O/T: "Wooden Crosses" (1932)

After posting about "Westfront 1918" last Monday, I learned about this
film and ordered a copy from Netflix right away. I watched it today.
Although IMO, the film's story is much weaker than either "Westfront
1918" or "All Quiet on the Western Front," the film features some
outstanding B & W cinematography, much of it done to appear as if the
film was filmed mostly in darkness (a difficult task indeed).
Unlike "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Westfront 1918," this
film concerns the plight of the French soldiers, and not the Germans, as
the other two films do.
  Although the war scenes were very believable, especially watching
the scenes in the trenches, it didn't have nearly as much story as
either of the other two films mentioned here.
  The sound quality also left a little to be desired, but the
restoration and the high resolution B & W made the film appear as if it
had been made just last year.
  The same director (Raymond Bernard) also made a very long "Les
Miserables" that I saw years ago. Like this film, it's in the French
language, but I'll have little trouble following the tale since it is
perhaps my favorite story. I should get to watch that next week. I'm
looking forward to watching this again.

To sumit up, this was an interesting film (there were no extra
features on the DVD), but (stealing from another film's title), this was
also "A Very Long Engagement."

Once was enough for me.

Rich Wagner