IMDb RATING
7.1/10
2.1K
YOUR RATING
The close friendship of three German soldiers is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman, who is dying of tuberculosis.The close friendship of three German soldiers is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman, who is dying of tuberculosis.The close friendship of three German soldiers is strengthened by their shared love for the same woman, who is dying of tuberculosis.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 4 wins & 1 nomination total
Ricca Allen
- Housekeeper at Sea-side Hotel
- (uncredited)
Stanley Andrews
- Officer Giving Toast
- (uncredited)
Jessie Arnold
- Nurse at Sanatorium
- (uncredited)
Henry Brandon
- Valentin - Man with Eye Patch
- (uncredited)
Francis X. Bushman Jr.
- Second Comic
- (uncredited)
George Chandler
- First Comic with Singer
- (uncredited)
Spencer Charters
- Herr Schultz
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was F. Scott Fitzgerald's only screenwriting credit. Fitzgerald's first draft of the screenplay was completed September 1, 1937.
- GoofsNear the beginning, when the three main characters are seen as civilians, it is 1920. However, Otto's car "Baby" is a 1923 Voisin, and in the road race, the other car is a 1929 Renault.
- Quotes
Young Soldier: [At attention] Major, now that the war is over, can I call you "father" again?
- Crazy creditsThere is no credit for costume design.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Romance of Celluloid (1937)
- SoundtracksAch, wie ist's möglich dann
(uncredited)
(Treue Liebe)
Alte Volksweise
Written by Friedrich Kücken (1827) and Emmerich Freiherr von Hettersdorf (1812)
In the score throughout the film
Played on a record and sung in English by a chorus
Also sung a bit by Barbara Bedford accompanied on piano by Robert Taylor
Featured review
The Lost Generation
Three friends navigate life after the scarring experience of WWI in this melancholy and even somewhat eerie film from 1938.
Notable about this movie is the fact that it's about three German men, though the fact that they're played by Robert Taylor, Robert Young, and Franchot Tone makes that easy to forget. As the dark cloud of WWII was descending on Europe, it was kind of a gutsy move for Hollywood to think anyone would be able to care about a group of protagonists who were the enemy of the film's central conflict and still the enemy in the real conflict developing overseas. But the point of the movie is that war in general and WWI in particular left everyone shattered, no matter what side you were on. The film does a fantastic job of capturing the fatalistic, doomed quality that WWI implanted in the human psyche and that fueled what would be dubbed the Lost Generation of artists coming out of it. I'm personally fascinated by WWI and its psychological effects on the world, and so this movie was of particular interest to me.
I was also interested to see Margaret Sullavan in the role that brought her her sole career Academy Award nomination. She plays a dying woman who falls in love with one of the friends and changes the group's dynamic. Her impending death is a stand in for the impending death of everyone, something that before the war was an abstract notion but after it feels close and real. Death is an ever-present shadow in this movie, and its role in the film's ending makes it both haunting and uplifting at the same time.
Grade: A
Notable about this movie is the fact that it's about three German men, though the fact that they're played by Robert Taylor, Robert Young, and Franchot Tone makes that easy to forget. As the dark cloud of WWII was descending on Europe, it was kind of a gutsy move for Hollywood to think anyone would be able to care about a group of protagonists who were the enemy of the film's central conflict and still the enemy in the real conflict developing overseas. But the point of the movie is that war in general and WWI in particular left everyone shattered, no matter what side you were on. The film does a fantastic job of capturing the fatalistic, doomed quality that WWI implanted in the human psyche and that fueled what would be dubbed the Lost Generation of artists coming out of it. I'm personally fascinated by WWI and its psychological effects on the world, and so this movie was of particular interest to me.
I was also interested to see Margaret Sullavan in the role that brought her her sole career Academy Award nomination. She plays a dying woman who falls in love with one of the friends and changes the group's dynamic. Her impending death is a stand in for the impending death of everyone, something that before the war was an abstract notion but after it feels close and real. Death is an ever-present shadow in this movie, and its role in the film's ending makes it both haunting and uplifting at the same time.
Grade: A
helpful•40
- evanston_dad
- Jun 8, 2020
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Tri ratna druga
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $839,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 38 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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