Universal spent a then high $1.25 million on All Quiet on the Western Front and earned $3 million in rentals on its initial release.

Arthur Wesley's 1930 English translation gave the novel its most famous title, All Quiet on the Western Front. The phrase Remarque used, Im Westen nichts Neues, literally means "nothing new in the West," a common phrase in dispatches sent by the German Army. Although Brian Murdoch's 1993 translation renders that phrase more accurately within the text, he retained Wesley's translation of the title, which by that time had become world famous.

Future directors Fred Zinnemann and Robert Parrish have bit parts. Zinnemann was fired for not taking direction.

Universal sold All Quiet on the Western Front with a very simple tagline: "At lastÉthe motion picture!"

Major Frank Pease, head of the Hollywood Technical Directors Institute labeled All Quite on the Western Front anti-military propaganda and tried to have it banned in the U.S. He was joined by the American Legion, which threatened to picket screenings because of the film's sympathetic treatment of the Germans.

The film was banned in Poland on the grounds that it was pro-German, while the Nazis in Germany labeled it anti-German. Joseph Goebbels, later their propaganda minister, led pickets in front of theatres showing the film and sent party members to lead riots inside the theatres. Their tactics included releasing rats in the crowded theatres and setting off stink bombs. Producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. responded that the film had been made to create good will toward Germany and inspire people to keep future wars from happening.

Director Lewis Milestone deliberately had most scenes played without a musical score to reinforce the starkness of the drama. Even in 1930 that was unusual, and several theatre owners added music on their own.

All Quiet on the Western Front was the first film to win a Best Picture Oscar®. Before 1930, the Academy gave two awards for a film as a whole, Best Picture, Production and Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production.

All Quiet on the Western Front was banned in Italy until 1956. It was banned in Australia until 1941, in France from the war years through 1963 and in Austria until 1980.

Famous Quotes from ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

"This is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the warÉ" -- Opening prologue.

"You are the life of the Fatherland! You are the iron men of Germany!" -- Arnold Lucy, as Prof. Kantorek, to his students.

"What is this?"
"Volunteers for the future general's staff."
"Oh, sometime I'm gonna take one of you volunteers apart and find out what makes you leave school and join the army. At ease. This is no parade ground." -- Louis Wolheim, as Katczinsky, asking Slim Summerville, as Tjaden, about the new recruits.

"I'll tell you how it should all be done...Whenever there's a big war comin' on, you should rope off a big field...and on the big day, you should take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals, put 'em in the center dressed in their underpants, and let 'em fight it out with clubs. The best country wins." -- Wolheim, as Katczinsky.

"Me and the Kaiser, we are both fighting. The only difference is the Kaiser isn't here!" -- Summerville, as Tjaden.

"They tell me there's some people in this world take a bath every week." -- Summerville.

"Why did you risk your life bringin' him in?"
"But it's Behn! My friend!"
"He's a corpse -- no matter who it is...Now, don't any of you ever do that again." -- Wolheim, using Ben Alexander, as Kemmerich, as a teaching opportunity.

"What do you want?"
"Beans, you homely-looking son of a frog's leg! What do you think I want?"
"Shut up! I'll feed you when you're all here."
"We're all here now!"
"Only half the company's here. Get the rest! Wake 'em up!"
"I wish I could wake 'em up. There's 80 of us left. The rest is in dressin' stations or pushin' up daisies!" -- William Irving, as Ginger, the Cook, and Wolheim.

"They never taught us really useful things like how to light a cigarette in the wind, or make a fire out of wet wood, or bayonet a man in the belly instead of the ribs where it gets jammed." -- William Bakewell, as Albert Kropp.

"We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed, but sometimes we are. That's all." -- Lew Ayres, as Paul Baumer, explaining war to students at his former school.

"You still think it's beautiful to die for your country? We used to think you knew. The first bombardment taught us better! When it comes to dying for your country, it's better not to die at all!" -- Ayres, as Paul Baumer, confronting Lucy, as Prof. Kantorek, whose patriotic fervor inspired him to enlist.

"I shouldn't have come on leave. Up at the front you're alive or you're dead, and that's all. You can't fool anybody about that very long. And up there we know we're lost and done for whether we're dead or alive. Three years we've had of it, four years! And every day a year, and every night a century! And our bodies are earth, and our thoughts are clay, and we sleep and eat with death! And we're done for because you can't live that way and keep anything inside you! I shouldn't have come on leave. I'll go back tomorrow. I've got four days more, but I can't stand it here!" -- Ayres, as Paul.

"War isn't the way it looks back here." -- Ayres.

Compiled by Frank Miller