All Quiet on the Western Front

Laemmle adored this, and with hard work and dedication, he eventually co-founded Universal Pictures.

During his tenure there, he produced many classics such as All Quiet on the Western Front and a lot of silent films.

But with the talkie coming in vogue and Carl getting older, it would soon be up to his son, Carl Laemmle Jr., to take the reins.

And this he did in 1928.

By the time Universal was up to scratch on the sound front, Jr. had cut his teeth on producing a few dozen movies.

Determined to see Universal back at the top, he sank his efforts into producing an epic adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.

[upbeat music] He poured $1.2 million of the Laemmle fortune into the film, and the result was a staggering success.

It took $3 million at the box office and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture, an achievement that Universal Studios wouldn't repeat until 1973.

A decade previously, he'd been one of the journalists who covered the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb.

Karloff was instantly announced as the movie's star, and Jack Pierce was given the job of creating an authentic makeup, a task he threw himself into straight away.

As director, Laemmle selected Karl Freund, who had up until now been Universal's star cinematographer, having photographed All Quiet on the Western Front, Dracula, and Murders in the Rue Morgue, as well as Fritz Lang's Metropolis in 1927.

Although he directed short films, this was to be his first feature length film.

Um-

The only good movie was All Quiet on the Western Front.

The rest of them, I think, go home.

[laughs]

Local residents reportedly earned $5 a day working as extras.

Newport Beach again appeared in the 1930 film All Quiet on the Western Front, which used portions of Corona del Mar and the Back Bay to recreate scenes from the First World War.

The transformation was incredible.

A California coastal community could become ancient Egypt, a European battlefield, you name it.

Then we did, what, Broadway Melody of '29.

We did, um, All Quiet on the Western Front.

The next episode's gonna come out soon.

That was on the movie Cimarron.

Oh, oh my gosh.

Uh, Lewis Milestone is the director of All Quiet on the Western Front-

Yeah, now that you say it

... who wins this year.

Mm-hmm

... uh, and then won an Oscar for All Quiet on the Western Front.

Um, even though they were like, "This is a nepo baby kid," uh, he, he really was putting out some pretty good movies, and as far as the monsters canon goes, hit it out of the park, out of the gate with Dracula.

Yeah, from 1931, which it turned out to be a really big year for monster movies.