THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920). Tinted with English subtitles.

Westfront 1918 is a German war film, set mostly in the trenches of the Western Front during World War I. It was directed in 1930 by G. W. Pabst, from a screenplay by Ladislaus Vajda based on the novel Vier von der Infanterie by Ernst Johannsen. The film shows the effect of the war on a group of infantrymen portrayed by an ensemble cast led by screen veterans Fritz Kampers and Gustav Diessl.

The film bears a very strong resemblance to its close contemporary All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), an American production, although it has a much bleaker tone, consistent with Pabst's New Objectivity work through the late 1920s. It was particularly pioneering in its early use of sound – it was Pabst's first "talkie" – in that Pabst managed to record live audio during complex tracking shots through the trenches.

PLOT
In 1918 in France during the last months of the First World War, four infantrymen – the Bavarian (Fritz Kampers), a young man known as 'the student' (Hans-Joachim Moebis), Karl (Gustav Diessl), and the Lieutenant (Claus Clausen) – spend a few rest-days behind the front. The student falls in love with a French peasant girl, Yvette (Jackie Monnier). Back at the front, the four suffer again the everyday hardships of war: dirt, trench warfare and the constant danger of death. The Bavarian, Karl and the Lieutenant become trapped when part of the trench collapses and the Student digs them out. Later they are mistakenly fired upon by their own artillery due to a misjudgement of distance and are again saved by the Student, who as a messenger risks his life to relay instructions to the soldiers setting the firing range of the artillery.

Karl receives leave, returning to his starving home town and promptly catches his wife in bed with a butcher. Embittered and unreconciled, he returns to the front. In his absence, the student is stabbed in a melee; his body lying in the mud of a shell-hole, only one hand sticking out. An offensive by the Allies begins, supported by tanks, and a mass of French Army Poilus breaks through the thin German trenches. During the defensive battle against the French, Karl and the Bavarian are seriously wounded, covering the remaining members of the group. The lieutenant has a nervous breakdown and falls into insanity. Shouting "Hurrah" non-stop, he salutes a pile of corpses. He is admitted to the field hospital together with Karl and the Bavarian. While the lieutenant is being carried though the hospital, many injured soldiers can be seen. In a fever, Karl sees his wife again and gasps, "We are all to blame!". He dies and is covered up, while his hand still hangs out. The wounded French Poilu lying beside him grasps Karl's hand and says, "Comrades, not enemies". The final message is then displayed, "The End?"

CAST
Fritz Kampers as The Bavarian
Gustav Diessl as Karl
Hans-Joachim Moebis as The Student
Claus Clausen as The Lieutenant
Jackie Monnier as Yvette
Hanna Hoessrich as Karl's Wife
Else Helle as Karl's Mother
Carl Ballhaus as Journeyman butcher
Vladimir Sokoloff as Purser