Dec 30th  
The Road Back**
(US 1937)                       

Surviving German soldiers return from the Front after the Armistice, and find there are still battles to be fought to cope with the peace.
Slanted sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front (under heavy German influence from the Nazi administration at the time) where the Communists are depicted as useless agitators and the previous Weimar Republic are seen as pointless bureaucrats. Moments of thoughtfulness from the original author's intentions occasionally come through, although one comes away from this well made but secretly sinister film with a curious feeling of infiltration throughout the whole project, particularly the abrupt bizarre final ending that contradicts the pacifist tone of most of the rest of the film. Its director's career dramatically stagnated from here on.

Written by: Charles Kenyon, R.C. Sherriff, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque.
Producers: Edmund Grainger, Charles R. Rogers.
Director: James Whale (and others).
Starring: John King, Richard Cromwell, Slim Summerville, Andy Devine, John Emery, Barbara Read, Louise Fazenda, Noah Beery Jnr, Etienne Girardot, Frank Reicher, Spring Byington, Lionel Atwill, Robert Warwick.
Photography: John J. Mescall, George Robinson.
Music: Dmitri Tiomkin.
Editing: Ted J. Kent.