Lewis Milestone (born Leib Milstein (Russian: Лейб Мильштейн); September 30, 1895 – September 25, 1980) was a Moldovan- American

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...

. He is known for directing ''

Two Arabian Knights ''Two Arabian Knights'' (1927) is an American comedy film, directed by Lewis Milestone and starring William Boyd, Mary Astor, and Louis Wolheim. A silent film, ''Two Arabian Knights'' was produced by Howard Hughes and was distributed by U ...

'' (1927) and '' All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930), both of which received

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Director. He also directed '' The Front Page'' (1931 – nomination), '' The General Died at Dawn'' (1936), ''

Of Mice and Men ''Of Mice and Men'' is a novella written by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job ...

'' (1939), '' Ocean's 11'' (1960), and received the directing credit for ''

Mutiny on the Bounty The mutiny on the Royal Navy vessel occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and se ...

'' (1962), though Marlon Brando largely appropriated his responsibilities during its production.

Early life

Milestone was born Lev (or Leib) Milstein near the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

port of Odessa, Ukraine, into a wealthy and distinguished family of Jewish heritage. In 1900, when Milestone was five, his father moved his household to the provincial town of Kishinev, capital of

Bessarabia Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of ...

of the

(now Chișinău,

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnist ...

). Milestone's primary education at Jewish schools reflected his parents' liberal social and political orientation, and included a study of several languages. Milestone's early love of theater and his desire to follow the dramatic arts was discouraged by his family, who dispatched their son to

Mittweida Mittweida () is a town in Saxony, Germany, in the Mittelsachsen district. Geography Mittweida is situated on the river Zschopau (river), Zschopau, 18 km north of Chemnitz, and 54 km west of Dresden. Embedded within the steep hills and ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

to study engineering. Neglecting his classes to attend local theater productions, Milestone failed his coursework. Intent on pursuing a theatrical career, he purchased a one-way transatlantic ticket to the United States, arriving in

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58, ...

on 14 November 1913, shortly after his eighteenth birthday. Struggling to support himself in New York City, Milestone worked odd jobs—"janitor, door-to-door salesman, lace-machine operator"—before finding a position as portrait and theater photographer in 1915. He enlisted in the Signal Corps in 1917 shortly after America's entry into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Stationed in New York City and Washington, D. C., he was assigned to its photography unit and trained in aerial photography, assisted on training films and edited documentary combat footage. His cohorts at the Signal Corps included future Hollywood directors

Josef von Sternberg Josef von Sternberg (; born Jonas Sternberg; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969) was an Austrian-American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major ...

and

Victor Fleming Victor Lonzo Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were '' Gone with the Wind'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director, and ''The Wizar ...

. In February 1919, Milestone was discharged from the army and immediately obtained his US citizenship, legally changing his surname from Milstein to Milestone. An acquaintance from the Signal Corps, Jesse D. Hampton, now an independent film producer, secured Milestone an entry level position in Hollywood as an assistant editor.

Hollywood apprenticeship 1919–1924

Milestone arrived in Hollywood in the same financial straits as he had in Hoboken, New Jersey as a Russian émigré in 1913. He recalled in later years that in order to sustain himself until his studio job commenced, he worked briefly as a card dealer at an oil field gambling joint. Despite a number of mundane assignments from Hampton—at $20 per week—Milestone's trajectory from assistant editor toward director proceeded steadily. In 1920 he was tapped to serve as general assistant to director Henry King at

Pathé Exchange Pathé Exchange, commonly known as Pathé, was an American film production and distribution company, largely of Hollywood's silent era. Known for its groundbreaking newsreel and wide array of shorts, it grew out of the American division of the ...

.His first credited work was as assistant on King's 1920 Dice of Destiny. During the next six years Milestone "took on jobs in any capacity available" with 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 Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary '' Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influential film c ...

. In 1923 he followed Seiter to

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

studios as assistant director on

Little Church Around the Corner The Church of the Transfiguration, also known as the Little Church Around the Corner, is an Episcopal parish church located at 1 East 29th Street, between Madison and Fifth Avenues in the NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The con ...

(1923), assuming most of the filmmaking tasks on the production. Milestone's reputation as an effective "film doctor" skilled at salvaging movies was such that Warners began offering his services to other studios at inflated rates.

Director: Silent era, 1925–1929

By 1925, Milestone was writing numerous screen treatments for films at Universal and Warners studios, among them '' The Mad Whirl'', ''

Dangerous Innocence ''Dangerous Innocence'' is a 1925 American silent romantic comedy film written by Lewis Milestone and James O. Spearing based upon the 1923 novel '' Ann's an Idiot'' by Pamela Wynne. Directed by William A. Seiter for Universal Pictures, the fi ...

'', '' The Teaser'' and '' Bobbed Hair''. The same year, Milestone approached Jack Warner with a proposition: he would provide the producer with a story ''gratis'' if he was allowed to direct it. Warner agreed to sponsor his directorial debut, ''Seven Sinners'' (1925). '' Seven Sinners'' (1925): One of three films Milestone directed with Marie Prevost, and a former comedienne with

Mack Sennett Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'. Born in Danville, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in th ...

. Jack Warner appointed Darryl F. Zanuck as screenwriter. A "semi-sophisticated" comedy incorporating elements of

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such ...

, ''Seven Sinners'' proved sufficiently successful with critics and the public to warrant Milestone, now 29-years-old, additional directing assignments. '' The Caveman'' (1926): Milestone delivered his second Prevost comedy ''The Caveman'' quickly and efficiently, earning 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'' would be his last film for Warners until '' Edge of Darkness'' in 1943. Undeterred, Milestone was quickly acquired by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. '' The New Klondike'' (1926): A sports-themed drama based on a

Ring Lardner Ringgold Wilmer Lardner (March 6, 1885 – September 25, 1933) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre. His contemporaries Ernest Hemingway, Virginia ...

story was filmed on location in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

. Despite a "lukewarm" response from critics, Paramount was enthusiastic regarding Milestone's prospects, showcasing him with other young studio talent in the promotional '' Fascinating Youth'' (1926). A subsequent contretemps with screen star

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

on the set of '' Fine Manners'' (1926) led to Milestone walking off the project. Director Richard Rosson received credit when he completed the picture. ''

'' (1927): Considered Milestones most outstanding work during the silent era, ''Two Arabian Knights'' was inspired by the Anderson– Stallings stage play '' What Price Glory?'' (1924), and director

Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He w ...

's 1924 screen adaption. The first film in a four-year contract with

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in t ...

' The Caddo Company—and his only film of 1927— it garnered Milestone an Academy Award for best comedy direction in 1927, prevailing over Charlie Chaplin's '' The Circus'' (1927). Set during World War I, doughboys

William Boyd William, Willie, Will or Bill Boyd may refer to: Academics * William Alexander Jenyns Boyd (1842–1928), Australian journalist and schoolmaster * William Boyd (educator) (1874–1962), Scottish educator * William Boyd (pathologist) (1885–1979), ...

and

Louis Wolheim Louis Robert Wolheim (March 28, 1880 – February 18, 1931) was an American actor, of both stage and screen, whose rough physical appearance relegated him to roles mostly of thugs or villains in the movies, but whose talent allowed him to fl ...

, and love-object

Mary Astor Mary Astor (born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke; May 3, 1906 – September 25, 1987) was an American actress. Although her career spanned several decades, she may be best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in '' The Maltese ...

form a comic triangle. '' The Garden of Eden'' (1927): Made under a Caddo releasing agreement with

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

, ''The Garden of Eden'', "a variation on the Cinderella story...of acidic sophistication", was adapted by screenwriter

Hans Kraly Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

and resembles, in both script and visual production, the works of

Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as ...

. The project benefited from the lavish sets designed by

William Cameron Menzies William Cameron Menzies (July 29, 1896 – March 5, 1957) was an American film production designer (a job title he invented) and art director as well as a film director and producer during a career spanning five decades. He began his caree ...

and the cinematography of John Arnold. The film stars the popular Corinne Griffith. Milestone's cinematic rendering of ''Two Arabian Knights'' and ''The Garden of Eden'' established him as a skilled practitioner of "rough and sophisticated" comedy. '' The Racket'' (1928): Wary of being stereotyped as a comedy director, Milestone shifted to an emerging genre popularized by director

in his gangland fantasy ''

Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld ...

'' (1927). ''The Racket'', a "taut and realistic" depiction of a mobster-controlled police department distinguished Milestone as an able practitioner of the genre, but its reception was blunted by a flood of less superior gangster films released in the late 1920s. Nonetheless ''The Racket'' was nominated for Best Picture at the 1928 Academy Awards.

Early sound era: 1929–1936

''New York Nights'' (1929): Segue to sound

Milestone's first foray into sound productions, '' New York Nights'' proved inauspicious. A vehicle for silent screen icon Norma Talmadge (spouse to producer Joseph Schenck), Milestone attempted to accommodate

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

' desire to blend "show-biz" and gangster genres in an adaption of "the justly forgotten" Broadway production entitled ''Tin Pan Alley''. Film historian Joseph Millichap appraises Milestone's effort: Millichap adds that "the film is not worth considering as Milestone's first sound work."

Chef-d'œuvre: ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930)

Milestone's anti-war picture'' All Quiet on the Western Front'' is widely recognized as his directorial masterpiece and ranks as one of the most compelling dramatizations of soldiers in combat during The Great War. Adapted from

Erich Maria Remarque Erich Maria Remarque (, ; born Erich Paul Remark; 22 June 1898 – 25 September 1970) was a German-born novelist. His landmark novel '' All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1928), based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during Wor ...

's classic 1929 novel, Milestone conveyed cinematically the "grim realism and anti-war themes" that characterize the literary work. Universal studio's head of production Carl Laemmle Jr., purchased the film rights so as to capitalize on the international success of Remarque's book. ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' presents the war from the perspective of a unit of patriotic young German soldiers who become disillusioned at the horrors of

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising Trench#Military engineering, military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artille ...

. Actor

Lew Ayres Lewis Frederick Ayres III (December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years. He is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film '' All Quiet on the Western Fr ...

portrays the naive and sensitive youth Paul Baumer. In collaboration with screenwriters

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Background Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...

Del Andrews Del Andrews (October 5, 1894 – October 27, 1942), born Udell Endrows, was an American film director and screenwriter in the 1920s. He primarily worked on low budget westerns, writing and directing films starring Hoot Gibson, Fred Thomson, and ...

and

George Abbott George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. Early years Abbott was born in Forestville, New Y ...

, Milestone (uncredited) crafted a scenario and script that "reproduces the terse, tough dialogue" of Remarque's novel, so as to "expose war for what it is, and not glorify it." Originally conceived as a silent film, Milestone filmed both a silent and a talkie version, shooting them together in sequence. The most outstanding technical innovation of ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' is the success to which Milestone integrated the rudimentary sound technology of the early talkies 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 uses tracking shots and sound effects to graphically show the devastating effects of artillery and machine guns on advancing troops. The picture met with immense critical and popular approval, earning a Best Picture Oscar and a second Best Director award for Milestone. ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' established Milestone as a genuine talent in the film industry. Howard Hughes rewarded him with a prime property for adaption:

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A successful journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplay ...

and

Charles MacArthur Charles Gordon MacArthur (November 5, 1895 – April 21, 1956) was an American playwright, screenwriter and 1935 winner of the Academy Award for Best Story. Life and career MacArthur was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the sixth of seven chil ...

1928 play, '' The Front Page''.

''The Front Page'' (1931)

One of the most sensational and influential pictures of 1931, '' The Front Page'' introduced the Hollywood archetype of the hard-boiled and fast-talking reporter in Milestone's depiction of the backroom denizens of Chicago newspaper tabloids. The film's script retained the "sparkling dialogue ndhard, fast and ruthless pace" that characterized

's and

's stage production of 1928. ''The Front Page'' set the foundation for a virtual "journalism genre" in the 1930s, imitated by other studios and spawning a number of remakes, among them Howard Hawks' ''

His Girl Friday ''His Girl Friday'' is a 1940 American screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell and featuring Ralph Bellamy and Gene Lockhart. It was released by Columbia Pictures. The plot centers on a newspaper ed ...

'' (1940) and

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an Austrian-American filmmaker. His career in Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Classic Holl ...

's '' The Front Page'' (1974). The selection of

Pat O'Brien Pat O'Brien may refer to: Politicians * Pat O'Brien (Canadian politician) (born 1948), member of the Canadian House of Commons * Pat O'Brien (Irish politician) (c. 1847–1917), Irish Nationalist MP in the United Kingdom Parliament Others * Pat O' ...

to play the hard-bitten reporter "Hildy" Johnson was disappointing to Milestone, whose request to cast

James Cagney James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...

in the role was vetoed by producer Howard Hughes, in favor of O'Brien, who had performed in the Chicago stage production ''The Front Page''. More than a product of Milestone's fidelity to the play's lively and profane dialogue, he endowed the work with an Expressionistic cinematic style. Biographer Joseph Millichap evaluates Milestone's technique: Both the opening tracking shots of the newspaper's printing plant and the confrontation between Molly Malloy ( Mae Clarke) and a phalanx of reporters demonstrate Milestone's mastery of the technique. ''The Front Page'' received a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards and Milestone was listed among "The Ten Best Directors" by a '' Film Daily'' poll of 300 movie critics. Troubled by film directors declining control within the studio system, Milestone gave his full support to

King Vidor King Wallis Vidor (; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...

's proposal to organize a filmmaker's cooperative. Supporters for a Screen Directors Guild included Frank Borzage,

Howard Hawks Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the Classical Hollywood cinema, classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is ...

Rouben Mamoulian Rouben Zachary Mamoulian ( ; hy, Ռուբէն Մամուլեան; October 8, 1897 – December 4, 1987) was an American film and theatre director. Early life Mamoulian was born in Tiflis, Russian Empire, to a family of Armenian descent. ...

and

William Wellman William Augustus Wellman (February 29, 1896 – December 9, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and military pilot. He was known for his work in crime, adventure, and action genre films, often focusing on a ...

, among others. By 1938, the guild was incorporated, representing 600 directors and assistant directors. Paramount Pictures was experiencing a financial crisis during the mid-Thirties that inhibited their commitments to their European film stylists such as Josef von Sternberg, Ernst Lubitsch and Milestone. Under these conditions, Milestone embarked upon the final phase of his early sound period, a phase that would expose his difficulties in locating compelling literary material, production support and proper casting. The first among these films was ''Rain'' (1932). ''

Rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water ...

'' (1932): The short story " Miss Thompson" by

Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

has gone through several adaptive permutations, both for stage and film, before and after Milestone filmed the work in 1932. Milestone was assigned rising star

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pic ...

by Allied Artists, known for her silent film roles as a flapper, to play the prostitute Sadie Thompson. Her suitability for part has been widely scrutinized, and according to film critic Joseph Millichap "almost every comment on the film says she was miscast." Crawford herself registered disappointment with her interpretation of the role. Milestone was not encumbered as yet by the

Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...

, and his portrayal of the overwrought Puritan missionary Reverend Davidson (

Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, C ...

) and his rape of Thompson blends violence with sexual and religious symbolism through adroit intercutting. Termed "slow and stage-bound" and "stiff and stagey", Milestone offered his own assessment of ''Rain'': '' Hallelujah, I'm a Bum'' (1933): Released during the depths of the Great Depression, ''Hallelujah, I'm a Bum'' was an attempt by United Artists to reintroduce early talkie singer

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...

after his three-year hiatus from film roles. Based on a

story, with a score by Rodgers and Hart featuring innovative "rhythmic dialogue" delivered in song-song, its sentimental and romantic theme of a New York City tramp met with indifference or dismay among moviegoers. Film historian George 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." Milestone's miscalculated effort to make a "socially conscious" musical was generally ill-received at its New York opening and Milestone was left struggling to locate a more serious film project. Attempts by Milestone to make a film about the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

(working title: ''Red Square''), based on Stalinist

Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (russian: link=no, Илья́ Григо́рьевич Эренбу́рг, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable autho ...

's ''The Life and Death of Nikolai Kourbov'' (1923), and an adaption of H. G. Wells's ''

The Shape of Things to Come ''The Shape of Things to Come'' is a work of science fiction by British writer H. G. Wells, published in 1933. It takes the form of a future history which ends in 2106. Synopsis A long economic slump causes a major war that leaves Europe de ...

'' (1933) proposed by

Alexander Korda Sir Alexander Korda (; born Sándor László Kellner; hu, Korda Sándor; 16 September 1893 – 23 January 1956)Millichap, 1981 p. 82 '' The Captain Hates the Sea'' (1934): Milestone accepted a lucrative deal to film a John Gilbert vehicle and left United Artists for

Harry Cohn Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891 – February 27, 1958) was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation. Life and career Cohn was born to a working-class Jewish family in New York City. His father, Joseph Cohn, wa ...

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multi ...

. ''The Captain Hates the Sea'' was conceived and recognized by critics as a spoof of the 1932 star-studded anthology, '' Grand Hotel'', which showcased Hollywood's emerging screen legends

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragic c ...

and

John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Barrymore family, Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage ...

. Milestone's largely improvised film featured an ensemble of Columbia's character actors, among them

Victor McLaglen Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was a British boxer-turned-Hollywood actor.Obituary '' Variety'', 11 November 1959, page 79. He was known as a character actor, particularly in Westerns, and made s ...

and

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appear ...

. Described by critic George Millichap as "a very uneven, disconnected, rambling piece", the cost overruns on ''The Captain Hates the Sea''—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. Milestone next embarked on two films for Paramount, his only musicals of his career, but relatively undistinguished in their execution. Milestone himself described them as "insignificant": ''Paris in Spring'' (1935) and ''Anything Goes'' (1936). '' Paris in Spring'' (1935) and '' Anything Goes'' (1936): Milestone was assigned ''Paris in Spring'', a romantic musical farce. Leading man

Tullio Carminati Tullio Carminati (September 21, 1894 – February 26, 1971) was an Italian actor. He rose to fame in Italy and the United States initially as a silent film actor, starring in such films as ''The Duchess of Buffalo'' (1926), '' The Bat'' (192 ...

had just completed the operetta-like One Night of Love (1934) with Grace Moore at Columbia studios. Paramount paired their own Mary Ellis with Carminati, and it was Milestone's task to make a picture rivaling the Columbia success. Aside from a credible replica of Paris created by art directors

Hans Dreier Hans Dreier (August 21, 1885 – October 24, 1966) was a German motion picture art director. He was Paramount Pictures' supervising art director from 1927 until his retirement in 1950, when he was succeeded by Hal Pereira. Hans Dreier was born ...

and

Ernst Fegté Ernst Fegté (28 September 1900 – 15 December 1976) was a German art director. He was active in the American cinema from the 1920s to the 1970s, he was the art director or production designer on more than 75 feature films. He worked at Pa ...

, Milestone's camera work failed to overcome "the essential flatness of the tale." ''Anything Goes'', a musical starring

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

and

Ethel Merman Ethel Merman (born Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, January 16, 1908 – February 15, 1984) was an American actress and singer, known for her distinctive, powerful voice, and for leading roles in musical theatre.Obituary '' Variety'', February 22, 1984. ...

and adapted from his 1934

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film. Born to ...

Broadway musical Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

, enjoyed the advantage of some enduring numbers, including "

I Get a Kick Out of You "I Get a Kick Out of You" is a song by Cole Porter, which was first sung in the 1934 Broadway musical '' Anything Goes'', and then in the 1936 film version. Originally sung by Ethel Merman, it has been covered by dozens of prominent performers, ...

", "

You're the Top "You're the Top" is a Cole Porter song from the 1934 musical '' Anything Goes''. It is about a man and a woman who take turns complimenting each other. The best-selling version was Paul Whiteman's Victor single, which made the top five. It was th ...

", and the title song. Milestone's work is conscientious, but he showed little enthusiasm for the genre. Milestone's personal life was more gratifying than his artistic endeavors in the mid-Thirties. In 1935 he and Kendall Lee Glaezner, an actress whose professional name was Kendall Lee, were married. She and Milestone had been a couple since they met on the set of his 1932 film ''Rain'', in which Lee had played the role of Mrs. MacPhail. They remained married until Mrs. Milestone's death in 1978. They did not have any children. Biographer George Millichap reports that "over the years the Milestones were the most gracious of Hollywood hosts, giving parties that attracted the cream of the film community."

''The General Died at Dawn'' (1936)

Following his two lackluster musicals, Milestone returned to form in 1936 with '' The General Died at Dawn'', a film that in theme, setting and style is reminiscent of director

's '' The Shanghai Express'' (1932). The screenplay written by

Leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soc ...

playwright

Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdra ...

is derived from an obscure pulp-influenced manuscript by

Charles G. Booth Charles Gordon Booth (February 12, 1896 – May 22, 1949) was a British-born writer who settled in America and wrote several classic Hollywood stories, including ''The General Died at Dawn'' (1936) and '' Sundown'' (1941). He won an Academy A ...

. Set in the Far East, it carried a sociopolitical theme: the "tension between democracy and authoritarianism." Actor

Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...

plays the American mercenary O'Hara, a man possessing genuine republican commitments and whose character Milestone adroitly establishes in the opening frames. His adversary is the complex and multidimensional Chinese warlord General Yang played by Akim Tamiroff. Actress Madeleine Carroll is cast as the young missionary Judy Perrie ``trapped between divided social forces" who struggles to overcome her diffidence and ultimately joins O"Hara in supporting a peasant revolt against Yang. Milestone's brings to the adventure-melodrama a "bravura" exposition of his cinematic style and outstanding technical skills: an impressive use of tracking, a 5-way split-screen and a widely noted use of a match dissolve that serves to transition action from a billiard table to a white door handle leading to an adjoining room, "one of the most expert match shots on record" according to historian John Baxter. Though disparaged by Milestone in retrospect, ''The General Died at Dawn'' is perhaps one of the "masterpieces" of 1930s Hollywood. Milestone was well-served by cinematographer Victor Milner, art directors

and

, and composer

Werner Janssen Werner Janssen (born Werner Alexander Oscar Janssen;

Directorial hiatus: 1936–1939

After completing ''The General Died at Dawn'', Milestone encountered a series of professional setbacks—"unsuccessful projects, broken contracts and lawsuits"—that placed his film career in abeyance for three years. A number of serious projects which Milestone did pursue, including directing a film version of Vincent Sheean's ''Personal History'' (1935) (later directed as ''

Foreign Correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locat ...

'' (1940) by

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

) went unfulfilled, as did a screenplay written by Milestone and

for a film adaption of the Sidney Kingsley Broadway hit '' Dead End'' (1935) for Sam Goldwyn that went to

William Wyler William Wyler (; born Willi Wyler (); July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a Swiss-German-American film director and producer who won the Academy Award for Best Director three times, those being for '' Mrs. Miniver'' (1942), '' The Best Years o ...

, a director, like Milestone, of literary texts. '' The Night of Nights'' (1939): In an effort to remain employed, Milestone accepted Paramount's offer to direct

in a show business programmer ''The Night of Nights''. A "second-line" studio production, the film was best served by

's stage settings. After signing a contract with

Hal Roach Harry Eugene "Hal" Roach Sr.Randy Skretvedt, Skretvedt, Randy (2016), ''Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies'', Bonaventure Press. p.608. (January 14, 1892 – November 2, 1992) was an American film and television producer, director, a ...

in late 1937 to film a version of Eric S. Hatch's novel ''Road Show'' (1934), Milestone was dismissed by the producer for straying from the comedic elements of the work. Litigation ensued, and the matter was resolved when Roach presented Milestone with another project: to adapt to film John Steinbeck's novella ''

'' (1937).

''Of Mice and Men'' (1939)

Milestone had been favorably impressed with both Steinbeck's novella ''

'' and its 1938 stage production, a morality play set during the

Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of both natural factors (severe drought) an ...

, and he embraced the film project with enthusiasm. Producer Hal Roach hoped to emulate the anticipated success of director

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

's adaption of another Steinbeck work,

The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Priz ...

(1940). Both films drew upon the political and creative developments that emerged in the Great Depression, rather than the approaching 1940s and the impending conflict in Europe. Milestone enlisted Steinbeck support for the film and the author "essentially approved the script" as did the Hays Office who made only "minor" changes to the scenario. The film opens with what was at the time an innovative device, a visual prologue that sets the "mood, tone ndthemes", identifying the lead characters, George and Lennie (played by

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

and Lon Chaney Jr., respectively) as itinerant laborers, even before the credits are displayed. As a cinematic interpretation of a literary work, ''Of Mice and Men'' managed to convincingly blend the elements of each art form. Milestone maintains the " anti-omniscient" detachment that Steinbeck applied to his novella with a cinematic viewpoint that matches the author's

literary realism Literary realism is a literary genre, part of the broader realism in arts, that attempts to represent subject-matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. It originated with the realist art movement that began with ...

. Milestone placed great emphasis on visual and sound motifs that serve to develop the characters and themes . As such, he conferred carefully on image motifs with art director

Nicolai Remisoff Nikolai Vladimirovich Remizov (russian: Никола́й Влади́мирович Ре́мизов; in Saint-Petersburg – 4 August 1975 in Riverside County), also known as Nicolai Remisoff, was a Russian and Russian and American artist, poli ...

, and cameraman Norbert Brodine and persuaded composer

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

to provide the musical score. Critic Kingley Canham points to the importance Milestone placed on his sound motifs: The picture garnered Copland nominations for both Best Musical Score and Best Original Score. Milestone, who preferred to cast "relative unknowns"—in this case influenced by budgetary restraints— Lon Chaney Jr. to play the childlike Lennie Small and

who plays his keeper George Milton. Actress Betty Field, in her first important feature, plays Mae, the faithless spouse of straw boss Curly ( Bob Steele). Though nominated for Best Picture of 1939, ''Of Mice and Men'' had the shared misfortune of competing with a veritable pantheon of Hollywood films: ''

The Wizard of Oz ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Oz'' most commonly refers to: *'' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', a 1900 American novel by L. Frank Baum often reprinted as ''The Wizard of Oz'' ** Wizard of Oz (character), from the Baum novel serie ...

'' (Victor Fleming), ''

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

'' (John Ford), '' Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' (Sam Wood), ''

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' is a 1939 American Political drama, political Comedy drama, comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and featuring Claude Rains and Edward Arnold (actor), Edward Arnold. ...

'' (Frank Capra), '' Dark Victory'' (Edmund Goulding), '' Love Affair'' (Leo McCarey), '' Ninotchka'' (Ernst Lubitsch), ''

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent r ...

'' (William Wyler), and the winner, '' Gone with the Wind'' (Victor Fleming)." Despite critical accolades for Milestone's ''Of Mice and Men'', the tragic narrative that ends in the

mercy-killing Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eutha ...

of the doomed Lennie at the hands of his comrade George was less than gratifying to audiences, and it failed at the box office. '' Lucky Partners'' (1940) and '' My Life with Caroline'' (1941): Milestone's reputation as a director was undiminished among Hollywood executives after ''Of Mice and Men'', and he was signed by RKO to direct two light comedies, both of which were vehicles for

Ronald Colman Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English-born actor, starting his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then immigrating to the United States and having a successful Hollywood film career. He wa ...

. Provided with his own production unit, he quickly satisfied his contractual obligations, directing

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in ''Kitty Foyle'' ...

in her post- Astaire period in ''Lucky Partners'', and marshaling Anna Lee in the "totally disarming frolic" in ''My Life With Caroline.'' ''My Life With Caroline'' was released in August 1941, just four months before

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

and America's entry as a belligerent in World War II.

World War II Hollywood propaganda: 1942–1945

Milestone's reputation as the director of ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930), though an emphatically pacifist and anti-war film, positioned the director as an asset in Hollywood's "patriotic and profitable" production of anti-fascist war films. Film curator Charles Silver noted Milestone's "facility for capturing battle's intrinsic spectacle...there is an inevitable pageantry to cinematic warfare that works against whatever pacifist intentions the filmmaker may have." Milestone himself reflected "how can you make a pacifist film without showing the violence of war?" Responding to the "general climate of opinion in wartime Hollywood" Milestone abandoned any reservations as to his commitments to the US war effort and offered his services to the film industry's propaganda units. ''

Our Russian Front ''Our Russian Front'' is a 1942 American documentary film directed by Joris Ivens and Lewis Milestone, and narrated by Walter Huston to promote support for the Soviet Union's war effort. Film In production before America entered World War II, t ...

'' (1942): ''Our Russian Front'' is a war documentary assembled from 15,000 feet of newsreel footage taken on the Russian front by Soviet citizen-journalists during Nazi invasion of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

in 1941. In collaboration with Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens, working with The Government Film Service in 1940, Milestone depicted the struggle of Russian villagers to resist the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Actor

Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, C ...

narrated the documentary and the composer Dimitri Tiomkin provided the film score. '' Edge of Darkness (1943): Milestone returned to

in a one-film contract after seventeen years, his last feature with the studio the silent movie '' The Caveman'' (1926). The first of three successful films he made in collaboration with screenwriter

Robert Rossen Robert Rossen (March 16, 1908 – February 18, 1966) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer whose film career spanned almost three decades. His 1949 film '' All the King's Men'' won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Be ...

, ''Edge of Darkness'' signaled a change in Milestone's attitude toward his war films, both professionally and personally. The director of the anti-war film ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930) made this explicit in 1943: ''Edge of Darkness'' is Milestone's fulsome demonstration of these sentiments that exposed "the severe limitations" created by Hollywood's self-imposed propaganda requirements. Film critics Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg comment on this phenomenon: ''Edge of Darkness'' unfolds in a remote Norwegian village where its inhabitants are brutalized by Nazi occupiers, inspiring collective resistance among the townspeople who liquidate their oppressors in a single, violent uprising. Milestone employs an "anti-suspense" device, that shows the ultimate carnage suffered by the inhabitants, then reveals the story in flashback. A melodramatic film fantasy, Milestone's "thematic oversimplification", reflected Hollywood's penchant for melodramatic propaganda. Milestone was ambivalent regarding the cast and their characterizations for ''Edge of Darkness''. The picture stars

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...

and Ann Sheridan, who had been costars in the western ''

Dodge City Dodge City is the county seat of Ford County, Kansas, United States, named after nearby Fort Dodge. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 27,788. The city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier ...

'', here portraying Norwegian freedom fighters. Helmut Dantine appears as the sociopathic Nazi commandant. Biographer George Millichap reports that "the frequent rasp of

New York accent The sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accents of the United States, largely due to its popular stereotypes and portrayal in radio ...

s from Norwegians and Nazis" distracts from the picture's authenticity. A number of the players, including Flynn, were embroiled in personal and legal issues that detracted from their work on the production. Milestone's overall cinematic execution renders the story adequately in a realist style, but lacks his bravura use of the camera. In one exceptional scene, Milestone reveals the dramatic epiphany experienced by the villagers when the Nazis publicly burn the local schoolteacher's library collection. Through expert cutting and panning, Milestone documents a collective transformation that will spur the outraged residents to plan an armed uprising against their oppressors. ''Edge of Darkness'' delivered effective war propaganda to Warner Brothers studios and fulfilled Milestone's contract. His next project would be set on the Eastern Front in a Sam Goldwyn production at RKO: ''The North Star'' (1943). '' The North Star'' (1943): ''The North Star'' is a war propaganda picture dramatizing the devastation wrought by the German invasion of the

on the inhabitants of a Ukrainian farming collective. US President Roosevelt dispatched Lowell Mellett, the chief of the Bureau of Motion Pictures of the

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

to enlist producer Sam Goldwyn in making a film celebrating America's wartime alliance with Russia. Milestone's "lavish" production support included playwright-screenwriter

Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...

, cinematographer

James Wong Howe Wong Tung Jim, A.S.C. (; August 28, 1899 – July 12, 1976), known professionally as James Wong Howe (Houghto), was a Chinese-born American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films. During the 1930s and 1940s, he was one of the most sou ...

, set designer

, film score composer

, lyricist

Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the ...

and a competent cast of players. The Hellman script and Milestone's cinematic compositions establish the bucolic settings and social unity that characterizes 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 uses to introduce the film's key characters. An extended sequence portrays the villagers celebrating the harvest with food, song and dance, resembling more an ethnic operetta, with Milestone using an overhead camera to record the circular symmetry of the happy revelers. Milestone displays his "technical mastery" both through image and sound as villagers discern the approach of German bombers announcing the shattering of their peaceful existence. 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 ''The Spanish Earth'' is a 1937 anti-fascist film made during the Spanish Civil War in support of the democratically elected Republicans, whose forces included a wide range from the political left like communists, socialists, anarchists, to moder ...

(1937). Beyond this point, the necessities of Hollywood war propaganda asserts itself, shifting the focus to German atrocities. Hellman's screenplay provides for a complex treatment only for the German aristocrat and surgeon Dr. Otto von Harden ( Erich von Stroheim), who, though dragooned into service, rationalizes Nazi atrocities. Milestone presents him in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style of

German expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

. Russian doctor Dr. Pavel Grigorich Kurin (

Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, C ...

), Harden's moral opposite and nemesis, ultimately dispatches his Nazi prisoner. Biographer Joseph Millichap observed that "Single-minded hatred of Fascist evil countenanced action, shooting a prisoner he Nazi Dr. Hardenor shooting a mindless melodrama..." The film's melodramatic climax resembles a commercial action-movie, where untrained Russian guerrilla fighters overrun and obliterate the Nazi stronghold and its defenders. The picture received fulsome approval from the mainstream press, with only the Hearst papers interpreting the film's pro-Russian themes as pro-Communist propaganda. The Academy of Arts and Sciences nominated ''The North Star'' 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. Sam Goldwyn's ''The North Star'' and two other films—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 The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

in the post-war years. ''The North Star'' was reissued in a heavily reedited form that expunged any sequences that celebrate life under the Stalinist regime. Retitled ''Armored Attack'' and released in 1957, the setting is represented as Hungary during its uprising with a voice-over condemning communism. '' The Purple Heart'' (1944): In the Pacific War during WWII, captured American airmen are prosecuted by

Imperial Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent for ...

with violating the

Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conv ...

for participating in the July 18, 1942

Doolittle Raid The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japan ...

over Japan by B-25 bombers, specifically through indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets. Based on a true incident, Milestone's technical skill in presenting the airmen's ordeal, and the inherent injustice they endured made for potent propaganda, but at the risk of rationalizing the US bombing and anti-Japanese jingoism.The

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

s, upon which the captured officers and men are ultimately bestowed, is earned through wounds inflicted by torture to extract military secrets, and not through combat. A cinematically superior war film, Milestone defended his commitments to supplying propaganda for the American war effort: " We didn't hesitate to make this kind of film during the war." '' Guest in the House'' (1944): A psychological thriller ''à la''

, Milestone was removed from the project when he experienced an emergency

appendectomy An appendectomy, also termed appendicectomy, is a surgical operation in which the vermiform appendix (a portion of the intestine) is removed. Appendectomy is normally performed as an urgent or emergency procedure to treat complicated acute append ...

during filming. Milestone contributed some scenes in this United Artists production that was ultimately credited to director John Brahm. The film prepared Anne Baxter for her starring role in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1950 feature '' All About Eve''. '' A Walk in the Sun'' (1945): In his second collaboration with screenwriter

, and based on Harry Joe Brown's 1944 book, Milestone's invested $30,000 of his own savings, a measure of his enthusiasm for the literary property and its cinematic potential. ''A Walk in the Sun'' takes place during the US invasion of Italy during WWII: a platoon of American soldiers are tasked with advancing inland six miles from

Salerno Salerno (, , ; nap, label= Salernitano, Saliernë, ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' in Campania (southwestern Italy) and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after ...

to take a German-held bridge and farmhouse. The social and economic backgrounds of the officers and men represent a cross-section of America, who often express ambivalence about the purpose of the war. Film critic Kingley Canham describes the characters as "a group of unwilling civilians, who find themselves at war in a strange land...a sense of hopelessness pervades the film and the final outcome means nothing to the men who are fighting the war..." Milestone's perspective on war as conveyed in ''A Walk in the Sun'' differs with that of his 1930 ''All Quiet on the Western Front'', a moving indictment of war. Biographer Joseph Millichap observes: 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. Milestone's trademark handling of tracking shots is evident in the action scenes.

The Red Scare and the Hollywood Blacklist

At the onset of the Cold War, Hollywood studios, in alliance with the US Congress, sought to expose alleged communist inspired content in American films. Milestone's pro-Russian '' The North Star'' (1943), made at the behest of the US government to encourage American support for its wartime alliance with the USSR against the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

became a target. ''The North Star'', as well as

Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...

's '' Mission to Moscow'' (1943),

Gregory Ratoff Gregory Ratoff (born Grigory Vasilyevich Ratner; russian: Григорий Васильевич Ратнер, tr. ; April 20, c. 1893 – December 14, 1960) was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was bes ...

's '' Song of Russia'' (1944) and

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir '' Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including '' Cat People'', '' I Walked ...

's '' Days of Glory'' (1944) were "to haunt their creators in the McCarthy era" when any hint of sympathy for the Soviet Union was considered subversive to American ideals. Milestone's alignment with liberal causes such as

Committee for the First Amendment The Committee for the First Amendment was an action group formed in September 1947 by actors in support of the Hollywood Ten during the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). It was founded by screenwriter Philip Dunne, ...

compounded suspicions that he harbored pro-communist sentiments during the

Red Scare A Red Scare is the promotion of a widespread fear of a potential rise of communism, anarchism or other leftist ideologies by a society or state. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which a ...

. He and other filmmakers were summoned by the HUAC for questioning. Biographer Joseph Millichap describes Milestone's ordeal: The precise impact 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 offers may have been limited through industry "greylisting". Millichap adds that "Milestone refused to comment on this side of his life: evidently he found it very painful."

The post-war films: 1946–1951

The movies that Milestone directed in the late Forties represent "the last distinctive period" in the director's creative output. His first effort after completing his series of wartime propaganda pictures was a Hal B. Wallis production, ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'', based on the story "Love Lies Bleeding" by John Patrick.

''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946): a film noir classic

In collaboration with screenwriter

and some outstanding artistic support, Milestone directed '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'', a "striking addition" to the post-war Hollywood film genre of ''film noir'', combining a grim 19th century

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

with the cinematic methods of

German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

. Rossen and Milestone's script provided the capable cast, starring

Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic sc ...

, Van Heflin and

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Dou ...

(in his first screen appearance) with a "taut, harsh" narrative that critiqued postwar urban America as corrupt and irredeemable. Cinematographer Victor Milner's camerawork supplied the ''film noir'' effects and musical director

Miklós Rózsa Miklós Rózsa (; April 18, 1907 – July 27, 1995) was a Hungarian-American composer trained in Germany (1925–1931) and active in France (1931–1935), the United Kingdom (1935–1940), and the United States (1940–1995), with extens ...

effectively integrated sound motifs with Milestone's visual elements. Milestone left Paramount and moved to the rising independent Enterprise Studios. His first film for Enterprise was ''Arch of Triumph'', based on the

1945 novel.

''Arch of Triumph'' (1948)

Milestone's second adaption of an

novel, '' Arch of Triumph'', was highly anticipated by moviegoers, and by Enterprise Studios, which committed huge capital investments to the project. Set in pre-war Paris of 1939, Remarque's autobiographical work examines the personal devastation suffered by two displaced persons: the surgeon Dr. Ravic, fleeing Nazis persecution, and the ''

demimonde is French for "half-world". The term derives from a play called , by Alexandre Dumas , published in 1855. The play dealt with the way that prostitution at that time threatened the institution of marriage. The was the world occupied by elite me ...

'' courtesan Joan Modau. Each of the lovers suffers a tragic fate. Remarque's brutally realistic depictions of the Paris underworld, which describe a revenge murder and a mercy-killing approvingly, was at odds with the strictures of the

Production Code Administration The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

. Milestone accordingly excised "the bars, brothels and operating rooms" as well as the sordid ending from the screenplay. Enterprise studio executives, who called for a picture that would rival

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

's recently re-released '' Gone with the Wind'' (1939), had procured

Charles Boyer Charles Boyer (; 28 August 1899 – 26 August 1978) was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American fi ...

and

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary '' Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is ofte ...

to that end. 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. The director described his difficulty: Milestone delivered a lengthy four-hour version of ''Arch of Triumph'' that had been pre-approved by Enterprise. Executives reversed that decision shortly before its release, cutting the picture to the more standard two hours. Entire scenes and characters were eliminated, undermining the clarity and continuity of Milestone's work. The film includes some of the macabre elements of the novel through effective use of expressionistic camera angles and lighting effects. Milestone's overall disaffection from the project is evident in his indifferent application of cinematic technique, contributing to the failure in his film adaption. Biographer Joseph Millichap observes: Millichap adds that "Wherever the blame is placed, ''Arch of Triumph'' is a clear failure, a bad film made from a good book." ''Arch of Triumph'' proved an egregious failure at the box office, with Enterprise suffering significant losses. Milestone continued with the studio, accepting an offer to produce and direct a comedy vehicle for

Dana Andrews Carver Dana Andrews (January 1, 1909 – December 17, 1992) was an American film actor who became a major star in what is now known as film noir. A leading man during the 1940s, he continued acting in less prestigious roles and character parts ...

and Lilli Palmer'': No Minor Vices'' (1948). ''

No Minor Vices ''No Minor Vices'' is a 1948 American black-and-white comedy film written by Arnold Manoff and directed by Lewis Milestone with Robert Aldrich as 1st assistant director. Created for David Loew's Enterprise Productions, it was the first of th ...

'' (1948): A "semi-sophisticated" programmer reminiscent of Milestone's 1941 comedy '' My Life with Caroline'' at RKO, it added little to Milestone's oeuvre. Milestone departed Enterprise and joined novelist John Steinbeck at

Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City a ...

to make a film version of '' The Red Pony'' (1937).

''The Red Pony'' (1949)

Novelist John Steinbeck's '' The Red Pony'' is a story sequence set in California's rural

Salinas Valley The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. It is located west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley. The Salinas River, which geologicall ...

in the early 20th century. Milestone and Steinbeck had considered adapting these coming-of-age stories about a boy and his pony since 1940. In 1946 they partnered with

, an amalgamation of "

poverty row Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did ...

" studios known for low-budget westerns, but now prepared to invest in a major production. Steinbeck served as sole screenwriter on '' The Red Pony''. His novella, comprising four short stories, is "unified only by continuities of character, setting theme." Identifying a market for the film was a key concern for Republic, insisting on a picture aimed at juvenile audiences. In the interests of crafting a sequential and coherent narrative, Steinbeck limited the film adaption primarily to two of the stories, "The Gift" and "The Leader of the People", obviating some of the harsher episodes in the literary work. Steinbeck willingly provided a more upbeat ending to the picture, an accommodation that according to film critic George Millichap "completely distorts...the thematic thrust of Steinbeck's story sequence." The casting for ''The Red Pony'' presented some difficulties for Milestone in developing Steinbeck's characters and themes, which explore a child's "initiation into the realities of adult life." The aging ranch hand Billy Buck is portrayed by the youthful and virile

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Jo ...

, whose character effectively displaces the father Fred Tiflin ( Shepperd Strudwick) as male mentor to the nine-year-old Tom Tiflin (

Peter Miles Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a ...

). The boy's mother is played by

Myrna Loy Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films ...

, best known in her roles as the sophisticated spouse to

William Powell William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the '' Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters crea ...

in ''

The Thin Man ''The Thin Man'' (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in a condensed version in the December 1933 issue of ''Redbook''. It appeared in book form the following month. A film series followed, featuring the main ch ...

'' (1934) and its sequels, here playing a rancher's wife. Film critic Joseph Millichap points to the inherent difficulties in a film portrayal of the boy Tom, played by the then 10-year-old Miles: "The major casting problem is the oungprotagonist. 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." Though Milestone's cinematic effort fails to do justice to the literary source, several of the visual and aural elements are impressive. The effective opening sequence resembles the prologue he used in his 1939 adaption of Steinbeck's novel

, introducing the natural world that will dominate and inform the lives of the characters. In his first

technicolor Technicolor is a series of color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films running through a special ...

picture, Milestone's "graceful visual touch" is enhanced by cameraman Tony Gaudio's painterly renderings of the rural landscape. Composer

's highly regarded film score perhaps surpasses Milestone's visual rendering of Steinbeck's story. ''The Red Pony'' provided Enterprise studios with a satisfactory "prestige" property, generating critical praise and respectable box office returns. Milestone moved to

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...

where he would make three films: ''Halls of Montezuma'' (1951), ''Kangaroo'' (1952) and ''Les Misérables'' (1952). '' Halls of Montezuma'' (1951): Released in January 1951, ''Halls of Montezuma'' reflects the Cold War imperatives that informed Hollywood films during the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

. The story by Michael Blankfort, with Milestone co-screenwriter (uncredited) concerns an attack by US Marines on a Japanese held island during World War II. The film focuses on the heroic suffering experienced by one patrol in its effort to locate a Japanese rocket-launching bunker. Milestone's dual themes provides both for a fulsome celebration of Marine combat heroics, juxtaposed with an examination of psychological damage to the soldiers who must personally participate in the "horrors" of modern warfare, including the torture of enemy combatants. Milestone denied that ''Halls of Montezuma'' addressed his "personal beliefs" on the nature of war and had agreed to make the movie strictly as a financial expedient. ''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. Milestone reverts to the formulaic war movie with a standard " Give 'em Hell" climax, accompanied by the strains of the

Marine Hymn The "Marines' Hymn" is the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps, introduced by the first director of the USMC Band, Francesco Maria Scala. Its music originates from an 1867 work by Jacques Offenbach with the lyrics added by an anonymou ...

. The film is commonly cited as representing the onset of a purported decline in his talents or his exploitation by the studios.

Late career, 1952–1962

Milestone's final years as a filmmaker correspond to the decline and fall of the Hollywood movie empire: the final eight films of his career reflect these historic developments. By 1962, shortly before the release of his last Hollywood film ''

'', ''

Films and Filming ''Films and Filming'' was the longest-running British gay magazine prior to the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.Bengry, Justin"The Queer History of Films and Filming."''Little Joe: A magazine about queers and cinem ...

'' (December 1962) made this explicit: "In common with so many of the Old Guard directors, Lewis Milestone's reputation has somewhat tarnished over the last decade. His films no longer have that stamp of individuality which distinguished his early work..." Milestone's films during his last ten years of his career were characterized by biographer Joseph Millichap as "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." After completing ''Halls of Montezuma'' (1951) for 20th Century Fox, the studio sent him to Australia to utilize funds limited to reinvestment in that country. Based on this pragmatic consideration, Milestone filmed ''Kangaroo'' (1952). ''

Kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

'' (1952): Termed an "antipodal Western" by film critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

, Milestone chief struggle with 20th century was over "the utterly ridiculous script, a collection of

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

''clichés'' transposed from the American plains to the Australian outback" according to film critic Joseph Millichap. Milestone attempted to evade the poor literary vehicle by concentrating on "the landscape, flora and fauna" of the Australian

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a ...

at the expense of dialogue. The

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films running through a special ...

cinematography by Charles G. Clarke achieved a documentary-like quality, incorporating Milestone hallmark panning and tracking methods. ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

'' (1952): For the last of his three pictures at 20th Century Fox, Milestone delivered a 104-minute version of

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

's sprawling romance novel ''

'' (1862). Fox producers endowed the project with their foremost contract players, including Michael Rennie, Debra Paget,

Robert Newton Robert Guy Newton (1 June 1905 – 25 March 1956) was an English actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the more popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys. Known for h ...

and Sylvia Sidney and lavish production support. The script by Richard Murphy "telescopes all the novel's famous set-pieces into this cliché-ridden" abbreviated adaption. In a 1968 interview with film historians Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg, Milestone recalled 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." Film critic Joseph Millichap observes: "that he did little with ugo'sliterary classic...seems to indicate the waning of Milestone's creative energies."

Sojourn in Europe, 1953–1954

Milestone traveled abroad to England and Italy seeking work during the Fifties where he directed a biography of a

diva Diva (; ) is the Latin word for a goddess. It has often been used to refer to a celebrated woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, theatre, cinema, fashion and popular music. If referring to an actress, the meaning of ''diva'' is cl ...

, filmed an action World War II drama as well as an international romance-melodrama. '' Melba'' (1953): Filmed in England at Horizon Pictures, ''Melba'' is a biopic of the famed

coloratura Coloratura is an elaborate melody with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material,''Oxford American Dictionaries''.Apel (1969), p. 184. or a passage of such music. Operatic roles in which such music plays a prominent part, a ...

soprano Dame Nellie Melba. The picture was an effort by producer Sam Spiegel to capitalize on the popularity of recent film biographies of Enrico Caruso and

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which '' H.M.S. ...

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

star Patrice Munsel made her screen debut playing the Australian opera

. Aside from Munsel's serviceable performance, Milestone was burdened by a "worthless script" and an "insipid cast" and failed to deliver a compelling rendering of Dame Melba's life. Film historian Kingsley Canham reports that the picture "turned out to be a disastrous flop" at the box office. Milestone remained in England during 1953 to film a war-adventure for Mayflower Pictures–

British Lion Films British Lion Films is a Production company, film production and Film distributor, distribution company active under several forms since 1919. Originally known as British Lion Film Corporation Ltd, it entered receivership on 1 June 1954. From 29 Ja ...

: ''They Who Dare'', starring British actor

Dirk Bogarde Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as ''Doctor in the House'' (1954) for the Rank Orga ...

. '' They Who Dare'' (1953): In his penultimate war film, Milestone dramatizes a factual account of British and Greek commando unit assigned to destroy a German airfield on the island of

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

during World War II. Based on a script by Robert Westerby, Milestone delivers an action-packed climax in the final minutes of the film that recalls his early work in this genre, but the picture failed to elicit enthusiasm among critics and audiences. Biographer Kingsley Canham remarked that Milestone's back-to-back box office failures—''Melba'' and ''They Who Dare''—"was not a good omen for an established director, especially in the Fifties..." '' The Widow (La Vedova)'' (1954): Filmed in Italy for Ventruini/Express in 1954, and adapted by Milestone from a novel by Susan York, this "soap opera-ish love triangle" stars Patricia Roc,

Massimo Serato Massimo Serato, born Giuseppe Segato, (31 May 1916 – 22 December 1989) was an Italian film actor with a career spanning over 40 years. Serato was born in Oderzo, Veneto, Italy and started appearing in films in 1938. He played leading roles in ...

and Anna Maria Ferrero.

''Pork Chop Hill'' (1959)

Produced by Sy Bartlett for the Melville Company. '' Pork Chop Hill'' represents the third work in "an informal war trilogy" along with Milestone's ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (1930) and ''A Walk in the Sun'' (1945). Based on a recounting a Korean War battle by combat veteran S. L. A. Marshall and a screenplay by

James R. Webb James Ruffin Webb (October 4, 1909 – September 27, 1974) was an American screenwriter. He was best known for writing the screenplay for the film '' How the West Was Won'' (1962), which garnered widespread critical acclaim and earned him an Acad ...

, Milestone was provided with a realistic literary platform from which to develop his final cinematic treatment of men at war. The 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. The context for this struggle concerns high-level truce negotiations, where the American and Korean general staffs regard this minor tactical outcome as a measure of one another's resolve. In order to take and hold the position, American troops suffer devastating losses. Ultimately, the military brass reinforces the position, but will little appreciation for the sacrifices made by the company- sacrifices of which the infantrymen are acutely aware. Film critic Kingley Canham offered this plot summary of Pork Chop Hill: "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." Milestone and screen star and financial investor in the project

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...

, who plays company commander Lieutenant Joe Clemons, came to loggerheads 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 equivalents to " Bunker Hill" and " Gettysburg. The studio's final editing of the director's cut blunted Milestone ironic message concerning the futility of war, perhaps his most anti-war statement since his 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front. Biographer Joseph Millichap comments on Gregory Peck's influence on the final cut of Pork Chop Hill: Milestone distanced himself from the final cut of the film, declaring "Pork Chop Hill became a film I am not proud of... erelyone more war movie." In addition to rising screen star Peck, Milestone enlisted primarily unknown actors to represent 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 Norman Fell (born Norman Noah Feld; March 24, 1924 – December 14, 1998) was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom '' Three's Company'' and its spin-off, '' The Ropers'', and his ...

, Abel Fernandez, Gavin MacLeod, Harry Dean Stanton, and Clarence Williams III.

''Ocean's 11'' (1960)

Milestone accepted an offer from

to produce and direct a picture for Dorchester Studios, '' Ocean's 11'' a comedy-

heist A heist is a robbery or burglary, especially from an institution such as a bank or museum. Heist may also refer to: Places *Heist, Germany, a municipality in Schleswig-Holstein *Heist-aan-Zee, West Flanders, Belgium *Heist-op-den-Berg, Antwerp, ...

feature. The George Clayton Johnson story concerns of group of ex-military comrades who orchestrate an elaborate burglary of

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

's biggest casinos. The movie stars the infamous

Rat Pack The Rat Pack was an informal group of entertainers, the second iteration of which ultimately made films and appeared together in Las Vegas casino venues. They originated in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a group of A-list show business frie ...

, led by Frank Sinatra, who like the director, had been a supporter of the

during the

. Milestone's historic success with both comedy films and combat sagas may have influenced Warner's decision to tap him for the film. Burdened with a "preposterous" screenplay by Harry Brown and Charles Lederer, Milestone delivered a film that equivocates between a pure satire of American acquisitiveness or its celebration. The film is widely dismissed as unworthy of Milestone's talents, despite the success of ''Ocean's 11'' at the box office. Film critic David Walsh comments of Milestone's creative difficulties in his final years:

''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1962)

's remake of

Frank Lloyd Frank William George Lloyd (2 February 1886 – 10 August 1960) was a British-born American film director, actor, scriptwriter, and producer. He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its preside ...

's 1935 version of the film starring

and

Charles Laughton Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future ...

was consistent with Hollywood's resort to blockbuster productions during the late Fifties. The studio risked over $20 million on the "ill-starred" 1962

, and recovered less than half of its investment. The 65-year-old Milestone assumed directorial duties in February 1961 after filmmaker

Carol Reed Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for '' Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), '' The Third Man'' (1949), and '' Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded th ...

became disillusioned with the project due to inadequate scripting, abominable weather (on location in

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Aust ...

) and interpretive disputes with leading man Marlon Brando. Milestone was tasked with bringing good order and discipline to the production, and to curb the "mercurial" Brando, who had clashed with Reed. Rather than inheriting a largely completed film, Milestone discovered that only a few scenes had been shot. The production history of the 1962 ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' emerges less as a coherent cinematic endeavor and more as a record of personal and professional recriminations registered by Milestone and Brando. In an effort to assert creative control over his character—the gentleman mutineer

Fletcher Christian Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS ''Bounty'' during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the ''Bounty'', Christian sei ...

—Brando collaborated with screenwriters and off the set, independently of Milestone, leading the director to withdraw from some scenes and sequences and effectively relinquishing control to Brando. Film critic Joseph R. Millichap refers to the film as "the Brando-Milestone" ''Mutiny on the Bounty'', noting that "the story of this Hollywood disaster is long and complex, but the central figure in every sense is Marlon Brando, not Lewis Milestone." Not considered representative of the director's ''oeuvre'', ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' is the final completed film for which Milestone was credited.

Television and unrealized film projects: 1955–1965

After completing '' The Widow (La Vedova)'' (1955) Milestone returned to the United States in search of film projects. With the Hollywood studio system in decline, Milestone resorted to television to keep working. Five years would elapse before he completed another feature film. In 1956–1957, Milestone partnered with actor-producer

(who had debuted in Milestone's 1946 The Strange Love of Martha Ivers) to make a movie about a "Kane"-like tycoon, but ''King Kelly'' was abandoned after a year. Milestone directed episodes for television dramas in 1957. Among these were ''

Alfred Hitchcock Presents ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' is an American television anthology series created, hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, aired on CBS and NBC between 1955 and 1965. It features dramas, thrillers and mysteries. Between 1962 and 1965 it was r ...

'' (two episodes), '' Schlitz Playhouse'' (two episodes) and '' Suspicion'' (one episode). In 1958, Milestone directed actor

Richard Boone Richard Allen Boone (June 18, 1917 – January 10, 1981) was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns, including his starring role in the television series '' Have Gun – Will Travel''. Early li ...

(who debuted in Milestone's 1952 ''

'') in the television western '' Have Gun – Will Travel'' (two episodes Milestone embarked upon the filming of

's ''

PT 109 ''PT-109'' was an 80' Elco PT boat (patrol torpedo boat) last commanded by Lieutenant (junior grade) John F. Kennedy, future United States president, in the Solomon Islands campaign of the Pacific theater during World War II. Kennedy's ac ...

'' (1963), a biography of John F. Kennedy's experiences as a

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of s ...

commander in the Pacific War. After several weeks of shooting Jack L. Warner removed Milestone from the project and replaced him with director Leslie H. Martinson, who received screen credit. Milestone found television productions unappealing, but returned to that medium after completing ''

'' (1962), directing the series '' Arrest and Trial'' (one episode) and for '' The Richard Boone Show'' (one episode), both in 1963. Milestone's final cinematic effort was for a multinational joint venture with

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fil ...

in 1965: '' La Guea Seno- The Dirty Game'', for which he shot one episode before being replaced by Terence Young, due to his failing health. Several of Milestone's films—''Seven Sinners'', ''The Front Page'', ''The Racket'', and ''Two Arabian Knights''—were preserved by the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

in 2016 and 2017.

Death

Milestone experienced declining health in the Sixties and suffered a stroke in 1978 shortly after the death of his wife of 43-years Kendall Lee. After further illnesses, Milestone died on September 25, 1980, at the UCLA Medical Center, just five days before his 85th birthday. Lewis Milestone's final request before he died in 1980 was for Universal Studios to restore ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' to its original length. That request would eventually be granted nearly two decades later by Universal and other film preservation companies, and this restored version is what is widely seen today on television and home video. Milestone is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Critical appraisal

Lewis Milestone's ''oeuvre'' spans thirty-seven years (1925–1962), comprising 38 feature films. As such, he was one of the major contributors to screen art and entertainment during the Hollywood Golden Age. Like most of his contemporary American filmmakers, Milestone's work encompassed both silent and sound eras. This is evident in Milestone's complex yet efficient style, blending the visual elements of Expressionism with the Realism which evolved with naturalistic sound." At the outset of talking pictures, the 29-year-old Milestone brought to bear his talents for an adaption of

's compelling anti-war novel '' All Quiet on the Western Front'', which stands as the director's ''magnum opus''. The film is widely regarded as the high water mark of his career; Milestone's subsequent work never achieved the same artistic or critical success. Biographer Kingsley Canham observed: "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." Milestone's films occasionally exhibit the technical inventiveness and bravura of ''All Quiet on the Western Front'', but lack the director's commitments to a literary source or screenplay that informed his early classic. Milestone subsequent work in Hollywood included both outstanding and mediocre efforts, characterized by their eclecticism, but often lacking any clear artistic purpose. Perhaps the most predictable feature was an application of his technical talents. Film critic

Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism. Early life Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Kat ...

remarked that "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." Kingsley Canham acknowledges this assessment, commenting that "time and again Milestone's career has been written off because of his lack of commitment or to involvement in his work..." Biographer Joseph R. Millichap links Milestone's "profuse, eclectic, and uneven body of work" to the imperatives of the Hollywood film industry: Film critic and biographer Richard Koszarski considers Milestone "one of the Thirties more independent spirits...but like many of the pioneer directors...his relation to the

studio system A studio system is a method of filmmaking wherein the production and distribution of films is dominated by a small number of large movie studios. It is most often used in reference to Hollywood motion picture studios during the Golden Age of Hol ...

at the height of its xecutivepowers was not a productive one."Koszarski, 1976 p. 317 Koszarski offers a metaphor that Milestone had applied to his own final works:

Academy Awards

Filmography

*1918 – ''The Toothbrush'' (director) *1918 – ''Posture'' (director) *1918 – ''Positive'' (director) *1919 – ''Fit to Win'' (director) *1922 – '' Up and at 'Em'' (screenwriter) *1923 – '' Where the North Begins'' (editor) *1924 – '' The Yankee Consul'' (screenwriter) *1924 – '' Listen Lester'' (screenwriter) *1925 – '' The Mad Whirl'' (screenwriter) *1925 – ''

'' (screenwriter) *1925 – '' The Teaser'' (screenwriter) *1925 – '' Bobbed Hair'' (screenwriter) *1925 – '' Seven Sinners'' (director and screenwriter) *1926 – '' The Caveman'' (director) *1926 – '' The New Klondike'' (director) *1926 – '' Fine Manners'' (director, uncredited) *1927 – '' The Kid Brother'' (director, uncredited) *1927 – ''

'' (director) *1928 – '' The Garden of Eden'' (director) *1928 – '' Tempest'' (director and screenwriter, uncredited) *1928 – '' The Racket'' (director) *1929 – '' New York Nights'' (director) *1929 – ''

Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. O ...

'' (director) *1930 – '' All Quiet on the Western Front'' (director) *1931 – '' The Front Page'' (director) *1932 – ''

'' (director) *1933 – '' Hallelujah, I'm a Bum'' (director) *1934 – '' The Captain Hates the Sea'' (director) *1935 – '' Paris in Spring'' (director) *1936 – '' Anything Goes'' (director) *1936 – '' The General Died at Dawn'' (director) *1939 – ''

'' (director) *1939 – '' The Night of Nights'' (director) *1940 – '' Lucky Partners'' (director and screenwriter) *1941 – '' My Life with Caroline'' (director) *1943 – '' Edge of Darkness'' (director) *1943 – '' The North Star'' (director) *1944 – '' Guest in the House'' (director, uncredited) *1944 – '' The Purple Heart'' (director) *1945 – '' A Walk in the Sun'' (director) *1946 – '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (director) *1948 – '' Arch of Triumph'' (director and screenwriter) *1948 – ''

'' (director) *1949 – '' The Red Pony'' (director) *1951 – '' Halls of Montezuma'' (director) *1952 – ''

'' (director) *1952 – ''

'' (director) *1953 – '' Melba'' (director) *1954 – '' They Who Dare'' (director) *1955 – ''

La Vedova X ''The Widow'' ( it, La vedova X) is a 1955 romantic drama film directed by Lewis Milestone and written by Milestone and Louis Stevens, based on the novel ''La Vedova'' by Susan York. The film had a theatrical release in Italy in 1955, limited re ...

'' (director and screenwriter) *1957 – ''

'' (TV series) (director) *1957 – '' Schlitz Playhouse'' (TV series) (director) *1957 – '' Suspicion'' (TV series) (director) *1958 – '' Have Gun – Will Travel'' (TV series) (director) *1959 – '' Pork Chop Hill'' (director) *1960 – '' Ocean's 11'' (director) *1962 – ''

'' (director) *1963 – '' The Richard Boone Show'' (TV series) (director) *1963 – '' Arrest and Trial'' (TV series) (director)

Footnotes

References

*Arnold, Jeremy. 2009. ''Hallelujah, I'm a Bum.'' Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/77232/hallelujah-im-a-bum/#articles-reviews Retrieved 30 January 2021. *Arnold, Jeremy. 2003. ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.'' Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/91604/the-strange-love-of-martha-ivers#articles-reviews?articleId=60067 Retrieved 5 February 2021. *Arnold, Jeremy. 2008. ''The Red Pony''. Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/87865/the-red-pony#articles-reviews?articleId=203353 Retrieved 11 February 2021. *Barson, Michael. 2020. ''Lewis Milestone: American Film Director'' https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lewis-Milestone Retrieved 10 January 2021. * Baxter, John. 1970. ''Hollywood in the Thirties''. International Film Guide Series. Paperback Library, New York. LOC Card Number 68-24003. * Baxter, John. 1971. ''The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg''. London: A. Zwemmer / New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. *Cady, Brian. 2004. ''The Racket (1928)''. Turner Classic Movies. https://dev.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/499953/the-racket#articles-reviews?articleId=85281 Retrieved 17 January 2021. *Canham, Kingsley. 1974. ''The Hollywood Professional, Volume 2: Henry King, Lewis Milestone, Sam Wood.'' The Tantivy Press, London. *Criterion Collection, 2014. ''Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone, 1939)''. Criterion.com https://makeminecriterion.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/of-mice-and-men-lewis-milestone-1939/ Retrieved 31 January 2021. *Cojoc, Andrei. 2013. ''The Message of American pro-Soviet Movies during WW II - The North Star, Song of Russian, Mission to Moscow.'' http://journal.centruldedic.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Andrei-Cojoc_2013-1.pdf * Crowther, Bosley. 1951. ''THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Halls of Montezuma,' Realistic Depiction of Goriness of War, Presented at Roxy Theatre.'' New York Times. January 6, 1951. https://www.nytimes.com/1951/01/06/archives/the-screen-in-review-halls-of-montezuma-realistic-depiction-of.html Retrieved 19, 2021. *Gow, Gordon. 1971. ''Hollywood in the Fifties.'' The International Film Guide Series, A.S. Barnes & Co. New York. and The Tantivy Press. * Higham, Charles and Greenberg, Joel. 1968. ''Hollywood in the Forties''. A.S Barnes & Co. Inc. Paperback Library, New York. 1970. *Higham, Charles. 1974. The Art of the American Film. Anchor Press, Doubleday. * Higham, Charles. 1973. ''The Art of the American Film: 1900-1971.'' Doubleday & Company, Inc. New York. . Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 70-186026. *Hoberman, J. 2014. ''Soviet Valor, Revised for the '50s.'' Movie Home Video. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/movies/homevideo/lewis-milestone8217s-8216armored-attack8217-and-8216arch-of-triumph8217.html Retrieved 2 February 2021. *Erickson, Glenn. 2010. ''Errol Flynn Adventures''. Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2891/edge-of-darkness/#articles-reviews?articleId=344157 Retrieved 31 January 2021. *Erickson, Glenn. 2014. ''Arch of Triumph on Blu-Ray.'' Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/67562/arch-of-triumph#articles-rev Retrieved 10 February 2021. *Koszarski, Richard. 1976. ''Hollywood Directors: 1914-1940.'' Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 76-9262. *Koszarski, Richard. 1983. ''The Man You Loved to Hate: Erich von Stroheim and Hollywood.'' Oxford University Press. *McGee, Scott. 2003. ''Pork Chop Hill''. Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/17710/pork-chop-hill#articles-reviews?articleId=31521 Retrieved 22 February 2021. *Miller, Frank. 2007. ''Rain (1932)''. Turner Classic Movies. http://dev.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/87613/rain/#articles-reviews?articleId=161060 Retrieved 23 January 2021. *Miller, Frank. 2010. ''Behind The Camera - Mutiny On The Bounty ('62).'' Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/12737/mutiny-on-the-bounty#articles-reviews?articleId=288489 Retrieved 23 February *Millichap, Joseph R. 1981. ''Lewis Milestone''. University of Tulsa, Twayne Publishers. C. K. Hall & Company. *Murphy, Brenda. 1999. ''Congressional Theatre: Dramatizing McCarthyism on Stage, Film and Television.'' Cambridge University Press. http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam032/99040314.pdfISBN 0521640881 *Passafiume, Andrea. 2009. ''The North Star.'' Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/85227/the-north-star#articles-reviews?articleId=276075 Retrieved 31 January 2021. *Rhodes, Gary D. 2020. ''The Milestones of Milestone''. Los Angeles Review of Books. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-milestones-of-milestone/Retrieved 10 January 2021. *Safford, Jeff. 2008. ''Ocean's Eleven.'' Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/18360/oceans-eleven/#articles-reviews?articleId=88915 Retrieved 21 February 2021. *Steffen, James. 2010. ''The Captain Hates The Sea.'' Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/70233/the-captain-hates-the-sea#articles-reviews?articleId=333881 Retrieved 31 January 2021. *Steffen, James. 2007. ''A Walk in the Sun.'' Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94993/a-walk-in-the-sun#articles-reviews?articleId=161092 Retrieved 9 February 2021. *Strago, Michael. 2017. ''The Front Page: Stop the Presses!'' Criterion Collection. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4382-the-front-page-stop-the-presses Retrieved 22 January 2021. *Tatara, Paul. 2009. ''Of Mice and Men (1939).'' Turner Classic Moviles https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/85392/of-mice-and-men#articles-reviews?articleId=240794 Retrieved 25 January 2021. *Tatara, Paul. 2011. My Life With Caroline. Turner Classic Movies.https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/1584/my-life-with-caroline#articles-reviews?articleId=409106 Retrieved 31 January 2011. * Thomson, David. 2015. ''All Quiet on the Western Front''. https://silentfilm.org/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/ Retrieved 11 January 2021. * Walsh, David. 2001. ''A dull thud; or, Filmmaking in bad faith: Ocean's Eleven, directed by Steven Soderbergh, screenplay by Ted Griffin.'' https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2001/12/ocea-d11.html Retrieved 1 February 2021. *Whiteley, Chris. 2020. ''Lewis Milestone (1995-1978)''. Hollywood's Golden Age. http://www.hollywoodsgoldenage.com/moguls/lewis-milestone.html Retrieved 18 January 2021. *Wood, Bret. 2003. ''The Front Page (1975)''. Turner Classic Movies. https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5902/the-front-page#articles-reviews?articleId=62600 Retrieved 22 January 2021. Bibliography *Genovés, Fernando R. (2013), ''Mervyn LeRoy y Lewis Milestone. Cine de variedades vs. de trinchera'', Amazon-Kindle. * Harlow Robinson (2019), ''Lewis Milestone :Life and Films'',The University Press of Kentucky

External links

* *
Lewis Milestone
at Virtual History
Lewis Milestone papers
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences {{DEFAULTSORT:Milestone, Lewis 1895 births 1980 deaths Film people from Chișinău People from Kishinyovsky Uyezd Moldovan Jews Bessarabian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American film directors American film producers American male screenwriters Best Directing Academy Award winners Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters