Lewis Milestone

• Chișinău.

  Birth place

• Los Angeles.

  Death place

The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Lewis Milestone, revision 1375067198 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.

1. 1.Korneeva, Marina. The History of Russian Literature on Film. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. 341. 28 December 2023. 978-1-5013-1690-6.
2. 2.Behind the Camera - Mutiny on the Bounty ('62). Turner Classic Movies.
3. 3.Millichap, 1981, p. 26: "born in Odessa [into] a clan of prominent Russian Jews ... his father a well-off manufacturer" and "until 1919, Milestone retained his surname, Milstein". Silver, 2010: "Lewis Milestone (1895–1980) was born Lev Milstein near Odessa, Ukraine." Barson, 2020: "Lewis Milestone, original name Lev Milstein, born September 30, 1895, in Kishinyov, Russia [now Chișinău, Moldova]." Robinson, 1970, pp. 141–142: "Lewis Milestone was born in Kishmev, Ukraine." Canham, 1974, p. 72: "born in the Ukraine, near Odessa."
4. 4.Canham, 1974, p. 72: "His formal education took place in Russia [then] his parents sent him to a German engineering school in Mittweida, Saxony."
5. 5.Robinson, 1970, p. 141: "after commercial studies in Europe reached America, apparently as an illegal immigrant, just before the First World War."
6. 6.Canham, 1974, p. 72: Milestone abandoned his academic studies and "used his return fare home at the end of the [school] term to emigrate to New York ... on arrival he was [temporarily] financed by an aunt but ran out of funds." His appeal for financial support from his father in Russia was rejected.
7. 7.Millichap, 1981, pp. 26–27: See section The Director's Early Life And p. 27: ".free of family restrictions [in the United States], he felt he might realize his dream of a theatrical career."
8. 8.Millichap, 1981, pp. 26–27: he held a series of odd jobs, including janitor, door-to-door salesman and machine operation in a lace factory .... In 1915 [he secured a job] as a photographer's assistant ... more to his liking ... [then became] a theatrical photographer" and p. 27: In 1917, upon America's entry into WWI "he enlisted in the photography section of the Signal Corps [performing] aerial photography [and shooting] training films ... also edited combat footage" and Sternberg and Fleming mentioned.
9. 9.Canham, 1974, p. 72: "He began work as a factory sweeper, then became a salesman and finally a photographic assistant. The latter job stood him in good stead when he enlisted in the Signal Corps in 1917" where he worked as "an assistant in the making of army training films." Barson, 2020: "During World War I he served as an assistant director on training films for the U.S. Army." Whiteley, 2020: Milestone "received a thorough grounding in all aspects of filmmaking [with the Signal Corps], which would prove invaluable in the years to come."
10. 10.Millichap, 1981, pp. 27–28: Upon discharge from the Army in 1919 "Milestone became a [US] citizen and changed his name [from Milstein to Milestone] at the suggestion of the [immigration] judge" and "Jesse D. Hampton, an independent film producer .... Milestone asked for a job in [Hollywood] movies; the only thing available was assistant editor."
11. 11.Canham, 1974, p. 72: "he left the army in 1919 and headed for Hollywood, where he found employment as a cutter with Jesse Hampton" a former army comrade, now 'independent producer"
12. 12.Millichap, 1981, p. 28: An unpublished interview with Mark Lambert, see Millichap footnote. And See p. 28 for comparison to 1913 arrival in America. Silver, 2010: Silver describes Milestone as "émigré, not "immigrant" Koszarski, 1976 p. 317: "Milestone was a Russian émigré."
13. 13.Strago, 2017: "Like most great pioneer filmmakers, Milestone led an adventurous life before he hit the soundstage."
14. 14.Millichap, 1981, p. 28: For Hampton he performed "a multitude of off jobs ... sweeping floors and running errands ... editing work consisted merely of splicing films ... [but] "personal contacts would prove valuable in his steady advancement ... became King's general assistant" in 1920
15. 15.Canham, 1974, p. 72: Began work as "a cutter"And "promoted to the role of general assistant" for Henry King.
16. 16.Barson, 2020: "He launched his Hollywood career in 1920, working for Henry King."
17. 17.Millichap, 1981, p. 28
18. 18.Canham, 1974, p. 72: "For the next six years [1921–1926] Milestone took on jobs in any capacity available: he assisted William A. Seiter, wrote scenarios and treatments and did some editing."
19. 19.Millichap, 1981, pp. 28–29: "Warners often lent out the young editor to other studios at several times his salary".
20. 20.Robinson, 1970, pp. 141–142: "After varied work in Hollywood, he emerged as a writer on Alan Crosland's Bobbed Hair (1925) and a director on Seven Sinners, made later the same year." Barson, 2020: "In 1925 Milestone made his directorial debut with Seven Sinners; he also wrote the screenplay." Millichap, 1981 p. 30: "Milestone offered Warner a story idea he had created himself if he could direct it himself. Warner took the bait." Rhodes, 2020: "Milestone had honed his career in comedies, writing the scripts for The Mad Whirl (1925), The Teaser (1925), and Bobbed Hair (1925), all of which humorously depicted the jazz-crazed youth of the Roaring Twenties."
21. 21.Canham, 1974, p. 72: "... he was given a chance to direct a Marie Prevost vehicle, Seven Sinners (1925)."
22. 22.Millichap, 1981, p. 30: "Milestone's career as a director was launched." Strago, 2017: "The New York Times critic called Milestone's first feature, Seven Sinners (1925), made for Warner Bros., the best recent picture he'd seen at Warner's flagship theater, but Milestone chafed at studio demands. Happily, Hughes soon formed his own company and, in 1927, the young director went to work for him."
23. 23.Millichap, 1981, pp. 30–31: "By 1926 [Warners] was paying Milestone $400 a week [but] loaning him out as a film doctor at the rate of $1000 a week and more .... Milestone demanded the difference" and broke his contract when Warners refused. Canham, 1974 pp. 72–73: "Warners and Milestone capitalized [on the success of Seven Sinners by finishing a second comedy vehicle two months later ... The Caveman (1926) ... contemporary reviewers lavished praise on Milestone's adroit direction, and his ability to switch from sophisticated comedy through slapstick to suspense."
24. 24.Millichap, 1981, p. 31: Milestone "a rising talent"and one of "the years graduates of Paramount 'School of Stars" "And "he quarreled with [Swanson] and left the film." Canham, 1974 p. 73: Critics were less pleased with Milestone's The New Klondike (1926) "[but] the fact that it was filmed on location in Florida gives some indication of Milestone's rising status as a director."
25. 25.Canham, 1974, p. 73: "He made only one film during 1927, but it proved to be his most important silent work [Two Arabian Knights]" and "He left Warners after the Prevost pictures, working under several banners over the next few years [among them] the Caddo Company ... owned by Howard Hughes" and "his first war film ... the comical adventures of two American doughboys" and pp. 73–74: Two Arabian Knights "was made to cash in on the popularity of director Raoul Walsh's What Price Glory (1926), for the relationships between the central characters are identical, and the two films shared one of the writers, James T. O'Donahue. Whereas Walsh's film won plaudits for an earthy, rugged humor, Milestone's relied on intelligent acting at the expense of any slapstick comedy, a quality which helped win him the Academy Award for best direction."
26. 26.Silver, 2010: "he had won a "Best Comedy Direction" statuette for Two Arabian Knights (1927), beating out Charles Chaplin's The Circus. Barson, 2020: Barson notes that "In 1930 the comedy and drama categories were merged" by the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Millichap, 1981, pp. 31–32: "Milestone's talents were recognized when he signed a four-year contract [with] Caddo" and p. 32: "triangle" Koszarski, 1976, p. 317: "his silent films were hailed for their freshness and vigor ... the best of them The Caveman, Two Arabian Knights, The Racket"
27. 27.Canham, 1974, pp. 74–75: Written by "one of Lubitsch's favorite writers ... The Garden of Eden was a comedy-drama ... written by Hans Kraly, and once more Milestone's deft direction of players enhanced the often acidic sophistication of his material."
28. 28.Millichap, 1981, p. 32: "Milestone's visual production obviously recalls the work of Lubitsch" and "impressive production included lavish sets [by] Menzies and excellent camera work by John Arnold."
29. 29.Millichap, 1981, p. 32
30. 30.Robinson, 1970, p. 43: "The most distinguished early gangster films were unquestionably the von Sternberg series (Underworld, The Drag Net, The Docks of New York) and Lewis Milestone's The Racket. Gangster films were however to reach their notable peak in the next decade." Canham, 1974, p. 75: "Possibly to avoid type-casting as a comedy director, he change pace with his third picture for Hughes, The Racket (1928), a gutty drama of gang-war and political corruption." Millichap, 1981, p. 32: "The Racket ... influenced by Josef von Sternberg's Underworld (1927)." Cady, 2004 TCM: "The Racket (1928) was one of the movies that started the cycle of gangster pictures that led to Little Caesar (1931), The Public Enemy (1931) and Scarface (1932)."
31. 31.Canham, 1974, p. 75: Reception was "marred by a release date among a plethora of similar gangster films of variable quality." Millichap, 1981, p. 34: Best Picture nomination.
32. 32.Millichap, 1981, pp. 34–35: Millichap notes that "for some reason" Milestone was credited for the film and that Tin Pan Alley was "justly forgotten".
33. 33.Canham, 1974, p. 75: Milestone's "first talkie, New York Lights (1929) ... a highly dramatic gangster film, scripted by Jules Furthman and photographed by Ray June, but it gave little indication of Milestone's ability in adapting to sound techniques."
34. 34.Millichap, 1981, p. 38: "generally regarded as ... his masterpiece ... in terms of both subject and style" and p. 53: "remains Lewis Milestone's most important film." Baxter, 1970, pp. 132–133: "All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) is still one of the most eloquent of anti-war documents ... one of the acknowledged classics of the American cinema." Thomson, 2015: "It is still one of the best films about the Great War."
35. 35.Millichap, 1981, p. 38: "the director had his first chance to translate a powerful literary statement into cinematic language ... perhaps the best war film ever made". Editor's Forward: Milestone: "Throughout my career I've tried, not so much to express a philosophy, as to restate in filmic terms ... my agreement with the author of a story I like is trying to say." From Preface: "like William Wyler, a cinematic interpreter of literary texts."
36. 36.Thomson, 2015: "The novel sold 2.5 million copies in twenty-two languages ... it was purchased for pictures by Carl Laemmle Jr., head of production at Universal and son of the studio's founder." Silver, 2010: "On top of the worldwide success of Remarque's novel, the film made lots of money."
37. 37.Strago, 2017
38. 38.Thomson, 2015: "For English and American audiences (it was banned for years in France), a part of the novelty in All Quiet is watching 'enemy' soldiers and realizing they are just like our own." Millichap, 1981, p. 38: quoting Milestone, from an interview with Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg, See footnotes. And p. 39: "terse, tough" is Millichap's appraisal. And "the horrors ... of the trenches." Canham, 1974, p. 80: "the script wisely chose to concentrate upon the effects of war on individual characters, instead of making wordy statements about the nature of war."
39. 39.Canham, 1974, p. 78: "shot on location at the Irving Ranch ... almost unique in that they were largely shot in sequence." (italics in original) Thomson, 2015: "Except that All Quiet on the Western Front was shot with two cameras, one for a sound film, and the other for a film that has music and sound effects, but no dialogue."
40. 40.Canham, 1974, p. 81: "Above all it was the technique of Milestone's film that rightly led to his fame [overcoming] the problems of adapting photographic needs to the demands of [early] sound recordings" and "crane shots of soldiers being mowed down as they try to cross a field." And "above all it was the technique of Milestone's film that rightly led to his fame. The [camera] movement became the message at a time when talkies were reputed to be static and stage bound because of the problems of adapting photograph needs to the demands of sound recording" suggesting that the limitation of early sound technology "may have been exaggerated by early sound historians and that "certainly Milestone's work is one those exceptions."
41. 41.Millichap, 1981, pp. 37–38: "Milestone was able to combine the Realism of sound in both dialogue and effects with the Expressionistic visual techniques he had learned as a silent editor and director." (Capitalization of keywords in original) And see these pages for Milestone quotations.
42. 42.Thomson, 2015: "The film was a triumph and you feel its sophisticated vision ... with a feeling for depth and striking compositions that were new in 1930. Milestone became famous for aerial tracking shots of troops crossing no man's land."
43. 43.Silver, 2010: "In addition to Milestone's directing Oscar, it won for Best Picture was nominated for screenplay and cinematography.
44. 44.Millichap, 1981, p. 38 Thomson, 2015: "The film was a triumph ... as much of a sensation as the novel ... audiences came in huge numbers. All Quiet took an Academy Award for best picture, and Milestone won for director. It is still one of the best films about the Great War" Whitely, 2020: "This magnificent movie remains a powerful indictment of war. It was adapted from the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, and won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for Milestone, and received a special commendation from the Nobel Peace Prize committee."
45. 45.Canham, 1974, p. 82: "The high quality of Milestone's directorial abilities [after All Quiet on the Western Front] had opened up a broad spectrum of opportunity for him, but the pitfalls of fame and the studio system were not to be forgotten."
46. 46.Canham, 1974, p. 82: "Probably the most famous of all newspaper dramas ... backed by sparkling dialogue [and] hard, fast, and ruthless pace ... Milestone's control of dialogue and performances set a new "house standard" at Warner Brothers [and] sparked off a cycle of newspaper films" Wood, 2003: "The definitive fever-pitch newspaper comedy, [the] 1928 play The Front Page is a cornerstone of the screwball [film] genre." Strago, 2017: Hughes and Milestone "stuck close to the original play ... a trendsetter when it first hit the screen in 1931. It became famous, sometimes infamous, for its frankness about sleazy backroom politics and reckless, sensationalist newspapers ... it made rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue fashionable."
47. 47.Millichap, 1981, p. 60: "The success of The Front Page created a spate of newspaper films, so that the type became almost a genre during the 1930s." p. 54: "Milestone's The Front Page remains the finest film, the best artistic success of the three." p. 53: On Hawks' and Wilder's remakes Wood, 2003: "serving as the foundation for several big-screen classics ... innumerable imitations that followed in its wake, transforming the fast-talking, conniving reporter into a bona fide cinematic icon."
48. 48.Millichap, 1981, p. 53: "Hughes considered Cagney 'a little runt' while Gable's ears reminded him "of a taxi-cab with both doors open'" And O'Brien's film debut. And "Casting became the major production difficulty in the Milestone filming of The Front Page ... [leading man] Pat O'Brien was too clean-cut and sincere [for the part of] Hildy Johnson, but his antagonist, the ruthless editor Walter Burns, was toned down considerably by the dapper Adolph Menjou, who had played only sophisticated ladies men"
49. 49.Higham, 1973, p. 127
50. 50.Millichap, 1981 Composite quote from pp. 53, 55 and 60. Note: capitalized words in the original.
51. 51.Strago, 2017: Milestone "maintains a cinematic style even when the setups are utterly theatrical."
52. 52.Baxter, 1970 p. 133: "Howard Hawks' remake His Girl Friday (1940) succeeded far better because of his skill with fast conversation and the Hawks-invented idea of making the reporter character a woman Rosalind Russell."
53. 53.Canham, 1974, p. 82: "The visual signature of [Milestone's] long tracking shots is there at the opening, with a stunning track through the newspaper machine room."
54. 54.Strago, 2017: Milestone "achieves some spectacular effects, like the camera traveling with Molly as she confronts a row of reporters—it's as if she were a prisoner facing down a firing line [and] when Milestone takes you on a tour of the Morning Post, the camera follows Menjou's Burns as he strides through the printing plant, with the heavy machinery of a thriving industry rumbling behind him."
55. 55.Millichap, 1981, p. 54: Milestone "at the height of his creative powers" with The Front Page. And p. 60: Section on Rain (1932), listed as top director with Film Daily. Strago, 2017: The Front Page "augmented Lewis Milestone's stature as a director and Howard Hughes's as a producer." Strago, 2017: "Dwight Macdonald said it was 'widely considered to be the best movie of 1931'." Koszarski, 1976, p. 317: ".his most important films were from the early talkie period, All Quiet on the Western Front and The Front Page."
56. 56.Baxter, 1970, pp. 48–49: "Frank Borzage, Lewis Milestone and King Vidor [had attempted to creat with DeMille] an independent production group called The Director's Guild."
57. 57.Millichap, 1981, p. 60: "Milestone [sought] to form a small independent production unit under the creative control of the directors themselves." Durgnat and Simmon 1988 pp. 172–173: "The colleagues most actively committed to the plan [The Screen Directors Guild] were Lewis Milestone and director Gregory La Cava." And Milestone "among its founding members." Other directors who favored a guild were Herbert Biberman and Henry King. Whitely, 2020: "Milestone was a founding member of the Directors Guild and was one of the few major directors of the Golden Age to work as a freelance, refusing every opportunity to sign long-term contracts with the big studios."
58. 58.Canham, 1974, p. 85: "the strong European influence at Paramount was on the wane, a factor that might be very relevant in accessing Milestone's apparent decline in the mid-Thirties."
59. 59.Canham, 1974, p. 82: "The high quality of Milestone's directorial abilities opened up a broad spectrum of opportunity to him, but the pitfalls of fame and the studio system were not to be forgotten."
60. 60.Millichap, 1981, Preface: "When Milestone combined strong literary matter with his cinematic style, the result was memorable cinema. When stuck with a weak literary vehicle, an indifferent production team, or studio miscasting, he often produced mediocre results. " Koszarski, 1976, p. 317: "by the late 30s the innovative flair that had marked his earlier work had dampened."
61. 61.Baxter, 1971, p. 135: Regarding Paramount finances, bankruptcy.
62. 62.Millichap, 1981, p. 63: "Crawford's "performance in Rain, like the film, has been generally panned, and almost every comment on the film insists she was miscast ... [v]iewed today, Crawford's interpretation generates considerable power ... it seems hard to discover a screen actress who could have done better with the role."
63. 63.Miller, 2007: Crawford: "I don't understand to this day how I could have given such an unpardonable bad performance. All my fault, too -- Milestone's direction was so feeble I took the bull by the horns and did my own Sadie Thompson. I was wrong every scene of the way."
64. 64.Miller, 2007: "Although the Rev. Davidson was made a reformer rather than a missionary and references to his sexless marriage were dropped, it was still quite clear that he raped her and then committed suicide." Canham, 1974, p. 84: "subjects involving the Church had to be handled with kid gloves" even in the Pre-Code period. Millichap, 1981, p. 63: Huston's "characterization of the maniacal missionary Davidson has also received scant approval." p. 67: On the rape of Thompson.
65. 65.Canham, 1974, p. 84: "The resulting film was slow and stage-bound, enlivened only by the fervor of Walter Houston's bigot."
66. 66.Baxter, 1970, p. 133: Rain (1932) with Joan Crawford as Sadie Thomson and Walter Houston as the minister, was stiff and stagey."
67. 67.Canham, 1974 p. 84: "Milestone was definitely courting fate when he took the material completely seriously since the language had to be toned down considerably" whereas as a silent film treatment could eliminate explicit verbal passages through "visual suggestion ... but the talkies had to talk."
68. 68.Arnold, 2009 TCM: "Al Jolson vanished from movie screens for nearly three years. When he finally did reappear, it was in perhaps the most offbeat and innovative film of his career ... it proved to be the biggest nail in his professional coffin. Hollywood producers no longer considered him a star of the first magnitude."
69. 69.Millchap, 1981, p. 69: Milestone engaged Rogers and Hart "to liven the script through the device of rhythmic dialogue" which they had used to good effect in Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight (1932). (Milestone specifically denies the influence of Mamoulian Lubitsch" on his 1933 film.
70. 70.Millichap, 1981, p. 69: ".the public chose not to be diverted." p. 70: "sing-song fashion" in delivery. And "The 1930s seemed a strange time to be sentimentalizing tramps." Also see p. 77: ".the film's ambiguity about economic issues ... shattered any artistic unity Milestone might have created." Arnold, 2009 TCM: "he songwriters not only penned several new songs ... but they wrote sections of rhythmic, rhyming dialogue - much as they had for their recent pictures Love Me Tonight (1932) and The Phantom President (1932). This is where much of the film's innovative effect lies."
71. 71.Baxter, 1970, p. 133: "an attempt at a socially conscious Depression [era] musical ... seemed like half-baked Rouben Mamoulian." Canham, 1974, pp. 84–85: Milestone "struck out again [after Rain] with Hallelujah, I'm a Bum at this point in his career, Milestone seemed to be faltering." Arnold, 2009: ".n February 8, 1933, the picture finally opened in New York City. Most of the reviews were poor." Millichap, 1981, p. 69:"only interesting as a rather bizarre failure." p. 77: "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum is not so much as bad film as it is a strange one." p. 79: "After completing Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, Milestone began work late in 1933 on a more serious project."
72. 72.Millichap, 1981, p. 79
73. 73.Canham, 1974, p. 85
74. 74.Millichap, 1981, p. 82
75. 75.Millichap, 1981, pp. 79–80: "promised 50% of the profits."
76. 76.Millichap, 1981, pp. 79–80: See p. 80 for use of alcohol by the cast on set. And "in all the film has a sort of improvised air" and "ill feelings" between Milestone and Cohen. Canham, 1974, p. 85: "a shipboard fairy tale starring John Gilbert and Victor McLaglen, The Captain Hates the Sea ended Gilbert's career." Baxter, 1970, pp. 133–134: "the last picture of a declining John Gilbert, ulcer-ridden and alcoholic, lurching through his last screen appearance."
77. 77.Steffen, 2010 TCM: "It didn't help that the cast was full of legendary drinkers .... According to Milestone, at one point Cohn wired him: HURRY UP. THE COSTS ARE STAGGERING. To which Milestone wired back: SO IS THE CAST." (Capitals in original)
78. 78.Millichap, 1981, p. 81: "His first two efforts [in sound] for Paramount were musical Programmers ... might have shot by almost anyone in the studio." p. 82: "his only work in the genre."
79. 79.Canham, 1974, p. 110: Filmograph section: "designed to boost the careers of the two leads; Carminati had just made a similar, highly successful film with Grace Moore, and Mary Ellis was being launched as Paramount's answer to Moore."
80. 80.Millichap, 1981, p. 81: "Paramount was using Mary Ellis ... in the same type of role" as Grace Moore.
81. 81.Millichap, 1981, p. 81: "The proceedings are pretty even Milestone's tries to liven things up with some fancy camera work." Dreier creates "a reasonable facsimile of Paris."
82. 82.Baxter, 1970, p. 134: "Paris in Spring and Anything Goes were innocuous."
83. 83.Canham, 1974, p. 85: "Paris in Spring ... did little for Milestone."
84. 84.Canham, 1974, p. 85: "Anything Goes ... did little for Milestone."
85. 85.Baxter, 1970, p. 134: "Paris in Spring and Anything Goes were innocuous." Millichap, 1981, p. 82: "It seems that Milestone has little feel for the musical genre .... [Anything Goes] might have been created by any studio workhorse."
86. 86.Baxter, 1970, p. 134: Paris in Spring (1935) and Anything Goes (1936) were innocuous, but then, late in 1936, Milestone gave a film which, for style and content, is one of the Thirties undoubted masterpieces" and "Milestone considered the film of little consequence, having adapted it from a pulp magazine story to keep himself occupied between pictures." Canham, 1974, p. 85: "The General Died at Dawn displayed a marked return to form, and heralded a European revival continued by Lubitsch and Billy Wilder"
87. 87.Millichap, 1981, p. 83–84: His three previous films "insignificant" An: Josef von Sternberg "an old friend ... [Milestone] might have been influenced in [his] choice of materials and ... styles of handling them." Canham, 1974, p. 86: "It was a stylized drama, visually as well as thematically reminiscent of Josef von Sternberg's The Shanghai Express (1932)."
88. 88.Millichap, 1981, pp. 82–83: Millichap refers to Odets as "Leftist" and the film's "pulpy background" source
89. 89.Baxter, 1970, p. 134: Baxter provides a detailed description of the opening Cooper/O'Hara sketch.
90. 90.Millichap, 1981, p. 82: "the film holds up well both as entertainment and art." Baxter, 1970, pp. 134–135: Carroll's Judy Perrie characterization is "perfectly realized" Canham, 1974, p. 87: "the skill of the script ... and the acting itself combine to lift it out of the mainstream of adventure pictures that used the inscrutable Orient as a backdrop". p. 86: "The effortless ease with which [Milestone] sketches the Gary Cooper character". p. 87: "The biggest impact is in Madeline Carroll's portrayal of Judy Perrie as a frightened lost girl."
91. 91.Higham p. 130: " ... extraordinary use of dissolves" in the billiard ball/doorknob. And "In many ways, the film was as technically exacting as anything in the oeuvre of Orson Welles." Canham, 1974, p. 87: "bravura camera techniques such as split screen images or a dissolve match cut from a billiard ball to a white door knob" Millichap, 1981, p. 83: "The General Died at Dawn remains bravura effort of split screens and match dissolves, almost a compendium of things a camera could do to tell a story." p. 87: See here for description of "billiard ball" match cut. Baxter, 1970, pp. 134–135: "Milestone engineers one of the most ... expert match shots on record, dissolving from a billiard ball to a round white door knob, which then turns to take us into the bar next door. And "In terms of cinematic invention, The General Died at Dawn is a fascinating technical exercise [and] shows the breadth of that technique." On a 4-way split screen. And "The [film's] finale.. is a bravura piece of direction"
92. 92.Baxter, 1970, p. 134: "for style and content, one of the Thirties' undoubted masterpieces." p. 135: "The finale, with Victor Milner's camera tracking sinuously through the Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegte Chinese junk sets, is a bravura piece of direction, a fitting finale to this, Milestone's most exquisite and exciting if not most meaningful examination of social friction in a human context." p. 134: "Milestone considered the film of little consequence". p. 136: See here for final quote "human context."
93. 93.Millichap, 1981, p. 82: Millichap considers Baxter's "masterpiece" designation "somewhat lavish" but he agrees that "the film holds up very well both as entertainment and art. Canham, 1974, p. 87: "The first symphonic musical score composed for a film by Werner Janssen"
94. 94.Millichap, 181, p. 92: "three-year hiatus ... at the height of his career."
95. 95.Canham, 1974, pp. 87–88: "The success of The General Died at Dawn should have revitalized Milestone's career; instead he found himself involved in a series of unfulfilled projects that kept his work off the screen for three years"
96. 96.Canham, 1974, p. 88: Censorship prevented [Milestone] from filming Vincent Sheean's Personal History (1935) for Walter Wanger". p. 88: "Sam Goldwyn commissioned [Milestone] and Clifford Odets to write a screenplay for Dead End, but then turned the project over the William Wyler"
97. 97.Millichap, 1981: from Preface: "like William Wyler, a cinematic interpreter of literary texts."
98. 98.Canham, 1974, p. 88: "the film is very infrequently shown today, and was merely a stand-by piece that Milestone filmed solely to keep working."
99. 99.Millichap, 1981, p. "Hans Dreier's sets are the best feature of the film."
100. 100.Canham, 1974, p. 88: "in 1938 Hal Roach asked him to film a project entitled Road Show ... after some initial work on the screenplay, Roach shelved the project ... then directed it himself. Millichap, 1981 p. 93: Details of Milestone/Roach litigation and resolution.
101. 101.Criterion Collection, 2014: "Director Lewis Milestone took on the project to fulfill a contractual obligation to producer Hal Roach as part of a lawsuit's settlement."
102. 102.Millichap, 1981, p. 94: Milestone work "almost completely a personal project, a labor of love" and "immediately concluding that the story would make an excellent film." Tatara, 2009 TCM: "this adaptation of John Steinbeck's grim but strangely humanistic novel is a bit dated in its moralizing" Higham and Greenberg, 1968, p. 77-78: "the film's acting is more stylized than naturalistic ... this is perfectly in keeping with its essential character as a morality play, a bit contrived perhaps, but nonetheless sincere and affecting."
103. 103.Higham and Greenberg, 1968, p. 75: "Although belonging technically to the succeeding decade [1940s], films like ... Of Mice and Men were really 1930s projects, deriving their intellectual and emotional sustenance from the era of the New Deal and the Group Theatre." and "takes place against a background of economic misery."
104. 104.Millichap, 1981, p. 95: "Of Mice and Men ... presents a topic that was common in the 1930s- the lives and deaths of little people disoriented and dispossessed by the conditions of the modern world." Canham, 1974, p. 88: Hal Roach insisted upon "a small budget and a rapid shooting schedule ... the timing and haste of the project [may have] stemmed from [Roach's] desire to cash in the on the possible success of John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath, a film with similar themes."
105. 105.Millichap, 1981, p. 94: See here for remarks in quotations. Criterion, 2014: "Steinbeck, so often ambivalent to adaptations of his work and having had little to do with the successful adaptation of Of Mice and Men to the stage in 1937 (much to the chagrin of play's producer), approved of Milestone's film most of all."
106. 106.Millichap, 1981, p. 96: "Milestone's film version Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in its anti-omniscient viewpoint ... increasing the complexity and the ambiguity of the work because of the lack of editorial judgement" and p. 104: "Milestone's version Of Mice and Men [is] as powerful as Steinbeck's ... one which demonstrates the convergence of realistic fictional and cinematic styles."
107. 107.Millichap, 1981, p. 94: As such, Milestone "conferred carefully on image motifs" with art director Nicolai Remisoff, and cameraman Norbert Brodine] competently filmed the piece ... and Milestone "was much concerned with sound motifs" enlisting Aaron Copland to do the musical score."
108. 108.Canham, 1974 pp. 89–90
109. 109.Criterion, 2014: "Lewis Milestone's Of Mice and Men (1939) was a critical success and the film garnered four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Sound Recording (Elmer A. Raguse), Best Musical Score (Aaron Copland), and Best Original Score (Aaron Copland).
110. 110.Canham, 1974, p. 88: Roach insisted on "a small budget and a rapid shooting schedule". p. 89: "the stylized acting (in this] morality play) ... was well-served by the ... talents of Lon Chaney, Jr. in his only major roles in an "A" film."
111. 111.Millichap, 1981, p. 94: "Milestone cast very carefully ... Lon Chaney, Jr. played Lennie in a Los Angeles production of the play, and the film offered this ill-used actor a chance to escape monster roles ... the supporting cast ... are uniformly excellent." Tatara, 2009 TCM: "Milestone saw something in [Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr.] and both men deliver arguably the best work of their respective careers in the film."
112. 112.Criterion, 2014: "Lewis Milestone's Of Mice and Men (1939) was a critical success and the film garnered four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Sound Recording (Elmer A. Raguse), Best Musical Score (Aaron Copland), and Best Original Score (Aaron Copland). While this achievement might sound reasonably impressive alone, it's downright stellar when one considers that the film received these recognition in 1939, Hollywood's greatest year."
113. 113.Tatara, 2009 TCM: "The film's tragic, violent ending is one of the most memorable in all of movie history. Audiences at the time were so troubled by this narrative of slowly-rising defeat, the film failed miserably at the box office. Apparently, it was one thing to read such a thing, but another altogether to watch it unfold onscreen" and "the film failed miserably at the box office." Higham and Greenberg, 1968 pp. 77–78: "George's (Burgess Merideth) mercy-killing of Lennie (Lon Chaney, Jr.) takes place against a background of economic misery [and] as a morality play, a bit contrived perhaps, but nonetheless sincere and affecting."
114. 114.Millichap, 1981, p. 104: "Milestone's Hollywood reputation took another upward turn after Of Mice and Men [when] he signed a contract with RKO, where he was given his own production unit." Canham, 1974, p. 90: "A two-picture deal with RKO offered Milestone a double comedy package with Ronald Colman as star."
115. 115.Canham, 1974, pp. 90–91 Millichap, 1981, p. 104: "In quick succession he ground out two light comedies with the aging Ronald Coleman as the lead," and "Either film might have been directed by any dozen of studios regulars ... overall they are simply uninspired fare ... once again Milestone's career seemed in the doldrums." Barson, 2020: "the forgettable comedies Lucky Partners (1940) and My Life with Caroline (1941),.. Tartara, 2011. TCM: "Milestone was more of a technical innovator than anything else and never showed much flair for comedy. His movies were hardly light on their feet."
116. 116.Millichap, 1981 p. 104, quoting a Charles Higham source; see Millichap footnotes.
117. 117.Silver, 2010: "World War II provided the opportunity to rejuvenate the reputation he had established with All Quiet."
118. 118.Silver, 2010: Silver quotes Sarris's observation that in Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front, "the orgasmic violence of war is celebrated as much as it is condemned." Canham, 1974, p. 104: "All Quiet on the Western Front contains as many scenes of violence as any of his other war films; as Milestone said in an interview in Action (July–August 1972): 'How can you make a pacifist film without showing the violence of war?'"
119. 119.Higham and Greenberg, 1968, p. 96: "Although the U.S. did not officially enter WWII until 1941, Hollywood was well aware of what was happening in Europe." Silver, 2010: "casting a cold eye on warfare ... was a problem for Lewis Milestone [in 1930 and All Quiet on the Western Front], and it remains a problem today [for filmmakers]." Millichap, 1981, pp. 107–108: "climate of opinion". See here for "the transformation of his attitude toward war". And during the Second World War, "Milestone's efforts [during WWII] tend more toward propaganda than art" and re: Hollywood's and Milestone's shift to anti-Nazi war films. And Milestone "a liberal intellectual ... viewed the rise of totalitarian Fascism with considerable alarm ... after Pearl Harbor ... [Milestone] became convinced that armed resistance to Fascism was the only course of action ... [and] he placed his art at the service of an [anti-fascist] ideal."
120. 120.Millichap, 1981, pp. 108–109 Canham, 1974, p. 91 Barson, 2020: "Milestone collaborated with Dutch director Joris Ivens on Our Russian Front (1942), a documentary (narrated by Walter Huston)"
121. 121.Silver, 2010: "World War II provided the opportunity to rejuvenate the reputation he had established with All Quiet, but Edge of Darkness, The North Star, The Purple Heart, A Walk in the Sun, Arch of Triumph (another adaptation of a novel by All Quiet author Erich Maria Remarque), and, later, Halls of Montezuma only intermittently tipped the scales in Milestone's favor."
122. 122.Millichap, 1981, pp. 30–31
123. 123.Higham and Greenberg, 1968, p. 100: "Bronx accented [European] patriots" and p. 104: "the too frequent casting of Americans as Europeans." Millichap, 1981, p. 109: Milestone described the cast as "extremely mixed" and p. 110: Millichap reports "difficulties of characterization and casting" and other than Walter Huston "the rest of the cast is eminently forgettable" and "severe personal problems" that plagued cast members. And "New York accents" Erickson, 2010 TCM: "The movie would probably have been better without any recognizable stars. Millichap, 1981, p. 115: "weighed down by its single-minded theme."
124. 124.Erickson, 2010. TCM: "Edge of Darkness adopts an entirely different approach to laud the fierce resistance of proud Norwegian patriots. Robert Rossen's unsubtle, humorless screenplay takes every Nazi-imposed hardship in deadly earnest."
125. 125.Millichap, 1981 p. 109: See footnote, quoted from an interview with Ezra Goodman in Theatre Arts Magazine, February, 1943.
126. 126.Higham and Greenberg, 1968, p. 104 Erickson, 2010. TCM: "The intent of Edge of Darkness is to shock the audience with oppressive Nazi measures .... Stoic solidarity is the only response; as the screenplay emphasizes the need for a communal vengeance" and '"The revolt of the townspeople is very much a fantasy." Millichap, 1981, p. 109 Canham, 1974, p. 91: The film uses "a formula of the Hollywood propaganda movie."
127. 127.Passafiume, 2009. TCM: "Celebrated cinematographer James Wong Howe would be behind the camera, and Aaron Copland and Ira Gershwin would contribute the music and lyrics to several folk songs for the film ... Lillian Hellman went to work on the screenplay" and "Goldwyn received a message from President Roosevelt through Lowell Mellett, the chief of the Bureau of Motion Pictures of the Office of War Information ... It would be a portrayal designed to gather sympathy for the Russian people and strengthen American support for the U.S. government's alliance with the Soviet Union." Hoberman, 2014: "lavish Samuel Goldwyn production." Cojoc, 2013, pp. 93–95: "the American's perceptions of the Soviet Union had to be shaped overnight so that FDR could receive popular support for entering the war on the Soviet Union's side. A responsibility for such a task was [placed on the Office of War‚ Information." Millichap, 1981, p. 115: "The production credits of The North Star are impressive". And p. 124: Millichap lists James Wong Howe, William Cameron Menzies, and Aaron Copland. And "the cast does well enough with what it has [in terms of script]" and "Goldwyn bankrolled a lavish production."
128. 128.Murphy, 1999, p. 16: The North Star was made "at the request of President Roosevelt with the conscious aim winning the support of the American public for its wartime ally, the Soviet Union."
129. 129.Millichap, 1981, pp. 118–119: "lovable old coot [Brennan's Karp]" and "Here the operetta analogy takes hold ... singing and dancing ... reduces the major characters to fugitives from a musical comedy [and] makes no sense in terms of plot ... does much to create the inanity that finally destroys the film."
130. 130.Hoberman, 2014: "The peasants were played, without [adopting Russian] accents, by ... all-American types: Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Dean Jagger ... Walter Brennan ... appeared as semi-comic stock characters with Walter Huston, as the village doctor, supplying the sort of moral authority .... The chief villains were Erich von Stroheim (once billed as The Man You Love to Hate) and Martin Kosleck"
131. 131.Hoberman, 2014: "its idealization of Soviet life, notably the lengthy village celebration choreographed by the Russian ballet master David Lichine, that suggests [the Hollywood musical] Oklahoma."
132. 132.Millichap, 1981, pp. 119–120: Milestone exhibits "admirable technical mastery" in the first bombing sequence ... momentarily recalls the power of All Quiet" and p. 120: "the power of documentary [as in] Joris Ivens's The Spanish Earth." Canham, 1974, p. 93: "Milestone's professionalism transcends his material."
133. 133.Hoberman, 2014: The North Star "received near universal acclaim when it opened in New York at two Broadway theaters, less than a month after the Red Army liberated Kiev ... [numerous dailies including] Life magazine named The North Star the movie of the year ... only the two Hearst papers were critical, denouncing the movie as pro-Soviet propaganda."
134. 134.Cojoc, 2013, pp. 93–95: "Life magazine (1943) called it 'an eloquent tone poem ... a document showing how the people fight and die" [while] the Hearst Press condemned it as communist propaganda." Passafiume, 2009. TCM: Hearst papers "made the outrageous suggestion that the film was not only Red propaganda but Nazi propaganda" and "positive reviews did little to help The North Star, which ultimately fizzled at the box office."
135. 135.Millichap, 1981, pp. 116–117: Films produced after the Hitler–Stalin pact and Russia joined the Allied Powers "were to haunt their creators in the McCarthy era, when various witch hunters would try to sniff out any sympathy with Communism. In most cases, this romanticizing of the Eastern Front seems more commercially than politically motivated. The mass media, somewhat in response to government pressure, portrayed all our allies as good guys, the Soviets included."
136. 136.Barson, 2020: "Lillian Hellman's script gave the picture a political tone that would land the filmmakers in trouble with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) just a few years later."
137. 137.Passafiume, 2009. TCM: "Later in 1957 with the burgeoning of the cold war and McCarthyism, The North Star was completely re-cut to air on television after being singled out by the House Un-American Activities Committee as being pro-Communist. All sympathetic Soviet references were completely removed, a narrator was added warning against the 'menace of Communism,' the location was changed from Russia to Hungary, and a new title was given to the film: Armored Attack"
138. 138.Canham, 1974, p. 93: "another studio property ... marred by jingoistic propaganda inserts" and "The film demonstrates "Milestone's attitude toward war as it indicates a change in heart from his pacifist position of All Quiet on the Western Front." Millichap, 1981, p. 124.
139. 139.Canham, 1974, p. 93: "another studio property ... marred by jingoistic propaganda inserts" and "the ever-prowling camera increases the tension while the men wait and discuss their situation, and personal reaction to torture." Millichap, 1981, p. 128: "The simplistic identification of all good with America, all evil with Japan, ultimate rendered the film both false and dangerous."
140. 140.Millichap, 1981, p. 125: "The emotional overkill proves to be the film's major fault" and p. 128: "The Purple Heart remains the most successful of Milestone's World War II in a purely technical sense; it is both effective entertainment and propaganda, but it is finally bad art" and "we didn't hesitate." Canham, 1974, p. 94: See here for cameraman Arthur Miller's "crisp, clearly defined, high-key images for court scenes [and] low-key imagery for flashbacks."
141. 141.Canham, 1974, pp. 97, 113: "Milestone shared credit for some work on Guest in the House (1944), credited to director John Brahm which dealt with the evil influence of an apparently innocent but sick young lady (Anne Baxter in a dress rehearsal for her outstanding performance in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve (year)."
142. 142.Millichap, 1981, pp. 128–129: "his appendix ruptured" during filming and had it removed.
143. 143.Millichap, 1981, p. 130: "the film was another labor of love" and "the book was my script" and pp. 130–131: "Rossen and Milestone relied heavily on [Brown's] novel" and "Milestone realized the work in strong visual terms."
144. 144.Barson, 2020: "A Walk in the Sun (1945) was a stylistically adventurous war drama, adapted by Robert Rossen from the novel by Harry Brown. The film focuses almost entirely on the states of mind of several soldiers (Andrews, Conte, and John Ireland) as they try to take a Nazi-held farmhouse in Italy."
145. 145.Canham, 1974, p. 96: The moral outlook of the soldiers "imply a structural and moral change by [the characters] tacit acceptance of the conditions of war."
146. 146.Millichap, 1981 p. 131
147. 147.Millichap, 1981, p. 130: "realistically portrays the effects of war" on combat soldiers. And p. 132: Milestone "avoids melodramatic and cliches" and All Quiet "his earlier masterpiece." Canham, 1974, pp. 95–96: The film "synthesized his reappraisal of men in war. The plot was sparse, but tightly constructed in a series of episodes (all containing underlying melancholia). The dialogue was deliberately stylized: repetition, catch phrases and obsessional figures produced as effect of blank verse, the rhythm of which heightened the sense of fear and isolation." Barson, 2020: "The effect is closer to the antiwar message of All Quiet on the Western Front than to the gung-ho heroics of most World War II pictures." Steffen, 2007 TCM: "the cinematographer Russell Harlan handles A Walk in the Sun with great skill ... Also striking is Milestone's frequent use of lateral tracking shots during the combat scenes, directly recalling All Quiet on the Western Front.
148. 148.Millichap, 1981, pp. 116–117: Films produced after the Hitler–Stalin pact was broken and Russia joined the Allied Powers were to haunt their creators in the McCarthy era, when various witch hunters would try to sniff out any sympathy with Communism. In most cases, this romanticizing of the Eastern Front seems more commercially than politically motivated.
149. 149.Cojoc, 2013, pp. 93–95: "in the wake of the Cold War the HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee), the Catholic League of Decency, the Motion Picture Alliance and the Alliance for Preservation American Values put up together the infamous blacklists of people presumed to be members of the Communist Party, or have communist beliefs. Hearings regarding Communist infiltration of the Motion Pictures were held by HUAC in 1947, and the main targets were the contributors to wartime [Hollywood] pro-Soviet pictures."
150. 150.Millichap, 1981 p. 142: Quoted from a 1979 interview with Milestone conducted by Millichap. See footnote in Millichap.
151. 151.Cojoc, 2013 pp. 93–95: "Director Lewis Milestone was part of the group of the Hollywood directors (who invoked the first [fifth] amendment) to be summoned by the [Committee] for their [suspected] involvement with the Communist Party. He together with another seven directors and screenwriters finally managed to avoid testifying. As for the rest of the Hollywood Ten, they remained the main victims of the Hollywood Purges, each of them being tried and sentenced for contempt of the Court" Millichap, 1981 p. 142: "Unlike The Hollywood Ten, he was able to keep working through these tense times."
152. 152.Millichap, 1981, p. 142 Barson, 2020: "Although suspected of having communist leanings, Milestone was never called to testify before the HUAC, and he was never officially blacklisted. However, for much of the 1950s, he struggled to find film assignments .... Milestone worked in television for a few years .... Toward the end of the 1950s, Milestone's "greylisting" was lifted. Higham and Greenberg, 1968, p. 17: "a period of fear, betrayal and witch-hunting hysteria ... the ranks of key contributors to the movie-making process were appreciably thinned."
153. 153.Walsh, 2001: "According to some, Milestone was a victim of the blacklist." Millichap, 1981, p. 142: "did guilt by association block the financial backing necessary for truly creative projects, or did pressure make him opt for 'safe' subjects in Arch of Triumph, The Red Pony and Halls of Montezuma?. Milestone refused to comment of this side of his life: evidently his always found it very painful." (Millichap footnote indicates his 1979 interview with the director as source.)
154. 154.Whiteley, 2020: "In the postwar period his career was undoubtedly affected by the McCarthy Communist witch-hunts. In 1949, he was blacklisted for his left wing associations of the 1930's and for the apparent pro-Communist leanings shown in his movie 'The North Star' of 1943."
155. 155.Arnold, 2003 TCM Millichap, 1981 pp. 142–143: "Between them the writer and director created a taut, harsh tale of American moral corruption which became a classic example of the post-war Hollywood style known as film noir"
156. 156.Higham and Greenberg, 1968, pp. 20–21: See here for definitions of film noir, re: "Romanticism" and German/Austrian directors, "reaching its fullest realization in the Forties" and p. 27: "Lewis Milestone, in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), also created a striking addition to film noir .... Replete with impressive images of cruelty and destructiveness, this chef d'oeuvre could not have been more persuasively directed." Millichap, 1981, p. 154: "Milestone's The Strange Love of Martha Ivers proves a perfect example of film noir, a dark revelation of a corrupt and corrupting urban America ... not only one of the best of its type [it] remains one Milestone's best films, a dramatic confirmation of the director's diverse and generous gifts" and p. 154: "Robert Rossen's literate and intelligent screenplay, a work which recalls literary sources a diverse as Eugene O'Neill and John O'Hara" and p. 144: "Milestone assisted ... by an excellent cast." Arnold, 2003 TCM: "a classic film noir which introduced Kirk Douglas to the movie-going world .... Dark, twisted and gripping, the picture was an all-around triumph."
157. 157.Millichap, 1981, pp. 142–143: "Between them the writer and director created a taut, harsh tale of American moral corruption which became a classic example of film noir." Barson, 2020: "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) was a departure for Milestone, an effective film noir starring Barbara Stanwyck, Lizabeth Scott, and (in his film debut) Kirk Douglas." Canham, 1974, p. 97: "the viciousness of dialogue and character reflected a cynical approach to modern society" and pp. 97–98: "a powerful demonstration of the destructive distortion of identify ... which stemmed from an obsessive devotion to money and power." Millichap, 1981, p. "Kirk Douglas, in his screen debut."
158. 158.Millichap, 1981, p. 144: "Victor Milner's cinematography renders the requisite stylistic effects of film noir" and "the soundtrack is enhanced by Miklos Rozsa's brilliant original score [which] presents themes for each of the characters and then skillfully intertwines and contrasts them in an almost perfect counterpoint to the visual images."
159. 159.Higham and Greenberg, 1968, pp. 20–21: "the minatory score of ... Miklos Rozs." The final cut was marred by Wallis's post-production insertion of close-ups to promote his rising Paramount property Lizabeth Scott. Millichap, 1981, p. 144: "Only one member of the production staff really hindered Milestone: producer Hal B. Wallis [who insisted] on inserting a number of pointless close-ups of his latest starlet, Lizabeth Scott, in Milestone's finished director's print. The inserts [of Scott] stand out like sore thumbs ... the rest of the film is as faultless in its visual rhythms as everything Milestone ever did."
160. 160.Erickson, 2014 TCM: "One of several independent film companies attempting to establish a foothold in Hollywood was Enterprise Productions, which generated a string of quality pictures in the late 1940s ... Enterprise's biggest production is director Lewis Milestone's Arch of Triumph, from a novel by the noted Erich Maria Remarque, who had earlier written the source novel for Milestone"
161. 161.Erickson, 2014 TCM: "Enterprise Productions put everything it had into Arch of Triumph, with production values the equal of any big studio film ... the highly anticipated movie seemed a guaranteed hit." Millichap, 1981, p. 155: "Producers [at Enterprise Productions] saw the adaptation of the best-selling novel as a blockbuster on the scale of Gone with the Wind (1939)."
162. 162.Hoberman, 2014: "Adapted from a novel by Erich Remarque, Arch of Triumph is set on the eve of World War II in the Paris of desperate anti-Nazi refugees. Charles Boyer is one, an idealistic doctor, who falls in love with a professional courtesan and chanteuse of mystery (Ingrid Bergman)" Millichap, 1981, pp. 154–155: See here for story sketch
163. 163.Millichap, 1981, p. 156: The first problem was that Enterprise "pushed [the production] toward glamorous romance" and "bars, brothels ... [and the film's] conclusion is changed" to conform to Code.
164. 164.Millichap, 1981, pp. 155–156: Boyer and Bergman were badly miscast. Boyer, a matinee idol [is unconvincing as] a refugee doctor, while Bergman ... portrayed as international tart about as convincingly as Boyer would have played an All-American fullback."
165. 165.Millichap, 1981 pp. 155–156: "Arch of Triumph fails almost completely. A great part of the failure was beyond Milestone's control."
166. 166.Canham, 1974, p. 99: "certain studio executives did not like the long version that Milestone turned in, so it was drastically pruned and re-edited, and today Milestone practically disowns Arch of Triumph." Millichap, 1981, p. 156: A "major difficulty was that [producers cut Milestone's long version] from about four hours to a more conventional two ... such drastic cutting destroyed the continuity of the work. Major characters were completely eliminated, loose ends of plot abound and the movie romance of Boyer and Bergman becomes even more central." Hoberman, 2014: "The script, which Milestone helped write, is hopeless—disjointed and rich with pointless enigmas, although not enough to be truly surreal."
167. 167.Millichap, 1981 p. 156
168. 168.Millichap, 1981, p. 156. And p. 154: "The Arch of Triumph should have been a much better film than it turned out to be ... based [as it was] on a solid literary property."
169. 169.Erickson, 2014 TCM:"audiences didn't [appreciate] the film and it earned back less than a third of its budget."
170. 170.Millichap, 1981, p. 156: "both an artistic and financial disaster. It grossed $1,5 million, while it cost almost $4 million to make."And p. 157: "in later years he has practically disowned the film."
171. 171.Canham, 1974, p. 99
172. 172.Millichap, 1981, pp. 156–157: "After he completed Arch of Triumph, Milestone reverted to the weak, semi-sophisticated comedy of his Paramount and RKO pictures of the 1930s in No Minor Vices (1949) ... the movie seems to reprise My Life with Caroline (year) ... Milestone labored to make the film interesting with stream-of-consciousness soliloquies and deft pans ... but most reviewers found it dull stuff ... it seems the kind of programmer that the director might have better avoided."
173. 173.Canham, 1974, p. 99: Milestone "continued to work prolifically, turning our a rarely seen comedy, No Minor Vices."
174. 174.Millichap, 1981 p. 157
175. 175.Barson, 2020: "The Red Pony (1949) was an adaptation by Steinbeck of his book of four related stories. The coming-of-age film centers on a boy who bonds with his pony." Arnold, 2008 TCM: "Formed as a union of half a dozen poverty-row film studios, Republic Pictures in its early years didn't carry much prestige. This view changed in the late 1940s when the studio made a concerted effort to propel itself to more respectable ranks by producing 'serious' dramas with renowned filmmakers ... [their] most expensive picture to date" Millichap, 1981, p. 157: Milestone and Steinbeck "became good friends" while working on Of Mice and Men (1939). And "Republic, essentially a studio devoted to westerns" and p. 158: The story set "about 1910." Higham and Greenberg, 1968, p. 155: "Shot mainly on location, the film was part of Republic Studio's bid for 'prestige' that had also resulted in Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948). Its score by Aaron Copland, its attractive restrained color ... fully realized the studio's prestigious aspirations."
176. 176.Millichap, 1981, p. 157 : "Steinbeck served as screenwriter, his only adaptation of one of his own works, while Milestone took credit as both producer and director" and p. 159 and p. 168: The quote on "distorts" is a composite quote used for clarity. And p. 158: "The four separate tales [of the story sequence] are connected by common characters, settings and themes." Arnold, 2008 TCM: "For The Red Pony, Steinbeck actually adapted his own work to the screen ... the screenplay was based not on a single novel but on several of his short stories [and] blending them into one complete tale must have been an intriguing challenge and an appealing chance to create something wholly original.
177. 177.Higham and Greenberg, 1968, p. 155: "A film of [high] caliber was Lewis Milestone's version of John Steinbeck's The Red Pony (1949), from a screenplay by Steinbeck. This entered with sensitivity and imagination into the world of childhood." Millichap, 1981, p. 157: Republic "pigeonholed" the film as a "children's picture, a kind of kid's western" and p. 162: Some of the scenes possess "a kid's picture undertone ... right out of a Disney production."
178. 178.Millichap, 1981, p. 157: "The film's conclusion, altered to a stock happy ending represents the transformation of the plot character and theme in the screen version" of "one of Steinbeck's finest works of [literary] fiction" and p. 159 and p. 164 re: focus on "The Gift" and "The Leader of the People" with "The Great Mountains" expunged and "The Promise" severely cut. And on "willingly" See p. 168: "the author himself included [the happy ending] in the screenplay ... [altering] the thematic thrust of the story sequence."
179. 179.Millichap, 1981, p. 162: "the film quickly loses much of the power promised by the literary source and anticipated in the strong opening sequence."
180. 180.Arnold, 2008 TCM: "Myrna Loy plays against type here, and film historian Lawrence Quirk has wondered "why [she] took this role, merely a ranch housewife and mother who is very much on the periphery of this bucolic mood piece." Millichap, 1981, pp. 159–160: "Louis Calhern ... seems a strange amalgamation of Will Geer's Grandpa Walton and Joel McCrea's Buffalo Bill." Barson, 2020: "Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum gave fine performances."
181. 181.Millichap, 1981, p. 160: "Miles sensitivity often seems rather sugary and his anger at the world is more or less a tantrum."
182. 182.Millichap, 1981, p. 161: "Like many Milestone films, it opens quite well [but] does not sustain the artistic intensity." and p. 168: "Although Milestone's The Red Pony is not as artistically successful as Steinbeck's story sequence it remains a sincere film adaptation." and pp. 160–161: "Milestone opens the film with a pre-title sequence which clearly recalls Of Mice and Men in both visual and aural imagery ... establishing a complex relationship between the human characters and the natural world."
183. 183.Canham, 1974, p. 99: "his first technicolor film" Millichap, 1981, p. 157: "the film is notable as Milestone's first color effort" and p. 160: "Tony Gaudio's cinematography" in technicolor "suggests the best of American regional painting [in his use of] natural, muted tones."
184. 184.Barson, 2020 TCM: "Aaron Copland wrote the acclaimed film score." Arnold, 2008 TCM: "Aaron Copland's wistful and haunting score was one of just six the famed composer wrote for American feature films." Millichap, 1981, p. 160: "Perhaps the best single feature of the film is the powerful score by Aaron Copland, who had also scored [Milestone's] Of Mice and Men (1939); both scores became concert favorites, among the finest pieces of music created for Hollywood. As in his earlier work with Milestone, Copland's script perfectly matches the mood of the visuals, and this case often surpasses them in invoking the lyric naturalism of Steinbeck's original work."
185. 185.Millichap, 1981, p. 157: "the movie proved a moderate success, both critically and financially." Arnold, 2008 TCM: In its effort to make "prestige" productions ... the studio made a concerted effort to propel itself to more respectable ranks by producing 'serious' dramas with renowned filmmakers such as Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948), Frank Borzage's Moonrise (1948), and Lewis Milestone's The Red Pony (1949)."
186. 186.Canham, 1974, pp. 99–100
187. 187.Arnold, 2003 TCM: Milestone on taking screenwriting credits: "'I seldom did' he said."
188. 188.Millichap, 1981, p. 171: "Milestone ... worked with [Blankfort on the screenplay], and it seems likely [Milestone's] own brand of liberal realism influenced the work ... there are many interesting correspondences with [his 1930 film] All Quiet on the Western Front" and "it concerns a Marine landing on a [Japanese held] Pacific island" that resembles the Okinawa attack in 1945 "but it was produced during the Korean War."
189. 189.Millichap, 1981, p. 170: "the marines fight because they are on the side of right, 'On God's side' [reflecting] the Cold War vision of the American position ... [the film's] ultimate thematic thrust ... obviously resembles many of the mindlessly self-congratulatory war films of the 1950s" and "for all its disconcerting patriotic entertainment values, [the film] also has moments of real insight into the horrors of war" and p. 170: The letter of a dead Marine is discovered by his comrades: "'war is too horrible for human beings' ... the letter itself contains the film's thematic core" Crowther, 1951 NYT: "A remarkably real and agonizing demonstration of the horribleness of war, with particular reference to its impact upon the men who have to fight it on the ground" and "the passionate theme of the whole drama is cried out in a dead man's words toward the end: 'War is too horrible for human beings!'" and "Psychoses of fear and hate are mingled dramatically among the men, and their distaste for taking prisoners becomes a motivating factor in the plot." Canham, 1974, p. 99: "the film is marred by concessions to sentimentality, such as the reading of the Lord's Prayer by Karl Malden before the final battle."
190. 190.Millichap, 1981, p. 169: "Milestone dismisses the film as a potboiler" and Milestone: "'It was really just a job, not a true opportunity to state my personal beliefs about war ... I was collecting some money I needed very badly.'"
191. 191.Canham, 1974, p. 99: "Flashbacks fill in the civilian lives and problems of the characters, and are quite well integrated." Millichap, 1981, p. 170: "For the most part the characters are complex and believable, not the cardboard cutouts of similar films." and pp. 171–172: "there are many interesting correspondences with All Quiet on the Western Front" and "the ploy also resembles Milestone's 1930 classic."
192. 192.Millichap, 1981, p. 173: "the final half-hour, the film deteriorates into a rather standard adventure movie."
193. 193.Whitely, 2020: "After Halls of Montezuma (1950) Milestone's movie career began to trail off and he never again reached his earlier heights .... After Halls of Montezuma he did no work for a year" and "In the postwar period his career was undoubtedly affected by the McCarthy Communist witch-hunts. In 1949, he was blacklisted for his left wing associations of the 1930s. Millichap, 1981, pp. 168–169: "Halls of Montezuma is one of Milestone's most underrated efforts. The movie is rarely discussed, and when it is mentioned at all, it serves critics as an example of either the declining powers or the commercial co-option of the director during the 1950s."
194. 194.Whitely, 2020: In the early 1950s he made "several low budget failures, such as 'They Who Dare' in 1954."
195. 195.Millichap, 1981, p. 175: "the director's development paralleled Hollywood history as he tried his hand at television, foreign productions and earlier [film] classics. None of these films really require close analysis."
196. 196.Canham, 1974, p. 99: "the ploy resembled a routine Western format." Crowther, 1952 NYT: "antipodal", quoted in Millichap, 1981, p. 176
197. 197.Canham, 1974, p. 100: "Milestone's handling of the material was interesting to the extent of carrying sound and lack of dialogue to extremes, but the standard of playing was below par."
198. 198.Millichap, 1981, p. 176: See here for camerawork, comparisons to John Ford and Howard Hawks depictions of the American West. And Burdened with a "hapless plot" Kangaroo "proves to be only another [of Milestone's] interesting failures." Higham, 1974, pp. 130–131: "first rate action scenes [including] a cattle stampede [that emulates] Harry Watt's The Overlanders [and] "once again demonstrated that, as a master of natural environments, Milestone was second to none."
199. 199.Vagg, Stephen. Wrecking Australian Stories: Kangaroo. Filmink. 20 February 2025.
200. 200.Canham, 1974, p. 100: "Fox loaded his next film [Les Misérables] with contract players, but Milestone was dealing with an indifferent script ... lavish sets and model work helped capture the feeling of the piece."
201. 201.Millichap, 1981, pp. 176–177: "Casting does not aid Milestone's effort" and see p. 176 for "cliche-ridden" comment.
202. 202.Millichap, 1981, pp. 176–177: See p. 177 for quote And p. 176: "The final print bears every evidence of this attitude."
203. 203.Silver, 2010: "many of his later films tend to be forgettable." Millichap, 1981, p. 175 Whitely, 2020: Milestone's "career decline" in the 1950s.
204. 204.Canham, 1974, p. 70: Excerpt quoted by Canham. And p. 104: Milestone once known for "his superlative craftsmanship [which had] earned his a place in film history" and "established professionals who had become more or less house directors at various studios suddenly [found themselves displaced] by new directors from television." Higham and Greenberg, 1968, pp. 17–18: "something vital seemed to be ebbing away ever more swiftly from the films of Hollywood, a process accelerating in the early Fifties and reaching a climax with CinemaScope. The Forties may now be seen as the apotheosis of the U.S. feature film, its last great show of confidence before it virtually succumbed artistically to the paralyzing effects of bigger and bigger screens, [and] the collapse of the star system."
205. 205.Millichap, 1981, p. 175
206. 206.Canham, 1974, pp. 69–70: "The later half of the Fifties proved to be a key era in the history of Hollywood. It was a significant turning point in that it marked the end of the 'golden years of Hollywood; the gigantic star factory ... had begun to crumble at the beginning of the decade under pressure from the spreading popularity of television,[as well as] the hysterical the publicity that arose from the investigation into Hollywood folk by the House Un-American Activities Committee [which] stopped many careers dead, and sent other into exile of "ghost" work. The studios began to tighten the purse strings ... [and the industry resorted to] gimmicks and technical modification such as 3-D, CinemaScope, and Cinerama." Gow, 1971, p. 10: "The McCarthy method were so bulldozing ... the many were unfairly victimized .... And Hollywood, long accustomed to ... accumulating wealth with practiced ease, was suddenly battered in the Fifties by challenges to its security. Among these challenges, the greatest by far was television ... to compete with television, the obvious move was to offer in cinema an experience unavailable in the rival medium ... Color [and] CinemaScope."
207. 207.Canham, 1974, p. 177: See Canham's film summaries in the Filmography section.
208. 208.Canham, 1974, pp. 101–102: "Melba was an ill-fated attempt to cash in on the success of the recently filmed biography of Gilbert and Sullivan. Sam Spiegel produced the film for Milestone, but in spite of the presence of Patrice Munsel as Dame Nellie Melba, it turned out to be a disastrous flop."
209. 209.Millichap, 1981, p. 177: "the [Munsel] vehicle turned out to be another Hollywood travesty ... [Milestone's] ersatz biography."
210. 210.Millichap, 1981, p. 177
211. 211.Canham, 1974, p. 101: "Milestone had little success with the two films he had made in England" and "failure at the box office [with Melba and They Who Dare] was not a good omen for an established director, especially in the Fifties."
212. 212.Whitely, 2020: Milestone make "several low budget failures, such as They Who Dare in 1954" Whitely, 2020: "After several low budget failures, such as 'They Who Dare' in 1954, Milestone directed major Hollywood names in his last three movies"
213. 213.Canham, 1974, p. 103: "an Italian/American co-production starring Patricia Roc" and p. 117: "A high-powered romantic melodrama, filmed in Italy with an international cast."
214. 214.Millichap, 1981, p. 178: "a joint British-Italian venture" and "soap opera-ish" and "The triangle and its consequences are predictable, and Milestone's part in the proceedings seems simply to record the inevitable tragedy on film."
215. 215.Millichap, 1981, p. 178: "might well rank with A Walk in the Sun" and p. 179: "perhaps recalls the antiwar attitudes in All Quiet on the Western Front."
216. 216.McGee, 2003 TCM: "He would later turn his attention to the spectacle of war and the cohesiveness of men in battle in both A Walk in the Sun (1945) and Pork Chop Hill, which form an informal war trilogy with All Quiet on the Western Front."
217. 217.Millichap, 1981, p. 179
218. 218.Millichap, 1981, p. 179: "The general staff feels they must respond to this challenge or lose ground at the truce table."
219. 219.Canham, 1974, p. 117 McGee, 2003: "It takes place during the final hours of peace negotiations between Korea and the U.S. and recounts the capture of Pork Chop Hill by American troops, an action ordered only to demonstrate to Communist negotiators that the U.S. would continue to fight if an agreement was not reached." Millichap, 1981, p. 179: "Pork Chop Hill perhaps recalls the antiwar attitudes of [Milestone's] All Quiet on the Western Front more fully than any of his World War II movies."
220. 220.Millichap, 1981, p. 180: "Peck's voice-over at the film's conclusion the iconic battles, whereas Milestone had lacked this dimension, referring only to the troops: "the men who fought here know what they did and the meaning of it."
221. 221.Canham, 1974, p. 103: "Gregory Peck ... played a major role in the production of the film."
222. 222.McGee, 2003 TCM: "The release version of Pork Chop Hill differed from Milestone's original conception. The film originally was to cut between the peace talks and the action of holding the hill but that idea was scrapped."
223. 223.Millichap, 1981, p. 179: "Milestone seems to say that the lesson of Pork Chop Hill was the futility of war ... However, the changes made to the director's version [by the studio] weaken the harsh irony of this message."
224. 224.Millichap, 1981, p. 178: "Peck was one of the movie's [financial] backers and thus exercised a great deal of control over the production ... it seems that Peck, more than anyone else interfered with Milestone's artistic vision in Pork Chop Hill."
225. 225.Millichap, 1981 p. 178: "the strongest of Milestone's late films [and] without the studio interference ... make rank well with A Walk in the Sun (1945)."
226. 226.Canham, 1974 pp. 103–104: "the released version differed from Milestone's original conception ... he had intended to include much more cross-cutting between the [battlefield] action of holding the hill and peace talks that were going on as the action played out ... [and] about men fighting blindly for objectives without being aware of the point of their actions or the strategy that lay behind it, but he was not able to have his own way."
227. 227.Millichap, 1981, p. 180: Millichap's footnote for this remark cites a 1959 interview with "Dale Mackey", publication undisclosed.
228. 228.McGee, 2003 TCM: "Told with a hard-nosed style of harsh realism and fluid action, the film stars Gregory Peck and a bevy of up-and-coming actors, such as George Peppard, Martin Landau, Rip Torn, Harry Guardino, Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Blake, and Woody Strode".
229. 229.Millichap, 1981, p. 179: The company of men "represent the various types found in American war films ... Harry Guardino, George Shibata, James Edwards, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, George Peppard, and Robert Blake in his first adult role."
230. 230.Millichap, 1981, p. 180: "The plot involves a gang of old army buddies out to heist the biggest casinos in Las Vegas ... perhaps Warner Brothers felt that Milestone could orchestrate both the military[-like] operation of the plot and the comic turns of the cast." Safford, 2008 TCM: "One of the first in a series of heist movies in the sixties, Ocean's Eleven (1960) ... audiences are treated to a glimpse of Sinatra and his favored cronies [The Rat Pack]." Walsh, 2001: "Sinatra had been a member of the Committee for the First Amendment, founded to oppose the HUAC attacks on Communists in Hollywood. Safford, 2008 TCM: "Lewis Milestone, the veteran director whose most famous film remains the anti-war saga, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), seemed an unlikely choice to direct Ocean's 11. But his career had suffered during the communist purge of Hollywood due to Senator Joe McCarthy's influence in the fifties, and Milestone needed the work."
231. 231.Millichap, 1981, pp. 180–181: "Given what he had to work with- a preposterous screenplay by Harry Brown and Charles Lederer-and a cast including Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and Buddy Lester- he did a fair job."
232. 232.Millichap, 1981, p. "The movie never quite decides if it is being played straight or as a spoof, if it is an amoral satire of American values or a silly television variety show," and "preposterous" also here. Silver, 2010: "A career 'climaxing' with the Rat Pack's version of Ocean's 11 ... doesn't lend much to the argument that Milestone had a coherent worldview." Canham, 1974, p. 103: "a pedestrian comedy-thriller [and not as impressive] as Henry Hathaway's Seven Thieves (1960), which was released at the beginning of the year."
233. 233.Millichap, 1981, p. 181: "As entertainment, the movie made money, but it proves completely forgettable as a film." Walsh, 2001: "How much director Lewis Milestone had his heart in it is questionable." Silver, 2010: "A career 'climaxing' with the Rat Pack's version of Ocean's 11 ... doesn't lend much to the argument that Milestone had a coherent worldview." Canham, 1974, p. 105: "Milestone's experience with Ocean's Eleven was not the first time his career was affected by a poor decision on timing and distribution."
234. 234.Walsh, 2001
235. 235.Millichap, 1981, p. 181: By the end of the Fifties, Hollywood had decided it could only lure audiences away from television set with 'Big Name Stars' and 'Spectacular Productions.'" and "ill-starred" and p. 182; The film "proved a financial disaster, recouping less than half of its costs of $20 million plus." Miller, 2010 TCM: "unable to film due to weather ... as much as 17 inches [of rain] in one day ... Carol Reed began to clash with Brando and MGM studio management early in the production [over] interpretation [of characters]." Canham, 1974, p. 103: Canham calls the Milestone's Mutiny on the Bounty "this fiasco."
236. 236.Millichap, 1981, p. 182: "Reed quickly and sensibly abandoned ship". Milestone's reputation as a "film doctor", skilled at salvaging troublesome movies, may have earned him the job offer. And Milestone, "careful craftsman and hard taskmaster to [control] the mercurial Brando." Brando "chafed" under the direction of Reed. And pp. 181–182: "Milestone expected to find the film near completion but instead discovered only a few usable scenes."
237. 237.Miller, 2010 TCM: See article for Milestone's disengagement from his directing duties.
238. 238.Millichap, 1981, p. 183: "Milestone deserves his share of the blame for [the film's] ultimate failure. However, Brando is more culpable than the ageing director, as he became the actual auteur" and "the project never coheres into a film." Canham, 1974, p. 103: "The last film which bears Milestone's name as the director is the re-make of Mutiny on the Bounty is hardly representative of his work since the final film is reputed to contain scenes shot by George Seaton, Richard Thorpe, Andrew Marton, Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann and Marlon Brando among others" and a "fiasco." Whitely, 2020: The shoot was " not a happy experience as Milestone found himself more and more out of touch with the big egos he was directing. In 1962, Brando practically took over the directing duties from him." Barson, 2020: "Milestone's last film was the epic Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), which he took over from Carol Reed. A lavish remake of the 1935 film version ... Milestone's movie featured a polarizing performance by Marlon Brando as Fletcher Christian."
239. 239.Canham, 1974, p. 103
240. 240.Millichap, 1981, p. 191: During the late Fifties "Hollywood was reeling from the collapse of the studio system" and "it would be five years before Milestone made another feature film, Pork Chop Hill (1959)."
241. 241.Canham, 1974, p. 103: After making The Widow "Milestone turned to television for several years, working on a number of series including Have Gun Will Travel ... but he was tempted back [to Hollywood] at the end of the decade to direct Pork Chop Hill."
242. 242.Millichap, 1981, p. 178
243. 243.Whitely, 2020: "As movie work dried up, Milestone reluctantly took on some television direction, which he did not enjoy, starting in 1958 with 'Schlitz Playhouse' and continuing with 'Have Gun-Will Travel' in the same year and ending with 'Arrest and Trial' in 1963." Canham, 1974, pp. 118–119: See here for a short list on "unrealized projects" and "Kane-like" projects. Millichap, 1981, p. 178: See here for episodes directed by Milestone. And "Milestone ... characterized television direction ... as a form of wage slavery" in an interview with Higham and Greenberg (1969), see footnote.
244. 244.Millichap, 1981, p. 186: "controversial nature of the [film] project ... [President] Kennedy would have run for reelection in 1964" and Jack Warner complained that "satisfactory progress was not being made" under Milestone's direction. Barson, 2020: "Milestone began work on two more films, he was replaced on both productions: PT 109 (1963), a film about John F. Kennedy's wartime heroism in the Pacific."
245. 245.Millichap, 1981, p. 186
246. 246.Canham, 1974, p. 119 Millichap, 1981, p. 186
247. 247.Preserved Projects. Academy Film Archive.
248. 248.Millichap, 1981, p. 82: "In 1935, [Milestone] married Kendall Lee Glaezner." and p. 186: "In 1978, [Milestone] was shocked by the death of his wife."
249. 249.Millichap, 1981, p. 186: "Health problems plagued Milestone in later years ... one personal project was an uncompleted autobiography, tentatively entitled Milestones" and p. 186: "After a succession of illnesses Lewis Milestone died on September 25, 1980, at the UCLA Medical Center, five days before his eighty-fifth birthday." Whitely, 2020: "In 1963 he was scheduled to direct 'PT 109' ... he was replaced after suffering a stroke. He was forced into retirement by his ill health and spent the last decade of his life confined to a wheelchair."
250. 250.Hunter, Stephen. 'Western Front,' As Good As Old. Washington Post. July 23, 1999.
251. 251.King, Susan. All's Well With 'All Quiet'. Los Angeles Times. May 31, 1998.
252. 252.Millichap, 1981, p. 189
253. 253.Millichap 1981, pp. 189–190 Baxter, 1970, pp. 132–133: "All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) [noted for] the battle scenes, with their endless tracking shots and artfully designed soundtracks."
254. 254.Baxter, 1970, p. 132 "Neither a consistent, nor a commercial director, he nevertheless began his Thirties career on a high point, with one of the acknowledged classics of the American cinema [All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)]" and p. 133: "Unfortunately, Milestone did not live up to the promise of his first major films" Silver, 2010: "Like his fellow Russian émigré Rouben Mamoulian, however, Milestone's early promise was never truly fulfilled." Koszarski, 1976, p. 317: "By the late 30s, the innovative flair that had marked his earlier work had dampened."
255. 255.Canham, 1974, pp. 104–105
256. 256.Millichap, 1981, p. 144: "Milestone always needed a strong literary vehicle to create a successful film." Barson, 2020: "An avid reader of literature, [Milestone] was especially known for his realistic dramas, many of which were literary adaptations." Canham, 1974, p. 81: "above all, it was the technique of Milestone's film that rightly led to his fame. The [camera] movement became the message."
257. 257.Millichap, 1981, p. 189: "The technical expertise he acquired from years of editing evolved into an eclectic cinema style which enlivened even his dullest efforts and made possible the artistry of his classic works." Canham, 1974, p. 71: "[Milestone] has perhaps overused the lateral tracking shot."
258. 258.Walsh, 2001 Hoberman, 2014: Walsh and Hoberman forms a composite quote from Sarris in his American Cinema (1968). Silver, 2010: "Andrew Sarris had it right when he said that Milestone 'is almost the classic example of the uncommitted director.'" Millichap, 1981 Preface: "Milestone was somewhat overpraised in the early stages of his career, and a corresponding critical reaction set in during his later years ... the negative judgements of Andrew Sarris set the tone."
259. 259.Canham, 1974, p. 71
260. 260.Millichap, 1981 pp. 189–190 And:from author's Preface: "Milestone's ... uneven body of work that defies easy categorization, analysis or evaluation." and Millichap, 1981 Editor's Foreword (Warren French), re: "was notably uneven" passage.
261. 261.Koszarski, 1976, p. 317
262. 262.Koszarski, 1976, p. 317: Note that Koszarsk's analogy is based on an essay, "The Reign of the Director", carried in New Theatre and Film, March 1937, by Lewis Milestone, reprinted in the 1976 book. Milestone's theme concerns the decline of the artistic, independent, and autonomous director (e.g., D. W. Griffith, James Cruze, and Erich von Stroheim) and the rise of the Hollywood studio system. The saplings bend to the studio "storm"; the oaks resist and are uprooted.

• reference work

  Wikidata, structured authority record Q285928: Lewis Milestone

  Wikidata

  ◑Secondary witness

• reference work

  “Lewis Milestone”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading

  Wikipedia

  ◑Secondary witness