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Warner Pathe Newsreels

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1
....News Magazine of the Screen Vol. 7, Issue 5 1957
Newsreel stories reformatted for classroom presentation. Hungarian revolution. Tour of the New York Public Library.
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2
....News Magazine of the Screen 1957
Newsreel stories reformatted for classroom use. Includes: United Nations Condemns Russia; Carrier Landings by Mirror; Arctic Ice Cap Adventure; Hummingbird Sanctuary; Low-Level Crop Dusters; Centuries of Telling Time; Old and New in Guided Missiles, showing a jet engine exploding when metal is dropped into it; and New York State's Erie Canal.
Shotlist Hurricanes & typhoons - Japan typhoon #9, #12, good disaster footage; USA hurricane "Flossy"; England builds replica of "The Mayflower" good ship building; Paratrooper medics; Poznan trails in Poland; Beatification of Innocent XI, good Pope footage (Pius XII); New military vehicle tested; Fort Ticonderoga (history of); Mountains: Japan rafting, Tibet climbing, Spain skiing, Alps cable cars (very good); Undersea exploration of the Andrea Doria safety
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3
.....News Magazine of the Screen Vol. 7, Issue 3 1956/11/
Shotlist 0:37:00 - VS Typhoon hits Kyushu, Japan; wrecked houses / flood damage / fires rage at night / school children in classroom, widespread destruction from typhoon, in BG, outside school window
0:38:34 - VS Hurricane hits Louisiana on gulf coast; flood waters, rescue workers, wrecked homes / two mailboxes, just above flood water
0:40:20 - VS workers build Mayflower replica in shipyard, England / ship sent down slipway of yard
0:41:12 - Army medics jump from transport plane in parachute drill
0:42:00 - Polish workers on trial, sit in communist courtroom (bread riots in Poznan, June 1956)
0:42:38 - Religious papal ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica marking sainthood for Innocent XI (Pope Pius XII)
0:43:26 - New military vehicles (tanks, jeeps) undergo tests.
0:44:11 - Aerial, Fort Ticonderoga / VS, sightsee of landmark... historic retrospective footage (SOUND TRACK)
0:48:00 - Mountain climber grips rope / two men ride raft on treacherous river (Kitaone Mountain Range, Japan). Man stands beside giant glacial boulder (Karakorum Mountain Range, Tibet). WS railroad train, mountains BG/ firecracker's go off on snowman (Pyrenees in Spain) / VS cable car ride; excellent WS of mountain peaks / scenic town of Chamonix, POV top of mountain (Mont Blanc, Alps, France)
0:52:00 - Undersea exploration of sunken ocean liner - Andrea Doria: Aerial, sinking ship, people in life boats / VS crew aboard cabin cruiser / deep sea divers go down and swim about / shark attacks boat / diver swims around sunken ship / sea divers surface / dead shark tied to stern of ship (Andrea Doria sank July 26, 1956. Above shots, taken 6 weeks later)
"Hurricanes in Two Hemispheres", good storm footage, disaster footage, floods in Japan, complete & utter desolation of typhoons #9 & #12, USA hurricane "Flossie" gulf states, "Historic Mayflower Is Reborn" (England), ship replace-ship building, "America's Jumping Medics" (paratroopers), "The Poznan Trails" (Poland), "Beatification of Pope Innocent XI' (Rome), "New Vehicles Are Ready for Anything" (military vehicles), "Fort Ticonderoga".

4
....News Magazine of the Screen, January 1951 Retreat in Korea.

5
.....News Magazine of the Screen, April 1950 United Nations forces at 38th parallel in Korea

6
....News Magazine of the Screen Vol. 7, Issue 4 1956/12/
Shotlist
1:13:22 - PRESIDENT EISENHOWER RE-ELECTED.
VS people step in and out of voting machine booths / Chinese on line wait to enter voting booth / handicapped senior citizens vote / cheering crowds on NYC Times Square, election night / Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, loses election, makes concession speech / more of Times Square election celebration / Times Building news-zipper announces RE-ELECTION OF EISENHOWER / political workers cheer Eisenhower at at victory party. On stage with Eisenhower are his wife, Mamie, and VP Richard Nixon, with his wife, Pat. Dwight Eisenhower makes election victory statement (SYNCH-SOUND). November, 1956.
1:16:14 - INVASION OF EGYPT
Aerial, Sinai Peninsular / Israeli soldiers capture Egyptian POWs / General Moshe Dayan and staff / aerial, Suez Canal / paratroopers jump from transport plane / amphibious troops attack Port Said...POWs with hands up, at gun point...wrecked houses, war ravaged streets of city / sunken ship blocks Suez Canal waterway.
(Britain & France, defied by US & UN, gave up their attempt to seize Suez Canal during Israel-Egypt conflict) October-November, 1956.
1:18:41 - RUSSIA CRUSHES HUNGARY
WS Budapest / VS rebel 'freedom fighters' battle in city streets / sign; RUSZKIK HAZA! / woman citizen, patrols street, holding rifle / three soviet war memorials smashed and destroyed...flags burned...and books set on fire / giant red star razed from rooftop ,sent crashing to street / VS civilians (rebels) shoot rifles & automatic weapons in streets and parks at enemy positions in buildings / rebel tanks fire cannon in streets of Budapest / brief shot, Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty / fast moving Russian tanks patrol Budapest streets / Hungarian refugees with all their worldly belongings flee...families uprooted from their homes / truck with red cross sign speeds across border check point / torn Hungarian flag flutters. (Anti-Soviet protests demanding ouster of soviet troops from Hungary led to sudden full scale revolt and suppression, October-November, 1956.
1:22:56 - FLOODS & FLOOD CONTROL
WS Guna River, India / workers dig mud on river bank to form a levee / Pandit Nehru visits flood area / people flee homes / remote village almost submerged in muddy water except for rooftops / prayer meeting. US Army Engineers lay down gigantic concrete mattresses underneath Mississippi River near Vicksburg (to help fight floods)
1:25:00 - FIRE FIGHTING GYMNASTICS - ITALY
EXCEPTIONAL SHOTS of hundreds of firemen performing precision movements, climbing and jumping from extended fire ladders. Also, leaping off building
1:25:34 - WORKING WITH ATOMS FOR PEACE - USA
Technician manipulates mechanical hands working with radioactive nuclear material
1:26:24 - RACE SUPPLIES TO DEW LINE AS ICE CLOSES IN - THE ARCTIC
Cargo ship through ice floes (Baffin Bay) / landing craft bring supplies ashore / brief, CU boots slogging through thick mud / supply stockpile / WS cargo ships anchored in remote landscape (Defense Early Warning radar station)
1:27:26 - A GREAT OCEAN RESCUE - THE PACIFIC
Crippled passenger plane makes emergency splash-down / passenger survivors rescued by rubber raft from coast guard weather ship / airplane sinks
1:28:35 - SCIENCE - THE WORLD WITHIN THE SEA
Dr. Roman Vishniac, scientist photographer, collects sea life specimens among the coastal rocks. ECU series of varied sea life under microscope

7
.....News Magazine of the Screen Vol. 7, Issue 2 1956/10
1:21:00 - KEEPING UP WITH THE CANDIDATES - USA EISENHOWER AND NIXON
President Dwight Eisenhower strolls garden at Gettysburg, Penna. home, with wife, Mamie Eisenhower...also shown with grandson and granddaughter, David and Barbara Eisenhower / President Eisenhower & VP Richard Nixon, also their wives, Mamie Eisenhower & Pat Nixon, attend political meeting with Republican party supporters in outdoor tent / Eisenhower looks at an IKE umbrella; re-election campaign souvenir / President Eisenhower putts golf ball on green, but misses hole / Eisenhower with beaming smile
1:22:35 - STEVENSON AND KEFAUVER
Adlai Stevenson greeted by cheering supporters holding political signs and Indians wearing tribal headdresses of feathers / Senator Estes Kefauver smokes Indian peace pipe
(Eisenhower won landslide victory for a second presidential term in 1956, defeating Stevenson 41 states to 7 and by 25 million votes to 18 million )
1:23:17 - NATURE ON A RAMPAGE MURRAY RIVER FLOOD - AUSTRALIA
VS homes submerged to their rooftops by flood waters / frightened cat almost drowns when it fails leap to safety
TYPHOON EMMA - JAPAN & OKINAWA
VS raging torrential rains and winds sweep coastal areas with destruction
1:25:00 - 50-YEAR-OLD AIRPLANE FLIES AGAIN - DENMARK
Pilot operates controls of primitive 1906 aircraft for a brief flight
1:25:49 - NEW CRACKS IN THE COLOSSEUM - ITALY
Ancient Rome amphitheater undergoes repair work
1:26:29 - BOMBS PROBE THICKNESS OF EARTH'S CRUST - FRENCH ALPS
Geologists set off series of explosions
1:27:15 - DAM DOOMS FAMED INDIAN FISHING HOLE - USA
WS Dallas Dam (Oregon) / American Indians fish for salmon on Columbia River. (I think this is The Dalles Dam)
1:27:47 - VULCAN GUN OUTSHOOTS 400 RIFLEMEN - USA
Cannon fires shells at target on shooting range / tracer shells, night firing
1:28:27 - A HAPPY FAMILY OF 62 - CANADA
Farmer couple care for homeless boys and girls. Clotheslines on farm filled with hanging clothes / children say grace before meals / hungry boys and girls, seated at table, eat foods / children say prayers before sleep
1:29:36 - NATURAL RESOURCES
THE FIRST OIL WELL
Series of retrospective shots tied to historic narrative presentation - story of beginnings of oil industry by Colonel Edwin Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania, 1859. Includes good shot of oil storage tanks
1:33:08 - THE FACE OF AMERICA
THE ROYAL GORGE
Visit to Rocky Mountain natural wonder in Colorado. WS grazing sheep on prairie, snow covered mountains in BG / railroad train ride through gorge, POV front car / TU suspension bridge connects sides of canyon / train rides over 'hanging' railroad bridge / tourist, precariously seated on brink of sheer drop, watches train pass along gorge far below / tourists take steep cable car ride down narrow canyon...also cable car ride going up canyon / finally, ride across suspension bridge across canyon
1:37:05 - LITERATURE
HAMLET'S CASTLE
Class of school children visit medieval Danish castle. VS EXT & INT views of Kroneborg ? castle / actors wear Elizabethan costumes (narrator recites from Shakespeare's play)
Includes historical recreation of the discovery of oil at Titusville, Pennsylvania in the mid 1800s.

8
.....Warner Pathé News Magazine of the Screen Vol. 4, Issue 4 1953/12
Indo-China war footage.
A soldier comes back with a little korean boy he's adopted. American soldiers uniform on. One of the Dionne quintuplets, the most famous quints ever, gets more press coverage as she joins a convenent. She kisses them all goodbye
Plane attempting to land on a snow covered mountain Planes, faster models for jet planes. Replication of a famous clock made by what looks like Mecchano
A marionnette troupe.
The US Blimp fleet is showcased, patrolling New York .
Australia, a cross country race by automobile,different climates these vehicles had to go through.
Rochester's Eastman house Great old cameras and photos

9
...News Magazine of the Screen, October 1950

10
....Pathe News Digest 1937, No. 3
Shotlist
Includes: Russia--Answer to Japan; Stalin reviews fleet and air; Milk-Wooll Rocket -- Ice Genius "backfires"; Washington vs. Chicago football; CIO strike -- John L. Lewis; War-torn Madrid; Coronation of George VI; Simpsons; Flood in Ohio; Explosion in Texas; Amelia Earhart's last flight; Hindenburg explodes.
08:14:50 Hundreds of airplanes in sky
08:15:07 Stalin footage Football Look back at news of 1937
08:23:34 CIO strike - thousands holding signs, etc.
08:23:45 Crowd attacks factory breaking windows
08:24:04 Madrid
08:24:07 Behind the barricades on city streets
08:24:17 Bombed out house
08:24:24 Getting bodies out of rubble (little girl)
08:24:40 Coronation of George VI Baroque carriage with attendants moves down the street
08:24:55 Coronation
08:25:08 Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson
08:25:10 MCU The Windsors
08:25:13 CU Wallis Simpson 08:25:33
08:25:37 House being flooded
08:25:41 City street totally flooded Nice traveling shot
08:25:54 Destroyed building
08:26:09 Amelia Earhart preparing for last flight
08:26:17 The Hindenburg exploding

11
....Warner Pathe News News Magazine of the Screen, November 1950
U.N. celebrates it's 5th anniversary both in New York
Truman shakes the russian general's hand.
Germans turn out for the unveilling of the Victory Bell though.. Hmmm..
Follow Truman as he flies to an island for a visit with Maccarthur about the Korean War. Before that, he goes to Hawaii to make a surprisingly robust speech. .
'Good News From Europe!" focuses on Europe rebuilding after the War,
A Scientist shows us how Mice and Cats can live together and work together to achieve a Common Goal! A race with old Time Autos'
The speed of these cars, doesn t go beyond 30 miles an hour Vienna riding troupe, doing some clever tricks..
Waterskiing troupe, skiing around the New York Harbor, narrowly missing tanker ships!
Louisiana Purchase!

12
...Pathe News Christmas with Their Cameramen and Crews 'Round the World 1950
00:41:23 Newsreel cameramen from around the world wish the audience Merry Christmas. WS Children's choir Cameramen in Hollywood, Paris, Chicago, London, Washington, Mexico, San Francisco, South America, Seattle, Miami, Tokyo, Berlin

13
....Pathe News: Goodman Lumber Fire 1955

14
....News Magazine of the Screen 1952
Korean War Overview: military maneuvers, MAccarthur arriving, drop of supplies from the jet.
French Premier arrives in New York: tour around before meeting with Truman, where the "negotiations" were "successful".
Red Cross Blood Program: Pretty standard plea for more blood, needed at the war front , shot of a nurse tiptoeing through a field helping the injured war vets
Underwater Army Vehicles: The army introduces their new vehicles.. they run under water! You need an aqualung for this, very strange vehicle One wonders WHY they would need it. Review of model trains .
A NY church that can switch denominations by means of a switch is shown next
A Track and Field championships event ,focus on a sprint runner a shot putter and a pole vaulter
Australia is presented, and why the Aussies are so important to us,

15
....Warner Pathé NewsNews Magazine of the ScreenVol. 4, Issue 21953/10
Shotlist
0:00:00 - REPORT ON KOREA
Soldiers from India arrive to fight as allies in Korea / Chinese & North Korea POWs / Korean school children, in field, pledge allegiance to flag / GIs & Korean civilians attend church / VS paratroopers jump from airplanes in airborne training exercise
0:02:15 - President Dwight Eisenhower,
and wife, Mamie, greet son John Eisenhower, on his return home from military duty in Korean / CU General William Dean, returns from Korean prisoner-of-war camp (POW) / families (children, wives) united with returning soldiers in England
0:03:08 - REPORT ON GERMANY
VS Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, campaigns in West German elections / German policemen struggle with communist agitators / German civilians watch American soldiers leave for maneuvers (mock nuclear attack) / German policemen parade, Olympic Stadium, West Berlin (GOOD SHOT OF DRUM CORPS) / VS East German boys & girls visit West Germany (Children's Airlift Project) / hungry children eat food in camp dining hall
0:05:20 - ATTEMPT TO SLAY SULTAN
Attacker tries to stab Sultan of Morocco on way to mosque for prayers
0:05:52 - MID-ATLANTIC SEA RESCUE
Sailors jump into ocean from sinking freighter ('Greenville')
0:07:00 - ART
Various Italian postage stamps with art work shown in ECU / sculptor ? works in studio on variety of subjects, including group equestrian of Czar Nicholas II and his generals / sculpted baby fondled by live baby
0:09:09 - AGRICULTURE
WS waters flow from Grand Coulee Dam through spillway / INT dam; large size pumps & control room / WS cultivated & irrigated crop land, Columbia River basin, Washington.
0:10:48 - SCIENCE
Professor (Llewellyn Heard) entertains college students with magic show, ('playing with fire'), at outdoor chemistry lab set up in band shell
0:13:05 - MILITARY SCIENCE -- ATOMIC CANNON
Soldiers; their bodies wired for heat tests, run on hot desert sand dunes in Mojave Desert, California / soldier walks threadmill in desert to measure endurance / giant nuclear cannon transported to test site...shoots nuclear shell...nuclear explosion, atomic cloud forms
0:15:00 - Malayan natives float down river on house rafts with all their possessions, to relocate to new location / VS Malayans construct new homes & village (communist threat in Kelantan state)
0:17:40 - AMERICA'S HERITAGE
Short historic retrospective, BIO, Theodore Roosevelt (TR), done in photographs / WS Sagamore Hill / TR film footage - he campaigns for office, hunts in Africa, meets press at White House, speaks at large WWI street rally (Sarah Bernhardt, also speaks at rally; brief), visits army training camp, WS, speaks before vast crowd (GOOD CAM PAN OF CROWD)
0:21:00 - Theodore Roosevelt speaks (SYNCH-SOUNDTRACK, from very rare re-recorded phonograph cylinder) / VS, EXT & INT, Sagamore Hill, New York / TR gravesite / CU TR

16
...News Magazine of the ScreenVol. 5, Issue 10; Summer Review 1955/08
'Meeting At The Summit' 4 countries getting together to discuss . Ike comes home, everyone from Dick Nixon to the mother in laws are there to greet Ike,
The Viet Nam and the Morocco riot footage
Austria gets it's Sovreignity much to their approval.
Nuclear testincludes the dummies that just get blown away. )
newspapers in the classroom shown with kids Older kids are shown how to make their own newspaper
Discontinuation of the El line in New York. Antiquated line and it's track,ran too close to apartments..
Tennis and golf championships The golf championship footage Ben Hogan being 'upset' by a unknown golfer.
Finally, Old Ironsides is covered. Although not in use anymore, soldiers still take care of it, and crowds still flock to it.

17
....News Magazine of the Screen Vol. 2, Issue 6 1952/02
Newsreel stories reformatted for classroom presentation. Includes: Dwight D. Eisenhower enters 1952 Republican party primary; blizzard at California's Donner Pass; Winston Churchill visits the United States; nuclear test at Frenchman's Flat, Nevada; Italian man sculpts human and animal figurines out of raw vegetables; new camera developed to track guided missiles in flight; history and landmarks of the Territory of Hawaii; captain Henrik Kurt Carlsen and his heroism at the helm of sinking freighter "Flying Enterprise."
0:56:00 - THE WORLD IN THE CAMERA
Volunteer political workers walk through entrance marked Eisenhower headquarters / Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. enters Dwight Eisenhower as candidate in New Hampshire Republican primary election...stands in front of large blow-up photograph on wall of Eisenhower image (SYNCH-SOUND) / Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (NATO) speaks (SYNCH-SOUND) / pretty volunteer worker mails political leaflets...sign reads; WE LIKE IKE...also, I LIKE IKE buttons
(In March, Eisenhower won New Hampshire primary, defeated major challenger, Robert Taft, and so began his successful bid for the presidency
0:58:35 - After blizzard, people shovel out from ten foot of snow... people also stand on top of twenty foot of snow / aerial over snow covered Donner Pass (California) / VS railroad train plowing its way through thick piles of snow on rails / marooned people, rescued from snowbound train
1:01:22 - WS Queen Mary ocean liner at sea / Queen Mary enters NYC harbor / Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain & NYC Mayor, Vincent Impellitteri (brief) / Winston Churchill stands in doorway of airplane, takes off his hat / airliner lands Washington DC...military guard salutes with rifles / Churchill debarks plane...greeted by President Harry Truman, they shake hands ( Anthony Eden, also there) / Churchill & Truman aboard yacht, Williamsburg...Churchill gently puffs on cigar / Winston Churchill speaks to joint session of US Congress, says, America should keep control of nuclear weapons...gets applause (SYNCH-SOUND). Also, brief of Bess Truman & Margaret Truman in gallery to listen to speech) (Churchill visits Truman for talks about Cold War foreign policy questions January 5, 1952)
1:03:08 - Army troops in the field watch nuclear explosion near ground zero. General Mark Clark among those to observe blast (Test site at Frenchmen's Flat, Nevada)
1:04:50 - HANDICRAFT
Man sculpts animal & human figurines out of raw vegetables (Luigi Livraghi of Milan, Italy)
1:06:15 - SCIENCE
VS new camera and its parts in detail (to film guided missiles in flight)
1:08:00 - KNOW YOUR NATION
Historic retrospective on Hawaii followed by VS MONTAGE of tourist landmarks. Some of the more interesting shots in BRIEF: WS ocean waves, Hawaii coast...and mountains / crane drops load of sugar cane / pineapple pickers / Hawaiian hula dancer / surfboard riders / WS Honolulu / Aloha Tower / University of Hawaii campus / cattle graze on plain / Mauna Loa volcano erupts / fishing feast on beach / young girls dance hula / pair of palm trees against sky (Hawaii entered union as 50th State, August, 1959)
1:13:42 - PERSONAL HEROISM
VS freighter (Flying Enterprise, Isbrandsten Line) sinks in storm tossed ocean waters of North Atlantic / sailors remove headgear, in salute, as ship's bow goes down under the sea / rescued captain of ship, Henrik Kurt Carlsen, comes home a hero to cheering crowds / Captain Carlsen cheered by crowd at airport in NYC / ticker tape parade up lower Broadway for Captain Carlsen / Crowd in Woodbridge, NJ, cheer and parade for returning home town hero / Captain Carlsen, speaks to crowd...I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT ALL! (SYNCH-SOUND) / Captain Carlsen, wife, and young daughters

18
....Dead Fair 1940
Treasure Island, in San Francisco Bay, shown after the closure of the Golden Gate International Exposition.
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19
....News Magazine of the Screen, March 1952

20
....Warner Pathe News Magazine of the Screen, December 1950 Part I
Newsreel stories reformatted for educational presentation, including the assassination attempt on President Harry S. Truman.

21
....Warner Pathe News Magazine of the Screen, December 1950 Part 2
Newsreel stories reformatted for educational presentation, including the assassination attempt on President Harry S. Truman.

22
...Pathe News, Inc.Man Against the River 1937
Describes the work of members of the Works Projects Administration in helping refugees of a winter flood of the Ohio River.
WPA into action after a massive flood hit the Ohio river.
Scenes of total devastation are shown, Homes totally flooded, only way to get by are boats, leave your pets and livestock behind etc, women with their Fur Coats and hats on, flood was the social event of the season.
Focuses on the work of the WPA, damming up rivers, building sidewalks, and generally cleaning up.

23
....Pathe News We Work Again 1930
How the New Deal benefits former American slaves and native Americans
Serie of vignettes into contruction sites, playgrounds, garment factories, health care facilities thoughout the U.S. durring the 1930s. manual labor and the arts Portrays people of color in a sympathetic and positive light comes though. Inter Racial children are even seen playing together and women of all races are working in the same clothing factory.

24
..RKO-PatheConquer by the Clock 1943
Encourages American workers to make the best possible use of their time in a war where industrial production and combat are synchronized on an international level. Encourages American wartime workers to "keep their sleeves rolled up." Describes the volume of industrial and agricultural production that can be accomplished in a single day: enough rifles for a battalion, 1000 acres of corn converted to 30,000 bushels of food."
Calls tired workers, in effect, "saboteurs". Narration admonishes workers for the death of soldiers through inadequate equipment or supplies. Utterly melodramatic. Urges workers to move production forward relentlessly. Says that "the clock" is what will win the war.
"The clock on the wall -- on the 7th day of December, 1941, it struck the eleventh hour. Every hour after that has been, will be, zero hour."
Patriotic discourse today tends to speak in generalities. It asks the public for its mind, rather than its commitment. But the world of Conquer by the Clock is a world at war. Patriotism requires universal, compulsory mobilization of bodies and time. Here allegiance means work rather than words.
In this world time and distance have collapsed. Clocks and long-distance communication networks regulate the world according to a single beat. This is a globalist film, an uncanny precursor both of postwar one-worlder consciousness and the international workplace of the Nineties. "Sunrise over Republic Steel. High noon at Willow Run. Sunfall on the Electric Boat Company. Midnight at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Dawn to dusk, and back to dawn again. Three eight-hour shifts. One day. So much can be done in a day if Americans will keep their sleeves rolled up."
Time, the elusive fourth dimension, is also a commodity: "Every American has his job to do, and the will to do it, and the tools to do it with. Pray God, he also has the time. Time -- the most vital natural resource of a country at war. Every tick of a clock is time won or lost. Every 60-minute sweep, every 12-hour tour of those relentless hands are turning out carload lots of time for us to use ourselves or to give away to the enemy." There are shots of workers running to their jobs, hands picking up hammers, pitchforks, rifles. "Our hands must be as relentless as the hands of our clocks. They cannot afford to be less."
To a strident narration and the beat of pendulums and metronomes, the theme is hammered home. As the advertisements in the supplement entitled "Production: Front-Line Trench" show, this theme filled the wartime media, illustrated by images of clocks and self-sacrificing war workers.
In this vision, there's little difference between the actions of patriotic but thoughtless Americans and Axis saboteurs. The filmÃ•s flavor is shown by a partial synopsis, written by a wartime reviewer expressing the racism of the time: Ã’a girl inspecting rifle cartridges in a war plant Ã‘ a patriotic American Ã‘ takes time for an extra smoke, neglects to fill her place on the inspection line, and thus allows several boxes of uninspected cartridges to pass as O.K. One of these cartridges, a dud, later finds its way into the rifle of an American soldier somewhere in the South Pacific. On scouting patrol, he sights a Jap, aims, presses the trigger and fires Ã‘ harmlessly. He is killed by a Jap bullet.
PM, New York's leftwing daily, in its review (on this disc) tried to set the record straight by citing cases of timewasting by corporate management, but ended up by praising the film as "remarkably well conceived, almost like a mechanical symphony, with swift cross-shots of machinery in action, rhythmically and even catchily in time to a musical score."
Similar to many other World War II-era films, Conquer by the Clock equates patriotism with productivity, and reframed the New Deal-era ethic of collective action into a wartime context. Two parables about carelessness and recreation on the homefront are followed by a chorus singing inspirational doggerel in the style of From Dawn to Sunset (see the Capitalist Realism disc).
Steel, might and skill are welded
To win liberty for all.
Let's keep the flame of freedom
Blazing whatever may befall.
Fill every burning moment
Until conquered is the foe
In every time
We fight for time
For we must ever onward go.
You in the field and farmland
and you in the factory
Will help to make men free
Until the victory --
The victory!
And the hands of a rapidly spinning clock slow down to form a "V."
Director Slavko Vorkapich (1895Ã‘1976), was the acknowledged master of "montage sequences" -- image combination and superimposition techniques that infused often quite ordinary movies with moments of abstraction. With Robert Florey and Gregg Toland, he made the early American experimental film The Life and Death of a Hollywood Extra (1928); later, he made his famous contribution to Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's Crime Without Passion (1934). Besides Conquer by the Clock, he made six other This Is America short subjects for RKO-PathZ, including Private Smith, U.S.A., Women in Arms, Lieutenant Smith and New Americans. For many years, he wrote and lectured on cinematic form and structure, and taught advanced film students. Since Conquer by the Clock isn't available through current distribution channels, few have seen this example of his work, one of the few films that was all his own. But given Vorkapich's strong opinions about the relationship of art and entertainment, it's worth a look. As he told Thomas M. Pryor of The New York Times (November 26, 1944): "There are moments in every picture but no one picture is completely art. Cutters don't notice the beauty of movement. If a producer were striving for this art he would say to his writers...read only the picture story and not the dialogue. If the images express the ideas it would be art."
Ken Smith sez: The only way we can beat the Axis Powers is to outproduce them. Great editing; script lays the guilt on thick. The kind of melodramatic production most people imagine when they think of a WWII propaganda film. As much fun as spitting in der Fuherer's face.
Pearl Harbor clocks smoking world war II WWII production factories propaganda Montages Visual Effects Surrealism Patriotism Work Labor Time Management Pendulums Victory Danger Lurks
[RKO Pathe presents Conquer by the Clock.]
[Produced by Frederic Ullman, Jr. Directed by Slavko Vorkapich. Written by Phil Reisman, Jr. Photographed by Larry O'Reilly. Edited by John Hoffman. Musical Score by Erno Rapee.] The clock on the wall. On the seventh day of December 1941, it struck the eleventh hour. Every hour after that has been, will be, zero hour. [WAR clocks wall calendars time teletypes newspaper offices city rooms news bulletins United States declares typing newspaper headlines]
Forty-eight United States of a free and sovereign America are at war. Every American has his job to do, and the will to do it, and the tools to do it with. Pray God he also has the time. [The New York Sun Jap Planes Bomb Manila U.S. Declares War arms rolling up sleeves working war mobilization war effort hammers tools sledgehammers picks forks rifles farmers workers soldiers pendulums clocks]
Time, the most vital natural resource of a country at war. Every tick of the clock is time won or lost. Every sixty-minute sweep, every twelve-hour tour of those relentless hands is turning out carload lots of time for us to use ourselves or to give away to the enemy. [clocks hands montages Black workers African American workers shoveling coal furnaces motors engines]
[machinery ladles metals goggles heavy industry assembly manufacturing grinding Rosie the Riveter women workers welding pipes]
All the scientific devices of chronology are machines manufacturing time - the tool that in our hands means victory, and our hands must be as relentless as the hands of our clocks. They cannot afford to be less. [clocks superimposed montages globes sundials filing files metronomes rhythm beating]
Sunrise over Republic Steel. High noon at Willow Run. Sunfall on the Electric Boat company, midnight at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Dawn to dusk, and back to dawn again. Three eight-hour shifts, one day. So much can be done in a day if Americans will keep their sleeves rolled up. [bolts nuts rotation turning smokestacks skies steel mills Ford Motor Company bombers submarines New London, Connecticut Detroit, Michigan Brooklyn, New York shipyards guards sentries shipbuilding]
Inside of twenty-four hours, one-twentieth of a freighter or a tanker can be built. Within those same twenty-four hours a squadron of tanks can roll off the assembly line and a flight of bombers made ready from radio to rudder bolt. In one day a thousand acres of corn can become thirty thousand bushels of food. [shipyards cranes factories airplanes aircraft farming combines harvesting agriculture]
In one day one plant unit can turn out enough rifles to equip a battalion of infantry - the men who in one day might win a war, or lose it. [lathes woodworking gunstocks soldiers marching]
How? Well, let's visit upstate, at a factory where they make 30-caliber rifle cartridges for the Army. Let's visit Jean, one of the girls who inspects these cartridges before they're shipped. [women workers]
She's a good kid, loves her country, and a guy named Joe. He gave her that pin she's wearing before he went to Australia. She's a good kid, honest, intelligent, but she gets tired in the afternoon sometimes, likes to take extra time off for a smoke. That's all, only a few minutes - a few minutes. It only takes a second to jar the primer out of a cartridge. [defects quality mistakes errors duds]
And it only takes a second to put an okay ticket on a lot that should have been rejected. [inspection inspected]
A cartridge without a primer is one that will never fire. It's about as useful in a rifle as a cigarette or as the minutes that go up in its smoke. [smoking]
One bad cartridge, one chance in a million to get by undetected. One second in sixty, one girl out of a hundred who is an honest, patriotic intelligent saboteur. [assembly lines] [smoke montage Salvador Dali surrealism melting clocks]
Yes, Jean is intelligent, intelligent enough to know that one of these bullets in good condition can travel three miles. But she doesn't know that a defective one can go halfway 'round the world. [railroads boxcars transportation ships globes] Somewhere in the Pacific, somewhere between the Devil and the Dutch East Indies is an American scouting patrol.
[patrol soldiers combat U.S. Army jungle Japanese soldiers military fighting death killing casualties rifles gunshots]
Too bad about that cartridge missing fire. It should have been rejected. It would have been too, if a girl named Jean hadn't taken time out to smoke. [guilt] Now meet JG, General Manager of a large wholesale food house - makes twelve thousand a year, worn a white collar all his life, that is except for the khaki one he wore in 1918. Tried to get in this scrap after Pearl Harbor, but they said his son could handle the fighting orders, and he could go on taking food orders like this - fifty cases of 14-A1. That's code for lifeboat provisions. Notify Martin. That means ship on Monday. [executives management offices pictures soldiers photographs telegrams Postal Telegraph] Too old, too old to fight, but not too old to work yourself silly trying to get out orders and priorities on time. Time. Holy mackerel! It's two-thirty. I'll have to rush like Old Harry to make it.
Better tell Mabel where I'll be. Oh no no no. Why bother? It's Saturday - that lifeboat stuff doesn't go out 'til Monday. Nothing can come up over the weekend. Besides, I've got an important engagement with a couple of guys. Important engagement with a couple of guys! [clocks]
A couple of guys on the home team. Well they are leading the league, and it's his first Saturday off in four months, and there's nothing that can't wait nine innings - nothing that is except time - time and tide, and convoys. A change in sending orders and an urgent wire in code. Lifeboat supplies, to be shipped at once - shipped by a man who is busy coaching at first base. [baseball games clocks stadium ballparks sliding bases home telegrams Saturday 8 August 1942]
Unfortunately a convoy can't wait for the last inning. A convoy waits for the tide, and the tide waits for no man. Standing beside a lifeboat only partly provisioned, six American fliers sail for Ireland in convoy on a freighter that falls behind its escort. It's an old story.
[submarine attack periscopes U-boats torpedoes firing explosions smoke lifeboats rescues] Six men sail for Ireland. Two of them got there. One of them out of his mind. The other one dead. Twenty-five days in a boat provisioned for ten days. [death watches] The tide rolls in, JG, and the clock ticks on, and neither one in peace or war will wait for nine innings.
The state of North Australia is twenty-three time zones away from the state of Michigan. But the clock in the cockpit of the plane over Darwin and the watch on the wrist of the officer in New Guinea are synchronized with the clock at the door of the factory in Detroit and, and geared to the clock over the watercooler in Kalamazoo. [globe time zones montages clocks surrealism clouds skies airplanes time clocks timeclocks]
The production rate of our factories and the firing rate of our guns is synchronized by one machine. The clock. This is the machine that manufactures victory, turning out thirty-two and a half million seconds each year. Each separate tick a precious tool to use in building our future. [workers running changing shifts shift changes punching time clocks timeclocks]
And you - these are your tools, your hands. And they must be as relentless as the hands
of your clocks. If we are to conquer, they cannot afford to be less.
Steel, might and skill are welded [shoveling coal songs]
To win liberty for all.
Let's keep the flame of freedom Blazing whatever may befall.
Fill every burning moment Until conquered is the foe
In every time We fight for time
For we must ever onward go.
You in the field and farmland and you in the factory
Will help to make men free Until the victory - The victory!
steel mills steelworkers foundries hammering grinding welding welders The End rolling mills camshafts workers V clocks marching soldiers airplanes

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