Under the title MR. CAPRA GOES TO WAR, Olive Films has put together a collection of Frank Capra’s WWII Army films, made under his supervision during his war service to help recruits understand what the hell all the fighting was about. Exceptionally well introduced, really contextualized, by Capra biographer Joseph McBride (FRANK CAPRA: THE CATASTROPHE OF SUCCESS), they include PRELUDE TO WAR; THE BATTLE OF RUSSIA (Parts 1 & 2); THE NEGRO SOLDIER; TUNISIAN VICTORY & a post-war training short, YOUR JOB IN GERMANY. All still hold interest, not only for content but also as historic artifact themselves. The first, PRELUDE, remains the best-known, a sort of potted history of the path to war, it’s the one with all the cool maps & animated graphics showing Germany, Japan & Italy bleeding over borders to take over neighboring countries. (Disney did the animation graphics.*) But it’s the next two, RUSSIA and THE NEGRO SOLDIER, that really catch your eye. Especially Part 2 of RUSSIA, with its Battle of Stalingrad footage, and the fascinating Black History Lesson of NEGRO SOLDIER. Even its title sets up a historical tone, and the choice of what to include and what to omit (not a word about slavery; not a mention of current segregation in the services or the narrow fields of opportunity open to Blacks in the military). Largely written by Carlton Moss, who plays the minister in the film whose Sunday sermon is used to structure the story, the film is both advanced for its period and written with compromising blinders on. Longest and most disappointingly generic, TUNISIAN VICTORY suffers from missing combat footage lost at sea. A joint British/American project, this one turned out better in the Theatre of War than in the theater. The final brief film, about how U.S. G.I.s should go about policing, but never trusting defeated Germans, is hair-raising in a never forget/never forgive manner; script by Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Suess). As factual documentaries, these ‘teaching films’ are now a problematic part of history themselves. Unique and unmissable.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Disney’s great animated contribution to the war effort, VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER/’43, remains all but unknown. (see below under WALT DISNEY: ON THE FRONT LINES) https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/11/walt-disney-on-front-lines-1941-45.html
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