Product Code Database
Lewis Milestone (born Leib Milstein; ; September 30, 1895 – September 25, 1980) was a Russian-American filmmaker. Milestone directed Two Arabian Knights (1927) and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), both of which received the Academy Award for Best Director. He also directed The Front Page (1931), The General Died at Dawn (1936), Of Mice and Men (1939), Ocean's 11 (1960), and received the directing credit for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), though Marlon Brando largely appropriated his responsibilities during its production.
After neglecting his classes to attend local theater productions, Milstein failed his coursework. He was intent on pursuing a theatrical career and bought a one-way ticket to the United States. Milstein arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey, on November 14, 1913, shortly after his eighteenth birthday.Robinson, 1970 p. 141: "after commercial studies in Europe reached America, apparently as an illegal immigrant, just before the First World War."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.Millichap, 1981 pp. 26–27: See section The Director's Early Life And p. 27: ".free of family restrictions in, he felt he might realize his dream of a theatrical career."
Milstein, who found difficulty supporting himself in New York City, worked as a janitor, door-to-door salesman and lace-machine operator before finding a position as portrait-and-theater photographer in 1915. In 1917, shortly after the US entered World War I, he enlisted in the Army Signal Corps. Milstein was stationed in New York City and Washington, D.C., and was assigned to the corps' photography unit, where he trained in aerial photography, assisted on training films and edited documentary combat footage. His cohorts in the Signal Corps included future Hollywood directors Josef von Sternberg and Victor Fleming.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 as a photographer's assistant... more to his liking... then 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 training films... also edited combat footage" and Sternberg and Fleming mentioned.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, which would prove invaluable in the years to come." In February 1919, Milstein was discharged from the army, immediately obtained US citizenship, and legally changed his surname to Milestone. An acquaintance from the Signal Corps Jesse D. Hampton, now an independent film producer, secured Milestone an entry-level position as an assistant editor in Hollywood.Millichap, 1981 pp. 27–28: Upon discharge from the Army in 1919 "Milestone became a US citizen and changed his name from 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."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"
Milestone accepted mundane assignments from Hampton at $20 per week, and progressed from assistant editor toward director. In 1920 he was chosen as general assistant to director Henry King at Pathé Exchange. Milestone's first credited work was as assistant on King's film Dice of Destiny (1920).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 1920Canham, 1974 p. 72: Began work as "a cutter"And "promoted to the role of general assistant" for Henry King.Barson, 2020: "He launched his Hollywood career in 1920, working for Henry King."
During the next six years, Milestone "took on jobs in any capacity available" in the Hollywood film industry, working as editor for director-producer Thomas Ince, as general assistant and co-author on film scripts by William A. Seiter and as a gag writer for comedian Harold Lloyd. In 1923, Milestone followed Seiter to Warner Brothers studios as assistant director on Little Church Around the Corner (1923), completing most of the film-making tasks on the production.Millichap, 1981 p. 28Canham, 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." Milestone's reputation as an effective "film doctor" who was skilled at salvaging movies led Warner to began offering Milestone's services to other studios at inflated rates.Millichap, 1981 pp. 28–29: "Warners often lent out the young editor to other studios at several times his salary".
Seven Sinners is one of three films Milestone directed with Marie Prevost, Mack Sennett and a former female comedian. Jack Warner appointed Darryl F. Zanuck as screenwriter. The film is a "semi-sophisticated" comedy incorporating elements of slapstick, and was sufficiently successful with critics and the public to allow Milestone, now 29 years old, additional directing assignments.Canham, 1974 p. 72: " ... he was given a chance to direct a Marie Prevost vehicle, Seven Sinners (1925)."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."
Milestone's second Prevost comedy was The Caveman (1926), which quickly earned him praise for its "adroit direction". During production, Milestone broke his contract with the studio over his exploitation as a "film doctor": Warners sued for damages and won, forcing Milestone to file for bankruptcy. The Caveman was his last film for Warner Bros. until Edge of Darkness (1943). Undeterred, Paramount Pictures quickly acquired Milestone.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."
The New Klondike (1926), a sports-themed drama based on a Ring Lardner story, was filmed on location in Florida. Despite a "lukewarm" response from critics, Paramount was enthusiastic regarding Milestone's prospects, showcasing him with other young studio talent in the promotional film Fascinating Youth (1926). An argument with screen star Gloria Swanson on the set of Fine Manners (1926) led Milestone to walk off the project, leaving director Richard Rosson to complete it.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."
Two Arabian Knights (1927), which is considered Milestones most outstanding work during the silent era, was inspired by the Maxwell Anderson–Stallings stage play What Price Glory? (1924), and director Raoul Walsh's 1924 screen adaptation of it. It was the first film in a four-year contract with Howard Hughes' The Caddo Company and is Milestone's only film of 1927. The film garnered Milestone an Academy Award for best comedy direction in 1927, prevailing over Charlie Chaplin's The Circus (1928). During World War I, William Boyd and Louis Wolheim, and love-object Mary Astor form a comic triangle.Canham, 1974 p. 73: "He made only one film during 1927, but it proved to be his most important silent work Two" and "He left Warners after the Prevost pictures, working under several banners over the next few years among 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."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"
The Garden of Eden (1928) was made under a Caddo releasing agreement with Universal Pictures. The film is "a variation on the Cinderella story... of acidic sophistication", and was adapted by screenwriter Hans Kraly; it resembles, in both script and visual production, the works of Ernst Lubitsch. The project benefited from the lavish sets William Cameron Menzies designed and the cinematography of John Arnold. The film stars Corinne Griffith.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."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." Milestone's cinematic rendering of Two Arabian Knights and The Garden of Eden established him as a skilled practitioner of "rough and sophisticated" comedy.Millichap, 1981 p. 32
Milestone was wary of being stereotyped as a comedy director, and he shifted to an emerging genre director Josef von Sternberg popularized with his gangland fantasy Underworld (1927).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)." The Racket, a "taut and realistic" depiction of a mobster-controlled police department, distinguished Milestone as a capable director of the genre but its reception was lessened by a flood of inferior gangster films in the late 1920s. The Racket was nominated for Best Picture at the 1928 Academy Awards.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.
All Quiet on the Western Front presents the war from the perspective of a unit of patriotic, young, German soldiers who become disillusioned with the horrors of trench warfare. Actor Lew Ayres portrays the naïve, sensitive youth Paul Baumer. According to Thompson (2015), Milestone—who was uncredited—together with screenwriters Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews and George Abbott, wrote a script that "reproduces the terse, tough dialogue" of Remarque's novel to "expose war for what it is, and not glorify it".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." Originally conceived as a silent film, Milestone filmed both a silent and a talkie version, shooting them together in sequence.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."
The most significant technical innovation of All Quiet on the Western Front is Milestone's integration of the era's rudimentary sound technology with the advanced visual effects developed during the late silent era. Applying post-synchronization of the sound recordings, Milestone was at liberty to "shoot the way we've always shot... it was that simple. All the tracking shots were done with a silent camera". In one of the film's most-disturbing sequences, Milestone used tracking shots and sound effects to graphically show the effects of artillery and machine guns on advancing troops.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."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.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."
The movie met with critical and popular approval, it won Academy Award for Best Picture and earned Milestone Academy Award for Best Director.Silver, 2010: "In addition to Milestone's directing Oscar, it won for Best Picture was nominated for screenplay and cinematography.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." All Quiet on the Western Front established Milestone as a talent in the film industry; Howard Hughes rewarded him with an adaptation of Ben Hecht's and Charles MacArthur's 1928 play The Front Page.Canham, 1974 p. 82: "The high quality of Milestone's directorial abilities after had opened up a broad spectrum of opportunity for him, but the pitfalls of fame and the studio system were not to be forgotten."
Milestone was disappointed with the casting of Pat O'Brien as reporter "Hildy" Johnson; he wanted to cast James Cagney or Clark Gable in the role but producer Howard Hughes vetoed this choice in favor of O'Brien, who had performed in the Chicago stage production of The Front Page.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 Pat O'Brien was too clean-cut and sincere for 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"
According to Biographer Charles Higham (1973), " The Front Page surpasses All Quiet on the Western Front in being wholly a masterpiece, and one of the greatest pictures of the period. Milestone achieved a perfect marriage of film and theater. The picture has a vividness not matched in a newspaper subject until Citizen Kane"Higham, 1973 p. 127
According to Joseph Millichap:
Milestone's technique is demonstrated in the opening tracking shots of the newspaper's printing plant, and the confrontation between Molly Malloy (Mae Clarke) and a throng of reporters.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."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." The Front Page received a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards and a Film Daily poll of 300 movie critics listed Milestone among "The Ten Best Directors".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."
In the mid-1930s, Paramount Pictures was experiencing a financial crisis that inhibited their commitments to their European film stylists such as Josef von Sternberg, Ernst Lubitsch and Milestone.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." Under these conditions, Milestone experienced difficulty in locating compelling literary material, production support and proper casting. The first among these films is Rain (1932).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."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."Baxter, 1971 p. 135: Regarding Paramount finances, bankruptcy.
Allied Artists assigned Milestone rising star Joan Crawford, who was known for her silent film roles as a flapper, to play prostitute Sadie Thompson. Crawford expressed disappointment with her interpretation of the role.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... viewed today, Crawford's interpretation generates considerable power... it seems hard to discover a screen actress who could have done better with the role."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." Milestone was not yet affected by the Hays Code, and his portrayal of the overwrought Puritan missionary Reverend Davidson (Walter Huston); his rape of Thompson blends violence with sexual and religious symbolism using swift cutting.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.
The film was termed "slow and stage-bound"Canham, 1974 p. 84: "The resulting film was slow and stage-bound, enlivened only by the fervor of Walter Houston's bigot." and "stiff and stagey".Baxter, 1970 p. 133: Rain (1932) with Joan Crawford as Sadie Thomson and Walter Houston as the minister, was stiff and stagey." Milestone said of Rain:
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933), which was released during the Great Depression, was an attempt by United Artists to reintroduce singer Al Jolson after his three-year hiatus from film roles.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." The film is based on a Ben Hecht story, with a score by Rodgers and Hart featuring "rhythmic dialogue" delivered in song-song; its sentimental, romantic theme of a New York City tramp was received with indifference and dismay by moviegoers.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. Film historian Joseph Millichap observed that "the problem of this entertainment fantasy was that it brushed aside just enough reality to confuse its audience. Americans in the winter of 1933 were not in the mood to be advised that the life of a hobo was the road to true happiness, especially by a star earning $25,000 a week."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." Milestone's effort to make a "socially conscious" musical was generally ill-received at its New York opening and he had difficulty finding a more serious film project.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 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."
Milestone attempted to make a film about the Russian Revolution (working title: Red Square) based on Stalinist Ilya Ehrenburg's work The Life and Death of Nikolai Kourbov (1923), and an adaptation of H. G. Wells's The Shape of Things to Come (1933) proposed by Alexander Korda, but neither project materialized.Millichap, 1981 p. 79Canham, 1974 p. 85 In lieu of these unrealized films, Milestone directed "a string of three insignificant studio pieces" from 1934 to 1936.Millichap, 1981 p. 82
Milestone accepted a lucrative deal to direct a film starring John Gilbert and left United Artists for Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures.Millichap, 1981 pp. 79–80: "promised 50% of the profits" The Captain Hates the Sea (1934) is a spoof of the 1932 movie Grand Hotel, which stars Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore. Milestone's largely improvised film stars an ensemble of Columbia's character actors, among them Victor McLaglen and The Three Stooges. Joseph Millichap described The Captain Hates the Sea as "a very uneven, disconnected, rambling piece". Cost overruns on The Captain Hates the Sea, which were complicated by heavy drinking by the cast members—soured relations between Milestone and Cohen. The movie is notable as the final film of Gilbert's career.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 ship-board 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."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)
Milestone's next two films for Paramount Paris in Spring (1935) and Anything Goes (1936), are his only musicals of his career, but are relatively undistinguished in their execution. Milestone described them as "insignificant".Millichap, 1981 p. 81: "His first two efforts in for Paramount were musical Programmers... might have shot by almost anyone in the studio." p. 82: "his only work in the genre" Milestone was assigned Paris in Spring, a romantic musical farce. Leading man Tullio Carminati had just completed the operetta-like One Night of Love (1934) with Grace Moore at Columbia Studios. Paramount paired Mary Ellis with Carminati, and it was Milestone's task to direct a film to rival Columbia's success.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."Millichap, 1981 p. 81: "Paramount was using Mary Ellis... in the same type of role" as Grace Moore. Aside from a credible replica of Paris created by art directors Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté, Milestone's directing failed to overcome "the essential flatness of the tale".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"Baxter, 1970 p. 134: "Paris in Spring and Anything Goes were innocuous"Canham, 1974 p. 85: "Paris in Spring... did little for Milestone" Anything Goes, a musical starring Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman, and adapted from Cole Porter's 1934 Anything Goes, includes some enduring songs, including "I Get a Kick Out of You", "You're the Top", and the title song. According to Canham, Milestone's directing is conscientious but he showed little enthusiasm for the genre.Canham, 1974 p. 85: " Anything Goes... did little for Milestone"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 might have been created by any studio workhorse."
The screenplay was written by Leftist playwright Clifford Odets and is derived from an obscure pulp magazine-influenced manuscript by Charles G. Booth. It is set in the Far East, and has a sociopolitical theme: the "tension between democracy and authoritarianism".Millichap, 1981 pp. 82–83: Millichap refers to Odets as "Leftist" and the film's "pulpy background" source In the opening few minutes, Milestone establishes the American mercenary O'Hara (Gary Cooper), who has Republicanism commitments.Baxter, 1970 p. 134: Baxter provides a detailed description of the opening Cooper/O'Hara sketch. His adversary is the complex, Chinese warlord General Yang (Akim Tamiroff). Madeleine Carroll is cast as the young missionary Judy Perrie, who is "trapped between divided social forces" and struggles to overcome her diffidence, and ultimately joins O"Hara in supporting a peasant revolt against Yang.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"
Milestone's brings to the adventure-melodrama a "bravura" exposition of his cinematic style and technical skills; an impressive use of tracking, a five-way split screen and a widely noted use of a match dissolve that transitions from a billiard table to a white door handle leading to an adjoining room; it is "one of the most expert match shots on record" according to historian John Baxter.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"
Though disparaged by Milestone in retrospect, The General Died at Dawn is considered one of the "masterpieces" of 1930s Hollywood cinema. Milestone was served by cinematographer Victor Milner, art directors Hans Dreier and Ernst Fegté, and composer Werner Janssen in, according to Baxter (1970), creating "his most exquisite and exciting if not most meaningful examination of social friction in a human context".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."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"
During this period, Milestone pursued a number of serious projects, including direction of a film version of Vincent Sheean's memoir Personal History (1935), which Alfred Hitchcock later directed as Foreign Correspondent (1940), went unfulfilled. Another failed project was a screenplay Milestone and Clifford Odets wrote for an adaptation of the Sidney Kingsley Broadway hit Dead End (1935) for Samuel Goldwyn that went to William Wyler, a director of literary texts, like Milestone.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"Millichap, 1981: from Preface: "like William Wyler, a cinematic interpreter of literary texts."
To remain employed, Milestone accepted Paramount's offer to direct Pat O'Brien in show-business drama The Night of Nights (1939), a "second-line" studio production. According to Millichap (1981), the film's best feature is its sets, which Hans Dreier designed.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."Millichap, 1981 p. "Hans Dreier's sets are the best feature of the film."
After signing a contract with Hal Roach in late 1937 to direct an adaptation of Eric S. Hatch's novel Road Show (1934), the producer dismissed Milestone for straying from the novel's comedic elements. Litigation ensued, and the matter was resolved when Roach presented Milestone with another project: to adapt to film John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men (1937).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.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."
According to Millichap (1981), Milestone maintains the "Narration" detachment Steinbeck applied to his novella with a cinematic viewpoint that matches the author's literary realism.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." Milestone placed great emphasis on visual and sound motifs that develop the characters and themes. As such, he carefully conferred on image motifs with art director Nicolai Remisoff and cameraman Norbert Brodine, and persuaded composer Aaron Copland to provide the musical score.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." Critic Kingley Canham noted the importance Milestone placed on his sound motifs:
The film was a critical success and garnered Copland Academy Award nominations for Best Musical Score and Best Original Score.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).
Milestone, who preferred to cast "relative unknowns"—in this case influenced by budgetary restraints—cast Lon Chaney Jr. to play the childlike Lennie Small and Burgess Meredith as his keeper George Milton. Betty Field, in her first important feature, plays Mae, the faithless spouse of straw boss Curly (Bob Steele).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"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 and both men deliver arguably the best work of their respective careers in the film."
Of Mice and Men was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1939 but competing with the year's other major films, including The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming), Stagecoach (John Ford), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Sam Wood), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra), Wuthering Heights (William Wyler), and the winner, Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming).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."
Despite critical accolades for Of Mice and Men, the tragic narrative that ends in the Euthanasia of the doomed Lennie at the hands of his comrade George was less than gratifying to audiences, and it failed at the box office.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."
Edge of Darkness, a melodramatic film fantasy, is set in a remote Norwegian village whose inhabitants are brutalized by Nazi occupiers, inspiring resistance among the townspeople, who rebel and eliminate the Nazi occupiers. Milestone employs an "anti-suspense" device that shows the carnage suffered by the inhabitants then reveals the story in flashback. Milestone's "thematic oversimplification" reflected Hollywood's penchant for melodramatic propaganda.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"
Hellman's script and Milestone's cinematic compositions establish the bucolic settings and social unity that characterize the collective's inhabitants. Milestone uses a tracking shot to follow the aged comic figure Karp (Walter Brennan) as he rides his cart through the village, a device Milestone used to introduce the film's key characters. An extended sequence portrays the villagers celebrating the harvest with food, song and dance, resembling an ethnic operetta. Milestone used an overhead camera to record the circular symmetry of the happy revelers.Millichap, 1981 pp. 118–119: "lovable old coot Brennan's" 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."Hoberman, 2014: "The peasants were played, without adopting 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"Hoberman, 2014: "its idealization of Soviet life, notably the lengthy village celebration choreographed by the Russian ballet master David Lichine, that suggests the Oklahoma." Milestone displays his "technical mastery" as villagers discern the approach of German bombers. Portions of this sequence resemble documentary war footage, recalling Milestone's work in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) and Joris Ivens The Spanish Earth (1937).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 Joris Ivens's The Spanish Earth"
Canham, 1974 p. 93: "Milestone's professionalism transcends his material"
The North Star received positive reviews from the mainstream press, and only Hearst-owned papers interpreted the film's pro-Russian themes as pro-Communist propaganda. The Academy of Arts and Sciences nominated The North Star for Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Special Effects, Best Musical Score, Best Sound and Best Original Screenplay. The film was largely ignored at the box office.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 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."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"
In the post-war years, Sam Goldwyn's The North Star, Warner Brothers' Mission to Moscow (1943) and M-G-M's Song of Russia (1944) came under scrutiny by the anti-communist House Un-American Activities Committee.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 McCarthyism 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."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."
In 1957, The North Star was reissued as Armored Attack in a heavily edited form; sequences that celebrate life under the Stalinist regime were removed. The setting is represented as Hungary during its 1956 uprising with a voice-over condemning communism.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"
The film is based on a real-life incident. Milestone's technical skill in presenting the airmen's ordeal was potent propaganda but it risked rationalizing the US bombing and anti-Japanese jingoism. The Purple Heart award which the captured men are ultimately bestowed is earned through wounds inflicted by torture to extract military secrets and not through combat.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" According to Millichap (1981), it is a cinematically superior war film; Milestone said of his commitment to supply propaganda for the American war effort: "We didn't hesitate to make this kind of film during the war".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"
According to Millichap (1981), despite these limitations, Milestone avoided the "set hero and mock heroics" typical of Hollywood war movies, allowing for a measure of genuine realism reminiscent of his 1930 masterwork All. Milestone's trademark handling of tracking shots is evident in the action scenes.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''.
Milestone's alignment with liberal causes such as the Committee for the First Amendment compounded suspicions he harbored pro-communist sentiments during the Red Scare. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) summoned Milestone and other filmmakers for questioning. According to Joseph Millichap:
The effect of the Hollywood blacklist on Milestone's creative output is unclear. Unlike many of his colleagues, he continued to find work but, according to film critic Michael Barson, the quantity and quality of his work may have been limited through industry "greylisting". Millichap said, "Milestone refused to comment on this side of his life: evidently he found it very painful".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."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.)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."
Rossen's and Milestone's script provided the cast, which features Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin and Kirk Douglas in his first screen appearance with a "taut, harsh" narrative that critiques post-war, urban America as corrupt and irredeemable.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" Cinematographer Victor Milner supplied the film noir effects and musical director Miklós Rózsa integrated sound motifs with Milestone's visual elements.Millichap, 1981 p. 144: "Victor Milner's cinematography renders the requisite stylistic effects of film noir" and "the sound track 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."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 on inserting a number of pointless close-ups of his latest starlet, Lizabeth Scott, in Milestone's finished director's print. The inserts of stand out like sore thumbs... the rest of the film is as faultless in its visual rhythms as everything Milestone ever did."
Arch of Triumph was highly anticipated by moviegoers, and by Enterprise Productions, which committed huge capital investments to the project.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 saw the adaptation of the best-selling novel as a blockbuster on the scale of Gone with the Wind (1939)." The novel is set in Paris in 1939; Remarque's autobiographical work examines the personal devastation of two displaced persons: surgeon Dr. Ravic (Charles Boyer), who is fleeing Nazis persecution, and the demimonde courtesan Joan Modau (Ingrid Bergman); the pair fall in love and suffer a tragic fate.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
Remarque's depictions of the Paris underworld, which describe a revenge murder and a mercy killing, was at odds with the strictures of the Production Code Administration. Milestone excised "the bars, brothels and operating rooms", and the sordid ending from the screenplay. Enterprise Productions executives, who wanted a film that would rival Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's recently re-released Gone with the Wind (1939), had procured Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman.Millichap, 1981 p. 156: The first problem was that Enterprise "pushed the toward glamorous romance" and "bars, brothels... and conclusion is changed" to conform to Code. The miscasting of screen stars Boyer and Bergman as Dr. Ravic and Joan Madou, respectively, impaired Milestone's development of these characters with respect to the literary source.Millichap, 1981 pp. 155–156: Boyer and Bergman were badly miscast. Boyer, a matinee idol is a refugee doctor, while Bergman... portrayed as international tart about as convincingly as Boyer would have played an All-American fullback." Milestone said:
Milestone delivered a four-hour version of Arch of Triumph Enterprise Productions had approved. Executives reversed that decision shortly before its release, cutting the movie to the more usual two hours. Entire scenes and characters were removed, undermining the clarity and continuity of Milestone's work.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 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." Milestone's overall disaffection for the project is evident in his indifferent application of cinematic technique, contributing to the failure of his film adaptation. According to Millichap (1981):
Millichap added: "Wherever the blame is placed, Arch of Triumph is a clear failure, a bad film made from a good book".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 on a solid literary property"
Arch of Triumph was a failure at the box office and Enterprise Productions took a significant loss. Milestone continued working with the studio, accepting an offer to produce and direct a Dana Andrews and Lilli Palmer comedy, No Minor Vices (1948). Erickson, 2014 TCM:"audiences didn't appreciate the film and it earned back less than a third of its budget."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"Canham, 1974 p. 99 No Minor Vices, a "semi-sophisticated" film that is reminiscent of Milestone's 1941 comedy My Life with Caroline, added little to Milestone's oeuvre.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."Canham, 1974 p. 99: Milestone "continued to work prolifically, turning our a rarely seen comedy, No Minor Vices" After this film, Milestone departed Enterprise.Millichap, 1981 p. 157
Steinbeck served as sole screenwriter on The Red Pony. His novella, composed of four short stories, is "unified only by continuities of character, setting theme".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 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. Identifying a market for the film was a key concern for Republic, which insisted on a movie aimed at young audiences.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 Walt Disney production" In the interests of crafting a sequential, coherent narrative, Steinbeck mostly limited the film adaptation to the stories "The Gift" and "The Leader of the People", omitting some of the novella's harsher episodes. Steinbeck willingly provided a more upbeat ending to the film, an accommodation that according to Millichap (1981), "completely distorts... the thematic thrust of Steinbeck's story sequence".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 in the screenplay... altering the thematic thrust of the story sequence"
Casting for The Red Pony presented for Milestone difficulties developing Steinbeck's characters and themes, which explore a child's "initiation into the realities of adult life".Millichap, 1981 p. 162: "the film quickly loses much of the power promised by the literary source and anticipated in the strong opening sequence." The aging ranch hand Billy Buck is portrayed by the youthful and virile Robert Mitchum, whose character effectively displaces the father Fred Tiflin (Shepperd Strudwick) as male mentor to the nine-year-old Tom Tiflin (Peter Miles). The boy's mother is played by Myrna Loy.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 The Waltons and Joel McCrea's Buffalo Bill."
Barson, 2020: "Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum gave fine performances" According to Millichap, "The major casting problem is the young protagonist. Perhaps no child star could capture the complexity of this role, as it is much easier for an adult to write about sensitive children than for a child to play one."Millichap, 1981 p. 160: "Miles sensitivity often seems rather sugary and his anger at the world is more or less a tantrum."
According to Millichap (1981), Milestone's cinematic effort fails to do justice to the literary source but several of the visual and aural elements are impressive. The opening sequence resembles the prologue of his 1939 adaptation of Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, introducing the natural world that will dominate and inform the characters' lives.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"
The Red Pony is Milestone's first technicolor film; according to Canham (1974), his "graceful visual touch" is enhanced by cameraman Tony Gaudio's painterly renderings of the rural landscape.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 natural, muted tones." According to Barson (2020), composer Aaron Copland's highly regarded film score perhaps surpasses Milestone's visual rendering of Steinbeck's story.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."
The Red Pony provided Enterprise with a satisfactory "prestige" property, generating critical praise and respectable box office returns.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)."
Halls of Montezuma, which was released in January 1951, reflects the Cold War imperatives that informed Hollywood films during the Korean War. The story, which was written by Michael Blankfort with Milestone as uncredited co-screenwriter,Arnold, 2003 TCM: Milestone on taking screenwriting credits: "'I seldom did' he said." concerns an attack by US Marines on a Japanese-held island during World War II, and focuses on the heroic suffering experienced by one patrol in its effort to locate a Japanese rocket-launching bunker.Millichap, 1981 p. 171: "Milestone... worked with Blankfort, and it seems likely Milestone's own brand of liberal realism influenced the work... there are many interesting correspondences with his All Quiet on the Western Front" and "it concerns a Marine landing on a Japanese Pacific island" that resembles the Okinawa attack in 1945 "but it was produced during the Korean War." Milestone's dual themes celebrate both Marine combat heroics, juxtaposed with an examination of psychological damage to the soldiers who participate in the "horrors" of modern warfare, including the torture of enemy combatants.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 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 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." Milestone denied Halls of Montezuma addressed his "personal beliefs" on the nature of war; he agreed to direct the movie as a financial expedient.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'"
Halls of Montezuma recalls some elements of Milestone's 1930 anti-war classic All Quiet on the Western Front. The film's cast, like the earlier film, was selected from relatively unknown actors, their "complex and believable" characterizations revealing the contrasts between hardened veterans and green recruits. The cinematic handling of battle scenes is also reminiscent of the 1930 movie, where Marines deploy from their landing crafts and advance on open terrain under enemy fire.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" Milestone reverts to the formulaic war movie with a standard "Give 'em Hell" climax, accompanied by the strains of the Marine Hymn.Millichap, 1981 p. 173: "the final half-hour, the film deteriorates into a rather standard adventure movie" The film is commonly cited as representing the onset of a purported decline in his talents or his exploitation by the studios.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."
After completing Halls of Montezuma, 20th Century Fox, the studio sent Milestone to Australia to use funds limited to reinvestment in that country. Based on this consideration, Milestone filmed Kangaroo (1952),Whitely, 2020: In the early 1950s he made "several low budget failures, such as 'They Who Dare' in 1954"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" which film critic Bosley Crowther termed an "antipodal Western". According to film critic Joseph Millichap (1981), Milestone struggled with the studio was over "the utterly ridiculous script, a collection of Western clichés transposed from the American plains to the Australian outback".Canham, 1974 p. 99: "the ploy resembled a routine Western format"
Crowther, 1952 NYT: "antipodal", quoted in Millichap, 1981 p. 176 Milestone attempted to evade the poor literary vehicle by concentrating on "the landscape, flora and fauna" of the Australian outback at the expense of dialogue. The Technicolor cinematography by Charles G. Clarke achieved a documentary-like quality, incorporating Milestone's hallmark panning and tracking methods.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."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 interesting failures."
Higham, 1974 pp. 130–131: "first rate action scenes including a cattle stampede that Harry Watt's The Overlanders and "once again demonstrated that, as a master of natural environments, Milestone was second to none". It has been argued that Milestone's changes to the script hurt the film.
For the last of his three pictures at 20th Century Fox, Milestone delivered Les Misérables (1952), a 104-minute version of Victor Hugo's eponymous romance novel (1862). Fox producers provided the project with their contracted actors including Michael Rennie, Debra Paget, Robert Newton and Sylvia Sidney, and lavish production support. According to Canham (1974), the script by Richard Murphy "telescopes all the novel's famous set-pieces into this cliché-ridden" abbreviated adaptation.Canham, 1974 p. 100: "Fox loaded his next film Les with contract players, but Milestone was dealing with an indifferent script... lavish sets and model work helped capture the feeling of the piece"Millichap, 1981 pp. 176–177: "Casting does not aid Milestone's effort" and see p. 176 for "cliche-ridden" comment. In a 1968 interview with film historians Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg, Milestone said of his approach during the filming of Les Miserables,'' "Oh, for Chrissake, it was just a job; I'll do it and get it over with". According to Millichap (1981), "that he did little with Hugo's literary classic... seems to indicate the waning of Milestone's creative energies".Millichap, 1981 pp. 176–177: See p. 177 for quote And p. 176: "The final print bears every evidence of this attitude".
During the last stage of his career, Milestone's films are, according to Joseph Millichap (1981), "less a reprise of the director's earlier achievements than several desperate efforts to keep working. Even more markedly than in his earlier career, Milestone moved frenetically between pictures which varied widely in setting, style and accomplishment."Millichap, 1981 p. 175Canham, 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 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 writer work. The studios began to tighten the purse strings... and gimmicks and technical modification such as 3-D, CinemaScope and Cinerama"
Gow, 1971 p. 10: "the McCarthy method were so bull-dozing... 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"
Melba (1953), which was filmed at Horizon Pictures, is a biopic of Australian coloratura soprano singer Dame Nellie Melba. The film was an effort by producer Sam Spiegel to capitalize on the popularity of contemporaneous film biographies of Enrico Caruso and Gilbert and Sullivan. Metropolitan Opera star Patrice Munsel made her screen debut playing Melba. Aside from Munsel's performance, Milestone was forced to work with a "worthless script" and an "insipid cast", and failed to deliver a compelling rendering of Melba's life. According to Kingsley Canham, Melba "turned out to be a disastrous flop" at the box office.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."Millichap, 1981 p. 177: "the Munsel vehicle turned out to be another Hollywood travesty... Milestone's ersatz biography." Milestone remained in England during 1953 to film They Who Dare, a wartime adventure, for Mayflower Productions–British Lion Films, starring Dirk Bogarde.Millichap, 1981 p. 177 The film is a dramatization of an account of a British-and-Greek commando unit that was assigned to destroy a German airfield on Rhodes. The film is based on a script by Robert Westerby; Milestone delivered an action-packed climax in the final minutes of the film that recalls his early work in this genre but the film had a poor reception from critics and audiences. According to Canham (1974), Milestone's consecutive box-office failures "was not a good omen for an established director, especially in the Fifties".Canham, 1974 p. 101: "Milestone had little success with the two films he had made in England" and "failure at the box office with was not a good omen for an established director, especially in the Fifties"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"
Milestones next movie The Widow (La Vedova) (1955) was filmed in Italy for Ventruini/Express in 1954, and adapted by Milestone from a novel by Susan York. The film is a "soap opera-ish love triangle", and stars Patricia Roc, Massimo Serato and Anna Maria Ferrero. According to Canham (1974), "The triangle and its consequences are predictable, and Milestone's part in the proceedings seems simply to record the inevitable tragedy on film".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."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."
The film's plot involves a strategically pointless assault by a company of U.S. infantrymen to secure and defend a nondescript hill against a much larger Chinese battalion.Millichap, 1981 p. 179: "The general staff feels they must respond to this challenge or lose ground at the truce table." According to Canham (1974), the plot involves "The story of a battle for a strategic point of little military value, but of great moral value, during the last days of the Korean War".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."
Milestone, and actor and financial investor in the project Gregory Peck, who plays company commander Lieutenant Joe Clemons, argued over the presentation of the film's themes. Rather than emphasize the pointlessness of the military operation, Peck favored a more politicized message, equating the taking of Pork Chop Hill as an equivalent to the battles of Bunker Hill and Gettysburg.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."Canham, 1974 p. 103: "Gregory Peck... played a major role in the production of the film" According to McGee (2003) the studio's final edit of the director's cut blunted Milestone message concerning the futility of war, perhaps his most anti-war statement since All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).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."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 weaken the harsh irony of this message." According to Millichap (1981):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."
Milestone distanced himself from the final cut of the film, saying, "Pork Chop Hill became a film I am not proud of... merely one more war movie".Millichap, 1981 p. 180: Millichap's footnote for this remark cites a 1959 interview with "Dale Mackey", publication undisclosed. In addition to Peck, Milestone cast primarily unknown actors as the officers and the rank-and-file characters, among them Woody Strode, Harry Guardino, Robert Blake in his first adult role, George Peppard, Norman Fell, Abel Fernandez, Gavin MacLeod, Harry Dean Stanton, and Clarence Williams III.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".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."
The film's screenplay, which Millichap (1981) called "preposterous", was written by Harry Brown and Charles Lederer.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." Millichap (1981) said Milestone delivered a film that equivocates between a pure satire of American acquisitiveness or its celebration.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 as Henry Hathaway's Seven Thieves (1960) which was released at the beginning of the year." The film was a box-office success but critics have widely dismissed it as unworthy of Milestone's talents.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." According to film critic David Walsh:
In February 1961, the 65-year-old Milestone took over directorial duties from Carol Reed, who became disillusioned with the project due to inadequate scripting, inclement weather on location in Tahiti and disputes with leading man Marlon Brando. Milestone was tasked with bringing good order and discipline to the production, and with curbing Brando. Rather than inheriting a largely completed film, Milestone discovered only a few scenes had been filmed.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."
According to Miller (2010), the production history of the 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty is a record of personal and professional recriminations registered by Milestone and Brando rather than a coherent cinematic endeavor. To assert creative control over his character mutineer Fletcher Christian, Brando collaborated with screenwriters and off the set, independently of Milestone, leading Milestone to withdraw from some scenes and sequences, and effectively relinquish control to Brando.Miller, 2010 TCM: See article for Milestone's disengagement from his directing duties. Millichap refers to the film as "the Brando-Milestone" Mutiny on the Bounty, noting "the story of this Hollywood disaster is long and complex, but the central figure in every sense is Marlon Brando, not Lewis Milestone".Millichap, 1981 p. 183: "Milestone deserves his share of the blame for the 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"
Mutiny on the Bounty is the final completed film for which Milestone was credited but according to Canham (1974), it is not considered representative of Milestone's oeuvre.Canham, 1974 p. 103
In 1957, Milestone directed episodes of television drama series, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents (two episodes), Schlitz Playhouse (two episodes) and Suspicion (one episode). In 1958, Milestone directed actor Richard Boone, who debuted in Milestone's Kangaroo (1952), in two episodes of the television western Have Gun – Will Travel.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 short list on "unrealized projects" and "Kane-like" project
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. Milestone embarked upon the filming of Warner Bros.'s PT 109 (1963), a biography of John F. Kennedy's experiences as a torpedo boat commander in the Pacific War. After several weeks of filming, Jack L. Warner removed Milestone from the project and replaced him with director Leslie H. Martinson, who received the screen credit.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"
Milestone found television productions unappealing but returned to that medium after completing Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), directing one episode of the series Arrest and Trial and one episode of The Richard Boone Show, both in 1963.Millichap, 1981 p. 186 Milestone's final film work was for a multinational joint venture with American International Pictures' La Guea Seno- The Dirty Game (1965), for which he directed one episode before being replaced by Terence Young due to failing health.Canham, 1974 p. 119
Millichap, 1981 p. 186
Several of Milestone's films— Seven Sinners, The Front Page, The Racket, and Two Arabian Knights—were preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016 and 2017.
Milestone experienced declining health in the 1960s and suffered a stroke in 1978, shortly after the death of Kendall Lee, his wife of 43 years.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"
After further illnesses, Milestone died on September 25, 1980, at UCLA Medical Center, five days before his 85th birthday.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." Milestone's final request before he died was for Universal Studios to restore All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) to its original length. The Library of Congress' Motion Picture Division released a fully-restored version of the film in 1998. Milestone is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
At the outset of talking pictures, the 29-year-old Milestone used his skill for an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which is regarded as Milestone's magnum opus and the peak of his career; according to Baxter (1970), Milestone's subsequent work never achieved the same artistic or critical success.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" 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" Biographer Kingsley Canham wrote: "The problem of making a classic film early in a career is that it sets a standard of comparison for all future work that is in some instances unfair".Canham, 1974 pp. 104–105 Milestone's films occasionally exhibit the technical inventiveness and bravura of All Quiet on the Western Front but lack Milestone's commitments to a literary source or screenplay that informed that film.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"
According to Millichap (1981), Milestone's subsequent work in Hollywood includes outstanding and mediocre films that are characterized by their eclecticism but often lack any clear artistic purpose. The most predictable feature may have been an application of his technical talents.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 over-used the lateral tracking shot" Film critic Andrew Sarris said: "Milestone's fluid camera style has always been dissociated from any personal viewpoint. He is almost the classic example of the uncommitted director... his professionalism is as unyielding as it is meaningless."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." Kingsley Canham said, "time and again Milestone's career has been written off because of his lack of commitment or to involvement in his work".Canham, 1974 p. 71 Millichap links Milestone's "profuse, eclectic, and uneven body of work" to the imperatives of the Hollywood film industry, saying:
Film critic and biographer Richard Koszarski considers Milestone "one of the 1930s more independent spirits... but like many of the pioneer directors... his relation to the studio system at the height of its executive powers was not a productive one".Koszarski, 1976 p. 317 Koszarski offers a metaphor Milestone had applied to his own final works: "the latter part of Milestone's career was marked by only sporadic flashes of creativity, a veritable forest of saplings graced by only one or two solitary oaks".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.
| 1927–28 | Academy Award for Best Director (Comedy) | Two Arabian Knights | |
| 1929–30 | Academy Award for Best Director | All Quiet on the Western Front | |
| 1930–31 | Academy Award for Best Director | The Front Page | |
| 1939 | Academy Award for Best Picture | Of Mice and Men | |
Bibliography
|
|
