"The Road to Glory" (1936) March, Baxter, Barrymore

[R Michael Pyle]

I recently purchased a new DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. called "The Road to Glory" (1936) with Fredric March, Lionel Barrymore, Warner Baxter, June Lang, Gregory Ratoff, and others, a fantastic anti-war film produced by Zanuck and Nunnally Johnson, beautifully and tightly directed by Howard Hawks, and partially written by William Faulkner. I'd never seen this before. Indeed, I knew nothing about it. It's simply fabulous, especially the WW I battle scenes which equal those of "Paths of Glory" and "All Quiet on the Western Front", sometimes surpassing them. Where has this film been? Baxter and March give powerful performances. Barrymore's a bit of a ham; but Ratoff and John Qualen, Victor Kilian, and others all give superlative performances. A great film that seemingly has fallen through the cracks.

[JFK]

THE ROAD TO GLORY S. I. U. Press; Carbondale, IL (1981).
This 176 page book contains the screenplay for "The Road to Glory" (Fox; 1936),
directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck
(who had bought the rights to Les Croix de Bois (1932)
so that he could use its battle scenes as stock footage in "Glory") .
The script published here is the 12/31/1935 draft
written by Joel Sayre and William Faulkner.
The movie was produced from a later screenplay
revised by Sayre and Nunnally Johnson,
with new scenes by Faulkner and Hawks."
The book includes George Garrett's 16-page afterword and
is illustrated with b/w photographs.

[bobfells]

Michael,

There are several 20th Century Picture, then 20th Century-Fox, films from the mid 1930s that are extremely well-done but MIA. THE ROAD TO GLORY may be the most profound of the group but other titles include the four Ronald Colman vehicles BULLDOG DRUMMOND STRIKES BACK, THE MAN WHO BROKE THE BANK AT MONTE CARLO, CLIVE OF INDIA, and UNDER TWO FLAGS, which might be described as Beau Geste revisited. FOLLIES BERGIERE with Maurice Chevalier, A MESSAGE TO GARCIA with Barbra Stanwyck, John Boles and Wallace Beery, THE MIGHTY BARNUM with Beery and Menjou, and all three of the George Arliss films - THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD, THE LAST GENTLEMAN, and CARDINAL RICHELIEU.

There are more titles that other N'ville residents may champion but this list is a good start. The Fox Movie Channel has aired a few of these titles over the years but none have been issued on DVD. In fact, the Fox people seem not to count the films from 1933-35 that were made under the 20th Century Pictures banner before its merger with Fox. This doesn't help. Some titles have been uploaded to Youtube, at least for the time being, so that helps somewhat.

[Mike Gebert]

One thing to note about some of that battle footage is that it actually comes from this film. No idea what precisely or how much.

[Harold Aherne]

I've been behind on keeping Nitrateville updated on which titles have been issued by Fox Cinema Archives--Clive of India and A Message to Garcia are among them. Reviews of the picture quality for these MOD discs have been mixed; some are quite good, others are --at best--mediocre. In any event, here are the pre-1940 titles issued as part of the line:

1933:
The Power and the Glory

1934:
Change of Heart
Gallant Lady

1935:
Clive of India
The Daring Young Man
The Farmer Takes a Wife
Paddy O'Day
Show Them No Mercy!
Thanks a Million

1936:
Banjo on My Knee
Career Woman
The Country Doctor
Little Miss Nobody
A Message to Garcia
Professional Soldier
The Road to Glory
36 Hours to Kill

1937:
Ali Baba Goes to Town
Big Business
Lancer Spy
Love Is News
Nancy Steele Is Missing!
Slave Ship
This Is My Affair
Wake Up and Live

1938:
Always Goodbye
The Baroness and the Butler
Battle of Broadway
Josette
Kentucky Moonshine
Kidnapped
Love on a Budget
Rascals
Sally, Irene and Mary
Suez
Three Blind Mice

1939:
Chicken Wagon Family
Frontier Marshal
Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence
Return of the Cisco Kid
Stanley and Livingstone
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell
Swanee River
Tail Spin
Wife, Husband and Friend

So they haven't been completely ignoring the 20th Century output (there were only 19 in the first place, and a few were issued as retail discs--Born to Be Bad, Les Miserables and Call of the Wild).

-HA

[filmnotdigital]

R Michael et al: If you like The Road To Glory, you may want to check out the 1932 French original, Les Croix De Bois (Wooden Crosses) by the underrated Raymond Bernard, It is available on Criterion DVD as part of a set with Bernard's
Les Miserables (probably the best version of the much adapted Hugo opus.)

[Jim Reid]

Fox Movie Channel has also run Call of the Wild, and it was in the mix when Fox was having fans vote for the next video release. I'd expect it to show up one of these days.

[bobfells]

I like CALL OF THE WILD if only for Reginald Owen's villain who comes across as a sort of deranged Teddy Roosevelt. But I understand that the version in circulation is an edited reissue shorn of about 15-20 mins of its original length.

[drednm]

Saw The Last Gentleman tonight and liked it. Very offbeat comedy-drama and possibly one of Arliss' best performances. The entire cast was good. The credits however were weird, listing RAFAELO OTTIANO as Retta. Silly mistake.
The only annoyance was Charlotte Henry's unceasingly whiny voice.

Rather offbeat casting of Donald Meek as the snarky son, Edward Ellis as a butler, as was surprised to see Edna May Oliver as Arliss' sister! Best bit was Joseph Cawthorn's speech scene.

[Gaucho]

Don't mean to hijack the thread but The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo was just announced for a 10/20 release as part of the Fox Archives collection. Delightful film can't wait to revisit it.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

One thing to note about some of that battle footage is that it actually comes from this film. No idea what precisely or how much.

Some of this footage was also used in John Ford's much-maligned (by Ford himself, amongst others) THE WORLD MOVES ON (1934), which I watched some time back. Perhaps WOODEN CROSSES wasn't released / released widely in the US, which would explain Ford's getting the credit from some reviewers.