Every Sequel To Best Picture Oscar Winners - Ranked

Sequel mania is by no means a new trend in Hollywood. It's been churning them out since films were first committed to celluloid, and 1937's The Road Back - the belated follow-up to All Quiet on the Western Front - is an early blockbuster example.

Bride of Frankenstein's James Whale replaced Lewis Milestone on the director's chair and the work of author Erich Maria Remarque once again served as the film's inspiration. The story revisited the Second Company from the original and followed their struggles to return to civilian life in Germany after World War I.

The Road Back should have been Whale's crowing directorial achievement. A powerful, controversial indictment of armed conflict which warned the world about the impending dangers of the Nazi regime in Germany during the late 1930s, but studio meddling left it a shadow of the movie it could have been.

The German government threatened to boycott all of Universal's movies unless the anti-Nazi messages were removed from the film. Recently under new management, the studio bowed to these demands, much to Whale's chagrin.

Even though The Road Back was cut to pieces in the editing suite, the battle scenes remain powerful, shot using a special type of crane that was developed specifically for the movie. Whale's vision shines through on occasions like these. It's just shame Universal was only too happy to suppress it the rest of the time.