The Road Back

When Universal Pictures bought the rights to Erich Maria Remarque's follow-up book to his blockbuster classic, 'All Quiet on the Western Front,' the film studio felt the story of German soldiers returning to their homeland after World War One was a surefire hit in its June 1937 "The Road Back." Combining a great story with James Whale, director of the studio's biggest hits such as 1931's "Frankenstein," 1933's "The Invisible Man," and 1935's "Frankenstein and His Bride," Universal's new ownership felt the movie was guaranteed to be a money-making machine.

Trouble was Germany's Nazi government was steaming about the possibilities of a film made from Remarque's sequel, which was banned there. The Nazis' Hollywood conduit, German ambassador Georg Gyssling, was a strong influence in the movie industry because of Germany's lucrative film theater market. Chief film censor for the United States, Joseph Breen, had reformulated the Hay's Office movie production code to stress no film studio could criticize the functions of any foreign government. Germany was particularly sensitive to any international criticism of its increasingly repressive restrictions to its Jewish citizenry. The Remarque book was critical of the Nazi regime, and director Whale, a former British WW1 prisoner, was relishing following the novel to a tee.

Gyssling knew any movie under Germany's Article 15 law could enact a lifelong ban of any company or individual, foreign or domestic, if they were critical of the Nazis. Remarque's first book-to-film, 'All Quiet on the Western Front,' met scorn in Germany even before the Nazis took power. Sympathizers threw stink bombs in the theaters playing the 1930 film as well as tossing rats into the audience. Its sequel, "The Road Back," was equally anti-war, which Gyssling felt when he approached Breen, gave an "untrue and distorted picture of the German people." Head of Universal, Charles Rogers, told Breen and Gyssling the studio had already spent a considerable amount of money on "The Road Back" and assured the two the director would tone down the Nazi criticisms. Whale told them they would be pleased once they saw the movie's rough edit.

Gyssling's eyes popped out when he viewed the rough copy. He sent sixty members who were working on "The Road Back," from wardrobe assistants on up, informing them they would be prohibited from entering Germany if the movie wasn't revised. Whale was adamant that he was not cutting any of the requested anti-Nazi scenes. Rogers, wanting "to cultivate the good will of Germany," ordered the studio's film editors, without Whale's input, to excise 21 scenes, and inject new comedy scenes into the war movie. Whale angrily stomped out of the studio while director Edward Sloman filmed the humorous additions.

"What's left contains a few fleeting moments of what this film could have been," wrote film reviewer Paul Evennett, reflecting the consensus of critics who felt the revisions ruined Whale's original movie. "If the Nazis had kept their noses out, if the studio execs had had the gaul to stand up for their creatives, if Whale had retained the freedom to do justice to the work of Remarque," it would have have been a great movie. Universal destroyed all the cut footage. What's left has some of Whale's signature touches, including the opening salvo showing the last hours of combat before the armistice ends the war.

Despite all the alternations demanded by Gyssling and followed by Universal, Germany and several of its allies still banned "The Road Back." With the exception of Warner Brothers, Universal and the other major Hollywood studios continued to bow to the pressure of the Nazis, kowtowing to their demands. Because of Whale's obstinance, Universal relegated him to Grade B low budgeted movies, except for 1939's "The Man With the Iron Mask." The deliverer of early horror classics saw his career gradually end with all the drama surrounding this anti-war movie.

In the years following WWI, slowly the former Allied Powers came to realize that this war was a pointless waste of lives. As a result, there were many war films of the 1930s that humanized the German enemy and discussed this new view of this awful war. The problem is, although films like "J'Accuse" and "All Quiet on the Western Front" were right...the timing was poor, as it encouraged these countries to disarm and see the Germans very favorably....just as Hitler was coming into power! Of these anti-war/pro-German films, "The Road Back" is probably the most unfortunately timed, as only a very short time later, the world's love of Germany began to diminish quickly--with Nazis taking over Austria and Czechoslovakia and Kristalnacht, in which Jews were slaughtered. Not surprisingly, the American audiences were no longer eager to see the Germans as victims...and "The Road Back".

The irony to all this is that the original book (by Erich Maria Remarque--the same man who wrote "All Quiet on the Western Front") DID have a strong anti-Nazi message and COULD have been a very effective film in preparing the world for the Nazi menace. Unfortunately, the studio removed this from the film in an attempt to make the movie acceptable abroad...especially in places that were pro-German! In the end, however, no one wanted the picture--the Germans STILL didn't think it was pro-German enough and folks who were scared of the mounting German aggression were not in the mood for such a film! Ultimately, it ended up being shown very few places.

The story begins in the final days of WWI. A group of German soldiers who have managed to remain alive and remain friends are trying to make it out of the war alive. Most do...only to find life back home is not at all easy nor pleasant. Communists at home are calling for revolution and officers returning from the front are attacked. Additionally, food shortages, no jobs and a broken economy spell disaster for the men and their families. In other words...life really sucked. And, it gets even worse when one of them kills a man. Why? Watch the film to find out for yourself.

While the film does not come out with an overtly pro-Nazi message because the Nazis are never mentioned, the film's covert message seems to be "Germany was a mess...until the Nazis came and brought peace and prosperity". Despite this and its strong anti-Communist message*, the German government banned the film anyway. I guess Hitler and his comrades just weren't taking any chances with this movie...though it sure seems like it would have been effective pro-German propaganda if used by them--especially if you chopped off the confusing and unnecessary minute of the picture. As for the quality of the film, it is exceptionally well made and if it weren't for its pro-Nazi bent, it would be a very good film.



* By the way, both the Communists AND Nazis were tearing the nation apart during this post-war period. Both promised prosperity...provided you gave them a free hand to deal with problems their way! Often, this resulted in gun fights in the streets between the two factions....though the film never mentions the Nazi part in all this violence.

The first part of the film is definitely a masterpiece, with extremely touching scenes from the trenches and unforgettable sequences of the armistice, how it happened and how it was experienced by the soldiers. I never read the book, but naturally the soldiers encounter problems when they are obliged to readjust to peace time life at home among gross political disturbances, introducing new conflicts galore, and here obviously the director had some difficulties keeping up the intensity of the film, as some ladies in action caused some disturbance both to the soldiers and to the film. Nevertheless, the end riot scenes of the film are magnificent and impressing, and the final court proceedings provide a sad finale to the destiny of these soldiers alienated from normal reality, so habituated to handle constant slaughter at war, and so incapable of handling banal crises at home. The spirit of Remarque nevertheless sustains the entire movie, all his stories made as great films as novels, and although this is not the best Remarque film and novel, it certainly is important and ranks as such in the canon. This film is extra added to in quality by Dimitri Tiomkin's very approppriate and inspired music.

Remarque's novel (which I haven't read) Der Weg zurück/The Road Back is a sequel to his All Quiet on the Western Front. Whale's (or rather Universal's) The Road Back has Slim Summerville as Tjaden again and mentions the names of Kat, Detering and Paul Bäumer in order to directly tie on the preceding film's success. Without success. Surely, The Road Back has a great first half, but, alas, a second half which does not hold up very well. Whale's excellent talent in directing is apparent, but as soon as the German soldiers arrive at home after World War I, it drifts too much into sentiment and pathos, without holding back the one or the other really powerful scene, (especially the one in the mental hospital) and some truly wonderful performances by Slim Summerville and Andy Devine. The choreography of the mass scene towards the end is impressive as well (which resembles Eisenstein's famous Odessa shots a lot). So, it's not really forgettable, but slight disappointment nonetheless.

The cinematic rights to German novelist Erich Maria Remarque's sequel to his celebrated "All Quiet On The Western Front", turned into an Oscar-winning masterpiece by Universal in 1930, was apparently picked up before the text was even completed. When the book did not meet with the same resounding success as the original (if anything, it was deemed inconvenient to the Third Reich, then in power, and summarily banned!), its filming was delayed until 1937 – when another world conflict was evidently looming.

With it, they entrusted their top director at the time who, even if he had mainly excelled within the fantasy genre, demonstrated he was capable of turning his attention to practically anything; after all, his very first two films were war pictures – albeit one was a British production (1930's JOURNEY'S END) and on the other his official credit was as dialogue director (HELL'S ANGELS, from the same year). As it happened, the studio heads – Carl Laemmle and his namesake offspring (who had championed Whale's obvious talent while tolerating his flamboyant lifestyle) – relinquished power around this time and the director suddenly found himself exposed to bureaucracy (brought on by intimidation from outsiders, namely the Nazi Party, who threatened to boycott all subsequent Universal productions unless the anti-Fascist sentiments in the script were excised!) and prejudice (his homosexuality supplying the perfect excuse to cut him down to size!).

Anyway, the resulting film (adapted by R.C. Sheriff, who had authored the play on which JOURNEY'S END was based) was bowdlerized to suit these political – and, doubtless, also economical – exigencies, Whale virtually disowned it and would leave Universal for good soon after completing work on WIVES UNDER SUSPICION (1938)! For this reason, THE ROAD BACK has always been considered a disappointment – in any case, it was clearly overshadowed by another major anti-war movie, namely Jean Renoir's contemporaneous LA GRAND ILLUSION – as both a Whale picture and a follow-up to a classic film (there was even talk that its negative was irretrievably lost but, happily, this did not prove to be the case!). Still, let us analyze the evidence at hand, i.e. the picture as it stands now: it is hardly the dud it has been written off as – Whale's reaction is natural and understandable but, if one were to dismiss a film merely for the fact that its creator's original intentions were not adhered to, I doubt Erich von Stroheim and Orson Welles would enjoy much of a reputation today (outside of their undeniable acting abilities and, of course, the latter's CITIZEN KANE [1941])!

The narrative begins in trenches (highlighted by elaborate tracking shots and just one short burst of action), reverts to the social life of the returning soldiers (to which they predictably fail to adjust, so much so that they prefer to keep each other company rather than stay with their loved ones – I am sure some would venture to make a case for a gay statement out of this!) and culminates in a murder trial (one of the most memorable and affecting I have ever watched – and that is no mean feat!). Romantic hopes are dashed by recurring memories of combat (lead John King was fiancé to pal Richard Cromwell's sister, who waits for him regardless and finally manages to reconcile his confused spirit towards achieving peace-of-mind) or else by the unfaithfulness of the girl concerned (which brings about the murder of her profiteer lover and whose subsequent trial finds Lionel Atwill in much the same role he had played in Whale's ONE MORE RIVER [1934]!).

It repeats, to notably less effect, the modest casting rule applied to Lewis Milestone's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT; there is also a similar disillusioned-return-to-the-classroom sequence and a call upon colleagues committed to an insane asylum to parallel the hospital visit to a dying buddy in the original. Catching the names of Slim Summerville (reprising his role from the earlier film!) and Andy Devine among the cast-list (by the way, the scrolling titles were a classy touch), I was ready for an over-abundance of comedy relief which, however, did not come to pass. Indeed, their contempt-of-court antics at the climax help relieve the dramatic tension and necessary preachiness! The same goes for Etienne Girardot as the doddering mayor, who is disturbed from his slumber by disgruntled townsfolk-cum-political activists for an impromptu dead-of-night rally – which leads to the tragedy of John Emery's Major, a career officer, shooting down a former member of his troop in the ensuing riot!

Incidentally, Whale's directorial flair – aided by the camera-work of John J. Mescall and George Robinson (the latter stepped in for the former when his drinking problem got out of control!) – is particularly felt during crowd scenes such as this; another is the outfit's arrival in town being dampened by the young anarchists' show of contempt to their uniforms. Still, quieter moments are no less powerful: the Major stripping himself of his rank in seclusion at the announcement of the Armistice, the surviving soldiers being joined by their ghostly colleagues when the substantially-diminished platoon files up in a town parade, etc. The coda (shot by uncredited director Sloman) – which replaced a controversial scene depicting war veterans King and Cromwell stumbling upon a group of children being indoctrinated into Nazism by a dwarf! – boasts a heartfelt plea for Peace which is, however, undercut by the rolling passage of years bringing us to the current impending struggle. For the record, Whale's original cut ran for 105 minutes, the revised version clocked in at 103 (which is the one I watched), but this was again re-touched (by director Frank Tuttle and cinematographer Stanley Cortez!) for a 1939 re-issue which whittled down the running-time further to the 'official' 97!