium.

The mastermind behind this puerile prank was Josef Goebbels, the future Nazi Propaganda Minister. The Nazi Party, which was slowly growing in power and influence by the time of the film's German release in December 1930, had declared that Remarque's novel and its film adaptation were a "Jewish lie" that smeared the good name of the German army. The SA staged a riot outside the cinema and the screening was severely disrupted but still went ahead. Later screenings suffered similar disruptions in a concerted campaign by the Nazis.

Remarque was denounced by the Nazis when they came to power and his books were ceremoniously burned as 'degenerate' literature. The film was banned but, significantly, busloads of Germans journeyed to watch the German-language version at screenings in Switzerland, France and Belgium. Remarque left Germany for Switzerland in the mid-1930s and in 1938, his German citizenship was removed. He died in 1970.

Answer: True

Many of the uniforms, both French and German, still had the original soldiers' name tags attached. They were obtained from army surplus depots and supplies that had been confiscated by the victorious Allied armies.

The project was led by its producer, Carl Laemmle, of Universal Studios. Laemmle was a German-Jewish immigrant and had flown to Germany himself to meet Remarque and gain his signature on a contract that guaranteed Universal Studios the film rights to his best-selling novel.

Answer: French

Although the characters made references to having fought the British, the film only showed combat against French troops. The majority of the Western Front was defended by French forces, with the British and Commonwealth troops mainly deployed to defend the far western sector incorporating Northern France and Belgium.

At a key point in the film, Paul Baumer shared a shellhole in No Man's Land with a dying French soldier, who he had fatally stabbed in the frenzy of a counter attack. In coming face to face with his enemy, and the consequence of his violent action, he realised that the enemy soldiers were ordinary men, just like himself, with families and lives outside the army.

Answer: False

The film was an instant success, lauded by the critics and audiences alike. It earned two Oscars, for best film and best director.

When the film opened in the USA in April 1930, praise was nearly unanimous. A typical comment was that from 'Variety' magazine: "The League of Nations could make no better investment than to buy the master print, reproduce it in every language for every nation to be shown every year until the word 'war' shall have been taken out of the dictionaries".

Answer: A butterfly

Milestone added this iconic scene in cinema history after the rest of the film was 'in the can'. In searching for a suitable ending, he remembered that, in the novel, Paul as a boy had collected butterflies. The butterfly in the scene, therefore, presented a complex symbol on so many levels, from it being a link with more innocent times before the war, to a symbol of the fragility of life itself.

The final shot was of Paul's outstretched hand going suddenly limp as he was shot by a sniper, with the butterfly resting on a shell case, totally oblivious to yet another death on the Western Front. This has become a famous image in cinematography.