Journey's End

The United Kingdom's answer to What Price Glory as a World War I play is Journey's End. And this film version which came out after the play opened in London in 1928 had the advantage of sound which What Price Glory did not. And it also had the director of the original cast James Whale doing the film version and in the process making his screen debut as a director.

Also from the London cast was Colin Clive playing the lead as Captain Stanhope who took the place of young Laurence Olivier who was the original Stanhope when the play opened. Olivier left for another engagement and Clive took the role and made it his own.

As on stage the entire play is mostly taking place in the makeshift mess the officers have dug out for themselves on their portion of the trench line on the British front. Clive as Stanhope is in command and under him are Ian McLaren, Billy Bevan, Anthony Bushell, and new man David Manners. Back in civilian life Manners was at school where Clive was a schoolmaster. In addition Clive is also seeing Manners's sister. Their ties in civilian life present difficulties for him, a lot of it in his own mind.

Just like What Price Glory, Journey's End gives us a look at the terror and the tedium of the routine of life in the trenches on the western front. Clive who knows he has to keep up appearances in the best British stiff upper lip tradition is a tired man. No one is lightening his burden, his one confidante is McLaren whom the others call 'Uncle'.

Whale did a wonderful creating the day to day existence of trench warfare British style. The use of some battle newsreels is expertly woven into the fabric of the film. And he got uniformly good performances by his ensemble cast. I've no doubt Whale pushed Universal Pictures to cast Colin Clive as the Baron in the original Frankenstein movie given their association.

Journey's End holds up well today, as good as All Quiet On The Western Front which came out around the same time. And it's a play frequently revived showing the timelessness of the subject.

If you liked All Quiet On The Western Front and What Price Glory definitely catch Journey's End.

In 1918 after four tears of unimaginable attritional warfare and with more and more reinforcements arriving from America Germany was on the brink of collapse . People were starving on the streets and another winter would have probably seen Germany descend in to revolution as seen in Russia the previous year . Mindful of this German military leaders launched a Spring of offensive with the aim of knocking out the British , capturing Paris and ending the war before American reinforcements became a major factor . After initial tactical success the Germans failed to capture the major communication centre at Amiens . The allies rallied their forces and counterattacked in the one hundred days offensive that saw the Germans unconditionally sign an armistice . The cost of victory wasn't cheap with the British army in 1918 suffering more dead than it did during the entire second world war

History is a very strange thing . We tend to look back on things with a mind set that only exists in the present time . Revisionists tend to paint a picture that the First World War was bad and the Second World War was good but in reality there's little difference between Imperial Germany invading Belgium in 1914 and Nazi Germany invading Poland in 1939 . Certainly there wouldn't be much difference in a British Tommy's way of thinking in the fields of France in 1918 to that of 1944 . The anti-warsentiment given to the First World War , of bungling butchers such as General Haig sending thousands of young men to their death wasn't untrue but certainly wasn't a uniquely British trait and in the one hundred days offensive the British army killed , wounded and captured more Germans than the French , American and Belgian armies combined

A former veteran of the First World War director James Whale brings the 1928 stageplay by RC Sheriff to the big screen and does it very well . Certainly it can't be described as " pro-war " but neither does it descend in to revisionist anti-war cliché . Public school boy officers actually had a lower life expectancy than working class men and if you don't believe me take a look at your local war memorial where the ranks of the fallen are given that confirm that the carnage brought upon a generation of men was an egalitarian horror wrought upon all classes . There's an honesty to JOURNEY'S END that is rarely seen in media that has 1914-18 as its theme

At this point it's needed to point out the homosexual subtext of the film - there is none . Yes Whale was homosexual and because of this critics will scrutinise every single line and scene . The closeness of the characters and the paternalism of the Uncle figure mirrors the real life camaraderie of soldiers in combat and is not to be read as any type of comment on the love that dare not speak its name . The characters will also surprise a 21st Century anti-war audience as they get hung up on seemingly frivolous subjects but as a great many contemporary accounts from the conflict agree the worst thing about the war wasn't dealt out by shells , bullets and bayonet from the enemy but the food from their own side

From a technical point of view the film is sometimes limited and for long segments it is rather obvious that its genesis was in theatre but Whale does manage to make the battle scenes appear cinematic . It's also impossible to not mention that this the movie that caused the director to move to America use the superior sound facilities of Hollywood and decided to stay in the country where he made FRANKENSTEIN , THE OLD DARK HOUSE and THE INVISIBLE MAN all classic genre films fondly remembered today and all of which are down to James Whale working on this film . It's such a pity JOURNEY'S END remains such an obscure film which has only had seven comments so far and is never shown on network television . It should be essential viewing in history classes dealing with the Great War

This is the film that started it all (in more ways than one). This was the play and subsequent film which gave rise to the career of James Whale - acclaimed director of such hits as Waterloo Bridge, Showboat, The Man in the Iron Mask, as well as being the father of horror with Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, and The Bride of Frankenstein. Without his directing this play, whose meteoric rise in England paved his way to Hollywood, we might never have been given the same treatment of Shelley's opus and the key to modern horror films.

The film itself is also a first in that it was the first major film to deal with World War I in such a way that brought it's own brand of horror to the masses. As with other filmmakers whose actual wartime experiences have brought us closer to the realities of war (Oliver Stone, Samuel Fuller, to name a couple) the material was emotional and close to Whale.

Although the first film of this type and a box office hit, Journey's End would yield to All Quiet On the Western Front as the definitive WWI film. Truthfully, All Quiet... is a much better film, however, they are two distinct films dealing with the "reality" of war from wholly different perspectives. All Quiet... gives stirring battle sequences which still stand up but also attempts to represent the common soldier's experience. Journey's End, a play written by RC Sheriff tells the story from the perspective of English officers, of which Sheriff and Whale had both been apart. In this regard, the material can be appear dated and seem more melodramatic than intended.

The film suffers more from the simplistic camera settings than from its significance as an early talkie. Whale's direction is handled perfunctorily as if recreating the stage play. There are a few scenes which go beyond this limitation but they are few in 120 minutes of film. The true success is the first film performance of Colin Clive who handled the material for Whale on stage as Captain Stanhope (after Laurence Olivier left the play after its initial run). Clive is cast perfectly as the tormented Captain (a mood he would later immortalize in Frankenstein). Ian McLaren also deserves recognition as the intelligently human face of Lt. Osbourne.

There are many reasons to seek out this rare historical film. From its place in cinematic lore and significance in the War genre to the fine performances. Either way, its a treat.

Whale's debut came via this filmization of a classic war-themed play by R.C. Sheriff (for its 1976 remake ACES HIGH, the milieu of grimy trenches was changed to accommodate the aerial dog-fights!), which he and leading man Colin Clive had actually originated on Broadway (with Laurence Olivier taking the lead in its run at London's West End!). I purchased the book during a local book fair in the mistaken belief I would never get to watch the film in view of its rarity – which I then acquired via an old but serviceable Channel 4 TV broadcast complete with intermittent publicity spots! A British production, it was however shot in Hollywood and, following its success, director and star stayed on, re-teaming not long after for FRANKENSTEIN (1931) – which obviously cemented their reputation.

For the record, the same year as this one saw the release of two other major anti-war films i.e. Lewis Milestone's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and G.W. Pabst's WESTFRONT 1918. Whale's effort, albeit rather thin for a 2-hour movie, compares quite favorably in spite of its necessarily talky nature (oddly enough, what the various characters seem mainly concerned with is nourishment!) and staginess (not to mention the fact that it was made by a debutante). Though rarely straying outside its central underground setting (Whale's background as a set designer invariably came in handy here), with resultant static camera-work, its one battle sequence is magnificently staged (in this respect, at least, it is clearly superior to Whale's subsequent and generally more fluid war effort THE ROAD BACK [1937]).

Being an early Talkie, I was afraid that the all-important dialogue would suffer from the primitive Sound technique; however, this came off reasonably clearly most of the time. Equally pivotal was the casting: interestingly, this would incorporate numerous actors who would come to be associated with the horror genre – not just Clive but David Manners (DRACULA [1931], THE MUMMY [1932] and THE BLACK CAT [1934]), Anthony Bushell (THE GHOUL [1933]) and Billy Bevan (DRACULA'S Daughter [1936])! All gave solid performances: that said, Manners' rookie hero-worshipping Clive – interestingly, their relationship parallels that of Richard Cromwell and John King in THE ROAD BACK – is not really any deeper than his romantic leads in the horror pictures. Bevan has a sizeable part for once, while Bushell plays a cowardly officer who arouses Clive's contempt and ire – even if the latter, still a young man himself despite the weathered look (augmented by mellifluous voice and a perennially tortured demeanor), admits to submerging his own fears in drink. Tragically, this form of solace was undertaken by the actor himself (following Whale's own advice!) which would turn into a chronic vice soon enough and claim his life seven years later at just 37!

James Whale had served in World War 1, and this powerful anti-war film has a strong feeling of authenticity as a result. Whale obviously understood the feeling of being in the trenches of World War 1, and manages to convey this feeling strongly to his audience. In a way the terrible technical restrictions of early sound recording help to convey the claustrophobia of trench warfare - the lack of camera and actor movement make the audience feel like they too are stuck in the trenches. Of course it would have been great if the rare action sequences were less confusing and better filmed, but in the end the film is still quite overwhelmingly emotional. This is due in no small part to the excellent performances. Colin Clive and David Manners are particularly memorable.

Whale does not have the opportunity, in this early talkie, to display the great visual flare that he would later become renowned for, but it is, nonetheless, an auspicious start to a great career. 8/10.