All Quiet on the Western Front

A horrible instance of international packaging (past-master Lew Grade naturally got a finger in the pie) that has all the excitement of a financial balance sheet. Remarque's classic novel resists the attempts, signposted by the American presence of Thomas and Borgnine in the World War I German trenches, to make it 'relevant' to post-Vietnam. The desperate substitution of a twittering bird for the famous butterfly at the climax marks the extent to which the 1930 version remains a Milestone around director Delbert Mann's neck. Originally shown on American TV in three segments -- though made as a feature film - it was cut by almost half-an-hour for release in Britain.