Tweet 2014 approaching 100th anniversary of start of WW1

Chaney and Walthall in THE FALSE FACES, an espionage made during the war. Also Sennett's YANKEE DOODLE IN BERLIN and the Virginia Rappe/Rudolph Valentino/Julian Eltinge OVER THE RHINE(aka AN ADVENTURESS/ aka THE ISLE OF LOVE) both also made during the war.

LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER(1981) and MATA HARI (1984) - Golan/Globus, I'm partial to Sylvia Kristel films.

Chaney and Walthall in THE FALSE FACES, an espionage made during the war. Also Sennett's YANKEE DOODLE IN BERLIN and the Virginia Rappe/Rudolph Valentino/Julian Eltinge OVER THE RHINE(aka AN ADVENTURESS/ aka THE ISLE OF LOVE) both also made during the war.

(GASP!) I cannot recommend An Adventuress/Isle of Love. Don't go there. Flee. Run away.

I don't think this silent feature will be on too many people's list: MGM's 1926 comedy TIN HATS. Directed by Edward Sedgwick, this film starred Conrad Nagel, Claire Windsor, Bert Roach, Tom O'Brien. Silent Era lists its survival status as unknown. NY Times reviewer Mordaunt Hall gave it a good review in his backhanded way.

I came across a set of original stills but were beat up. A digital restoration helped:

There is also a recent documentary on Gallipoli, written and directed by Tolga Ornek, narrated by Sam Neill and Jeremy Irons, which gives equal time to the Turkish forces:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450426/" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

All the King's Men was not terribly well-received in Turkey, I'll wager--the climax of the supposedly true story is a massacre of unarmed British prisoners by the Turks.

Love beautiful Claire's fancy frock in that last Tin Hats photo, but the skirt length is 1926, not WW I; a common anachronism in '20s pictures about the Great War.

Another vote for The Last Flight as a superb portrait of post-war trauma; but for the war itself I would recommend an even lesser-known and underrated early sound film from Britain, Walter Summers' Suspense (1930), set in the trenches and part war film, part suspense thriller.

Synopsis from IMDB..... "The First World War; a British Army platoon are delighted to be assigned to a quiet area of the trenches..front line, but quiet. Their first indication of a problem is when they meet the platoon they're relieving coming the other way...tensed, nervous, delighted to be away, apologetic to the new platoon, and, unusually, having left behind for them their accumulated goodies... but the trench seems fine, there's little activity from the German trenches...and the dug-out is good and deep. But in the dug-out, in the quiet of the night, they hear it...the muffled sounds of digging, from the German miners working far below..."

Pre-code Warner Bros. movies involving the war to end all wars include Captured! (1933), Scarlet Dawn (1932), Bristish Agent (1934, almost pre-code), Chances (1931) and Three Faces East (1930) [TCM, please show this movie]. Stamboul Quest (1934) is a vastly underrated film made at MGM dealing with WWI counter-espionage. Then there is the famous French movie Grand Illusion (1937), whose director, Jean Renoir, looks to have seen Captured!.

Oh, I almost forgot, Fraulein Doktor (1968), which has the beautiful Suzy Kendall as the title character and that brief scene of soldiers on horses wearing big gas masks and protective body covers going into a battlefield during a gas attack.

Three Faces East (1930) [TCM, please show this movie].

That one, & many more of the obscure titles listed above. I suspect TCM will commemorate this centennial anniversary with special presentations of Great War pictures, but I also suspect the majority of them will be the familiar crowd-pleasers--Dawn Patrol, Grand Illusion, & others that can be easily obtained from Netflix & its competitors; for those, we don't need assistance.

There's also THE LOST BATTALION in two versions.

The 1919 film is almost unavailable- LOC has the only print but tapes from the AMC showing decades ago are around. It's a so-so film chiefly notable for having some footage of genuine battalion members in it and some scenes reenacted on the actual battlefield. Other than that it has some nice comic relief by Tammany Young and Helen Ferguson. It's actually hard to judge just how good it is because the extant print is reportedly missing a few reels, though the narrative makes sense.

The 2001 film is a good piece of work, so earnest at times that it's painful. It was produced in part by A & E back when that channel still had some claim to quality.


I should add that SHE GOES TO WAR is a hard picture to follow, at least for me. It's an early sound film (music and effects track with one song for Alma Rubens) and at some point it seems to have had some of the narrative titles cut out- I'm not certain, but stuff goes on that makes no sense. Some neat scenes though.

Regeneration is a terrific novel. Unfortunately the rest of the trilogy is not nearly so good.

Wooden Crosses, which is out on DVD from Criterion, is quite good. I posted about it here.

I saw Carry on Sergeant (no relation to Carry on Cleopatra etc.) at Cinesation and though it's no classic, I found it interesting enough. My review from 2007:

CARRY ON SERGEANT! (***) Not a Carry On film-- though at times the comic relief starts to head in that direction-- but rather a 1928 Canadian attempt to produce a Big Parade-level WWI epic, which was lavishly produced but foundered on the inexperience of its celebrity writer-director, cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather, author of The Better 'Ole. Star Hugh Buckler (who was nearly 60, but doesn't look it) has a McLaglenesque quality that could have carried the film, but Bairnsfather's episodic sensibility isn't capable of shaping the material for an emotional effect comparable to contemporaries like Barbed Wire or Lilac Time, and too much running time is frittered away on things like a spy subplot that wandered in from another movie. However, the film clearly had a first-rate art director, and an equally good director of photography-- one Bert Cann, whose credits end with this film-- and pictorially, if in few other ways, it can stand with the best WWI films of the period.

Oh, I thoroughly agree on THAT point- even in my very old Grapevine dupe tape the pictorial quality is obvious. Maybe if I saw a really decent copy I'd like it better.

Just watched it earlier tonight on TCM, Lafayette Escadrille (1958). William Wellman, who wrote the story and directed the picture was in the Escadrille. His son WAW Jr. made his film debut along with all the Warners Brothers up-and-comers, David Janssen, Clint Eastwood, Tom Laughlin, and Sugarfoot himself, Will Hutchins. It has a distracting love story with Tab Hunter as the hot tempered American, and some nice comic gags with Marcel Dallio as the French Drill Instructor who can't teach the Americans to march. It provides the basic story of what the Lafayette Escadrille contributed to aerial warfare in WWI.

Just watched it earlier tonight on TCM, Lafayette Escadrille (1958). William Wellman, who wrote the story and directed the picture was in the Escadrille. His son WAW Jr. made his film debut along with all the Warners Brothers up-and-comers, David Janssen, Clint Eastwood, Tom Laughlin, and Sugarfoot himself, Will Hutchins. It has a distracting love story with Tab Hunter as the hot tempered American, and some nice comic gags with Marcel Dallio as the French Drill Instructor who can't teach the Americans to march. It provides the basic story of what the Lafayette Escadrille contributed to aerial warfare in WWI.

I thought he was in the Flying Corps, rather than the Escadrille?

If we're talking Bruce Bairnsfather, whats wrong with THE BETTER OLE?

Or to be politically incorrect, HAM AND EGGS AT THE FRONT?

RICHARD M ROBERTS

Chaney and Walthall in THE FALSE FACES, an espionage made during the war. Also Sennett's YANKEE DOODLE IN BERLIN and the Virginia Rappe/Rudolph Valentino/Julian Eltinge OVER THE RHINE(aka AN ADVENTURESS/ aka THE ISLE OF LOVE) both also made during the war.

(GASP!) I cannot recommend An Adventuress/Isle of Love. Don't go there. Flee. Run away.

In it's original form(now lost) it was OVER THE RHINE(1918) . It's story ran similarly to YANKEE DOODLE IN BERLIN about a crossdresser infiltrating German lines.

Nobody has mentioned THE FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE(1921)

Just watched it earlier tonight on TCM, Lafayette Escadrille (1958). William Wellman, who wrote the story and directed the picture was in the Escadrille. His son WAW Jr. made his film debut along with all the Warners Brothers up-and-comers, David Janssen, Clint Eastwood, Tom Laughlin, and Sugarfoot himself, Will Hutchins. It has a distracting love story with Tab Hunter as the hot tempered American, and some nice comic gags with Marcel Dallio as the French Drill Instructor who can't teach the Americans to march. It provides the basic story of what the Lafayette Escadrille contributed to aerial warfare in WWI.

I thought he was in the Flying Corps, rather than the Escadrille?

you're thinking of the British Royal Flying Corps, later changed to the Royal Air Force by the end of the war. It's still that today. The French Lafayette Escadrille was just one of many Escadrille units comprised of French fighter and reconnaisance pilots.

Oh, I almost forgot, Fraulein Doktor (1968), which has the beautiful Suzy Kendall as the title character and that brief scene of soldiers on horses wearing big gas masks and protective body covers going into a battlefield during a gas attack.

this film is my guilty pleasure. It's survived well after 40 years. 100th anniversary goings on should make it more visible again.

you're thinking of the British Royal Flying Corps, later changed to the Royal Air Force by the end of the war. It's still that today. The French Lafayette Escadrille was just one of many Escadrille units comprised of French fighter and reconnaisance pilots.

No, I'm not. I'm referring to the Lafayette Flying Corps, of which the Escadrille was one unit; they were folded into the American Expeditionary Force in 1918. So what the heck, I went googling, and found this list of Lafayette Flying Corps pilots, Wellman listed as Flying Corps, not as Escadrille.
http://rdisa.pagesperso-orange.fr/html/ ... yette.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

you're thinking of the British Royal Flying Corps, later changed to the Royal Air Force by the end of the war. It's still that today. The French Lafayette Escadrille was just one of many Escadrille units comprised of French fighter and reconnaisance pilots.

No, I'm not. I'm referring to the Lafayette Flying Corps, of which the Escadrille was one unit; they were folded into the American Expeditionary Force in 1918. So what the heck, I went googling, and found this list of Lafayette Flying Corps pilots, Wellman listed as Flying Corps, not as Escadrille.
http://rdisa.pagesperso-orange.fr/html/ ... yette.html" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

my bad, I misunderstood what you were referring.

Just watched it earlier tonight on TCM, Lafayette Escadrille (1958). William Wellman, who wrote the story and directed the picture was in the Escadrille. His son WAW Jr. made his film debut along with all the Warners Brothers up-and-comers, David Janssen, Clint Eastwood, Tom Laughlin, and Sugarfoot himself, Will Hutchins. It has a distracting love story with Tab Hunter as the hot tempered American, and some nice comic gags with Marcel Dallio as the French Drill Instructor who can't teach the Americans to march. It provides the basic story of what the Lafayette Escadrille contributed to aerial warfare in WWI.

Coincidentally, I just read an interview with Wellman Sr. from a 1978 issue of Focus on Film, in which he goes into detail about Lafayette Escadrille. (The interview was conducted in '74, the year before Wellman died.) Although fifteen years had passed since the movie was released, Wellman was still furious at Jack Warner, who, he felt, ruined the picture. The story was based on a real incident from the war. Wellman wanted to call the movie C'est la guerre, and the ending was supposed to be tragic. Here are some excerpts:

WW: "It was the story of a very dear friend of mine. I had made it as a tragedy, which it was. It was previewed as a tragedy; it was the only preview I ever had where people stood up as the picture ended and said nothing. Then there was a beat and a beat and a beat, and they suddenly started cheering.

"And that dirty, rotten bastard [Warner] decided that killing Tab Hunter -- don't laugh -- was impossible. At the time, he'd made a record that had sold two million copies. So they changed it to a happy ending and called it Lafayette Escadrille. It didn't have a damn thing to do with the Lafayette Escadrille . . . I told Warner that if I ever caught him alone, which in his case is damn near impossible, what with all those disgusting yes-men, that I'd put him in a hospital . . .

"The hero was in the Lafayette Flying Corps with me. I was not in the Lafayette Escadrille. That was first formed by a particularly crazy bunch of Americans that were over in France. I was in the Lafayette Flying Corps . . . It's sad that what I wanted to be my best picture became such a rotten, disappointing thing. That wasn't the first time that happened to me, but it was the worst."

Tab Hunter corroborates that story, and seems to have been quite embarrassed at being the inadvertent cause of ruining Wellman's pet project.

greta

[Christopher Jacobs]

Nobody has mentioned THE FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE(1921)

Well, I did, actually, but it's a film that is well-worth mentioning again, as are a number of films noted in this thread (like THE BIG PARADE, HEARTS OF THE WORLD, THE LAST FLIGHT, BARBED WIRE, and others). It would certainly be wonderful to see the restoration of FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE make it to Blu-ray! The film itself should be P.D. in the U.S., but who controls rights to the restored print and orchestra score? It would be perfect for Criterion, Kino, Flicker Alley, or Milestone.

Freddy, W.C., thank you both for the intrepid digging, and as usual, I stand corrected.

I told Warner that if I ever caught him alone, which in his case is damn near impossible, what with all those disgusting yes-men, that I'd put him in a hospital . . .

A far more effective revenge (especially if he'd resolved to burn his bridge to WB) would have been merely to stand out front of the Hollywood theater at which it premiered with a "Not MY Picture" sign. Then send the rotten bastard to the hospital!

Don't forget DOUGHBOYS which starred the WWI veteran, Buster Keaton.

Not to forget the french 1927 VERDUN.

On the rather neglected Austrian-Italian alpine front:

MACISTE ALPINO (1916) Silent era's Bud Spencer in a hilarious propaganda piece
BERGE IN FLAMMEN (1931) by Luis Trenker
STANDSCHÜTZE BRUGGLER (1936), Austrian production
but foremost:
UOMINI CONTRO (1970) by Francesco Rosi, I think it is just as great as PATHS OF GLORY... even better!

Two well done Austrian TV produced film versions (1966, 1993) of Joseph Roth's masterpiece novel RADETZKYMARSCH - decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

STOSSTRUPP 1917 (1934), the nationalistic answer to WESTFRONT 1918, despite some realistic trench war recreations not a good film. Other films in that vein during the NS-era include POUR LE MERITE (1938, about the Richthofen style war in the air) and URLAUB AUF EHRENWORT (1937, on the breakdown of the front in 1918).

Franju's HÔTEL DES INVALIDES (1951) features shots of hideously mutilated WWI veterans during a mass, similar to Abel Gance's second version of J'ACCUSE (1938) and to Ernst Friedrich's famous agitprop pacifist book "War against War" (1921).

KING AND COUNTRY (1964) by Joseph Losey.

WWI aftermath: LA VIE ET RIEN D'AUTRE (1989) and Balkan front: CAPITAINE CONAN (1996) by Bertrand Tavernier.

And a wonderful ironic take on WWI propaganda silents: ARCHANGEL (1990) by Guy Maddin.

2008's version of THE RED BARON was a disaster... Corman's VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN is much better.

2008's version of THE RED BARON was a disaster... Corman's VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN is much better.

I've still wanted to see it for the past couple of years. I know it's festooned with CGI, like FLYBOYS, but the promotionals(courtesy Youtube) looked great. The Corman '71 film was wonderfully photographed though obviously, as with many WW1 aviation flicks, non period aircraft are noticeable. Also John Phillip Law was miscast, only to an extent. The real Manfred von Richthofen was 5'8' tall. Phillip Law was 6'6". And Richthofen's early commander, Oswald Boelcke was 25 years old, a couple years older than Manfred, not a middle aged pilot as depicted by Corman

LUSITANIA MURDER ON THE ATLANTIC, a recent British tv series of the ocean liner sinking during the war and it's ramifications about submarine warfare on civilians. An event which allegedly brought the U.S. into WW1 in 1917.

2008's version of THE RED BARON was a disaster... Corman's VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN is much better.

I've still wanted to see it for the past couple of years. I know it's festooned with CGI, like FLYBOYS, but the promotionals(courtesy Youtube) looked great. The Corman '71 film was wonderfully photographed though obviously, as with many WW1 aviation flicks, non period aircraft are noticeable. Also John Phillip Law was miscast, only to an extent. The real Manfred von Richthofen was 5'8' tall. Phillip Law was 6'6". And Richthofen's early commander, Oswald Boelcke was 25 years old, a couple years older than Manfred, not a middle aged pilot as depicted by Corman

You will be disappointed, they made a starry-eyed pussy out of the Baron.

2008's version of THE RED BARON was a disaster... Corman's VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN is much better.

I've still wanted to see it for the past couple of years. I know it's festooned with CGI, like FLYBOYS, but the promotionals(courtesy Youtube) looked great. The Corman '71 film was wonderfully photographed though obviously, as with many WW1 aviation flicks, non period aircraft are noticeable. Also John Phillip Law was miscast, only to an extent. The real Manfred von Richthofen was 5'8' tall. Phillip Law was 6'6". And Richthofen's early commander, Oswald Boelcke was 25 years old, a couple years older than Manfred, not a middle aged pilot as depicted by Corman

You will be disappointed, they made a starry-eyed pussy out of the Baron.

And in THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK, there's a devastating moment when the great German ace is revealed to be a dead boy.

greta

You will be disappointed, they made a starry-eyed pussy out of the Baron.

And in THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK, there's a devastating moment when the great German ace is revealed to be a dead boy.

greta

There is a tendency to add years to military heroes in films, I wonder why? Because the audience has more empathy with a mature hero, or because the filmmaker can't find a young actor with enough gravitas to convincingly play the role? von Richthofen was 26 when he was killed, which made him an old man in WWI terms.

I haven't seen any of the German films about von Richthofen, is he subject to the same sort of hagiographical leanings in Germany as he is with us? Here he's been characterized as The Honorable Enemy, as was Rommel in WWII.