Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal, no. 65. Photo: Universal. Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim and Owen Davis Jr. in the American WWI, anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930), based on the novel 'Im Westen nichts neues' by Erich Maria Remarque.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4323/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings and Esther Ralston in Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5909/1, 1930-1931. Photo: United Artists. Mary Brian and Pat 'O Brien in The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine. Photo: M.G.M. Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948).
Taut editing, snappy dialogue and clever visual touches
Lewis Milestone was born Lev Milstein in 1895 in Kishinev, the capital of Bessarabia in the Russian Empire, now Chisinau, Moldova. ‘Milly’ was the son of a wealthy, distinguished clothing manufacturer. He was raised in Odessa in Ukraine. Milestone had an affinity for the theatre from an early age. Milstein's family discouraged his desire to follow the dramatic arts, and dispatched him to Germany to study engineering.
However, he started his career as a prop man and background artist. To escape being drafted into the Russian army during World War I, he travelled to the US in 1913 with $6.00 in his pocket. He had a succession of odd jobs, such as a dishwasher and a photographer's assistant. Shortly after the US entered World War I in 1917, he joined the Army Signal Corps to make educational short films for U.S. troops. After the war, he acquired American citizenship and legally changed his surname to Milestone.
An acquaintance from the Signal Corps, Jesse D. Hampton, now an independent film producer, secured Milestone an entry-level position as an assistant editor in Hollywood. Milestone quickly worked his way up the ranks to become editor, assistant director and writer. In 1920, he was chosen as general assistant to director Henry King at Pathé Exchange. Milestone's first credited work was as assistant on King's film Dice of Destiny (Henry King, 1920). He worked as editor for director-producer Thomas Ince, was general assistant and co-author on film scripts by William A. Seiter and worked as a gag writer for comedian Harold Lloyd.
These experiences would greatly influence his directing style in the years to come. Milestone directed his first film, Seven Sinners (1925), with Marie Prevost, for Howard Hughes. Two years later, he won his first of two Academy Awards for the comedy Two Arabian Knights (1927) starring William Boyd, Mary Astor, and Louis Wolheim. He received his second Oscar for his masterpiece, the anti-war picture All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque.
I.S. Mowis at IMDb: “The film, universally praised by reviewers for its eloquence and integrity, also won the Best Picture Academy Award that year. A noted Milestone innovation was the use of cameras mounted on wooden tracks, giving his films a more realistic and fluid, rather than static, look. Other trademarks associated with his pictures were taut editing, snappy dialogue and clever visual touches.” Milestone must be credited with a quirky sense of humour: when the producer of All Quiet on the Western Front, Carl Laemmle Jr., demanded a 'happy ending' for the picture, Milestone telephoned, "I've got your happy ending. We'll let the Germans win the war".
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4324/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings in Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929). Jannings' final Hollywood film is thought to be lost.
Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal, no. 66. Photo: Universal. Lew Ayres and Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930), based on the novel 'Im Westen nichts neues' by Erich Maria Remarque.
Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal. Photo: Universal. Louis Wolheim in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930).
Dutch postcard by Croeze-Bosman-Universal. Photo: Universal. Owen Davis Jr. in All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930). Owen Davis Jr. played Peter in the film. Croeze-Bosman was a Dutch film distribution company, founded in 1926 as a continuation of the Dutch American Film Co., a subsidiary of Universal.
A history of being ‘difficult’
In the 1930s, Lewis Milestone directed the Screwball comedy The Front Page (1931) with Adolphe Menjou, the melodrama Rain (1932) with Joan Crawford, based on a play by W. Somerset Maugham, the bravura adventure-melodrama The General Died at Dawn (1936), and an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1939) with Lon Chaney Jr. as the childlike Lennie Small and Burgess Meredith as his keeper George Milton.
Milestone was troubled by film directors' declining control within the studio system and supported King Vidor's proposal to organise a filmmakers' cooperative. Supporters for a Screen Directors Guild included Frank Borzage, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, Rouben Mamoulian and William Wellman, among others. By 1938, the guild was incorporated, representing 600 directors and assistant directors.
Milestone had a history of being ‘difficult’. He clashed with Howard Hughes, Warner Brothers and a host of studio executives over various contractual and artistic issues. Nonetheless, he remained constantly employed and worked for most of the major studios at one time or another, though never on long-term contracts. In 1949, he was blacklisted for a year because of left-wing affiliations dating back to the 1930s. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was desperately trying to find ‘Communist subversion’ in Hollywood films. Milestone was not required to testify before the HUAC because he began making films abroad, in both Britain and Italy, but these films were not successful.
Milestone's final years as a filmmaker correspond to the decline of the Hollywood movie empire. His last three films were Hollywood productions with large budgets, but he had a bad time on all of them. Gregory Peck re-edited Pork Chop Hill (1959), which he co-produced. Frank Sinatra and his 'Rat Pack' seem to have largely ignored him on the set of Ocean's Eleven (1960). His career ended with the remake of Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). He replaced Carol Reed as director after Reed quit because he could not cope with the massive ego of the film's star, Marlon Brando. Milestone didn't find Brando any easier to work with and in the end let him do as he pleased. The result was a hugely expensive box-office failure.
Milestone was then scheduled to direct PT 109 (1963) starring Cliff Robertson and Robert Culp, a film about President John F. Kennedy's wartime adventures, but he was replaced by TV director Leslie H. Martinson. After that, Milestone seems to have given up on films, although he directed a few television series episodes, an experience he did not enjoy. Having suffered a stroke, Lewis Milestone spent the last ten years of his life confined to a wheelchair. He died in 1980, after surgery at the University of California Medical Centre in Los Angeles. He died five days before his 85th birthday. Milestone was married to actress Kendall Lee from 1936 till her death in 1978.
British postcard. Photo: Paramount. Tullio Carminati in Paris in Spring / Paris Love Song (Lewis Milestone, 1935).
British postcard in the Film Partners series, no. P 214. Photo: Paramount. Madeleine Carroll and Gary Cooper in The General Died at Dawn (Lewis Milestone, 1936).
Belgian collector card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 176. Photo: M.G.M. Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman in Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948).
Belgian postcard, no. 152. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Peter Lawford in Kangaroo (Lewis Milestone, 1952).
Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.
No comments:
Post a Comment