A Walk in the Sun -- May 26, 2025

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I thought this was a good day to write about Lewis Milestone's 1945 film A Walk in the Sun. It is set during Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion of Sicily during World War Two. It follows a platoon of infantry who land on the beach near Salerno and have to fight their way to a farmhouse on a hill. They don't know what is in the farmhouse. Men die, are wounded and suffer from shell shock along the way. Robert Ryan is a sergeant who has to assume command when the officer leading the platoon is seriously wounded on the beach. Ryan is surrounded by a team of excellent actors, including Norman Lloyd, Richard Conte, Lloyd Bridges and Sterling Holloway. Even Huntz Hall of the Bowery Boys has a small part. Eventually they make it.

All Quiet on the Western Front -- May 26, 2014

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.  I thought this was a good day to write about Universal's 1930 film All Quiet on the Western Front, based on the novel by German veteran Erich Maria Remarque.  Director Lewis Milestone made it into one of the great early talkies.  It follows a group of boys who listen to a teacher's speech about the importance of going to war.  They volunteer and go through training with a tough sergeant.  Then they get sent to the front and learn what war is like.  Paul, the main character, played by Lew Ayres, gets a furlough to go home and finds that people there do not know what war is like.  The ending is tragic, but I won't spoil it. 

The ad is from the 09-November-1929 Universal Weekly.