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List of Allied propaganda films of World War II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
During (and immediately after) the war, in addition to the many private films created to help the war effort, many Allied countries had governmental or semi-governmental agencies commission propaganda and training films for home and foreign consumption. Animated films will be reserved for a future list.
Contents |
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Lion Has Wings | Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Michael Powell, Alexander Korda (uncredited) |
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| An Airman's Letter to His Mother | Michael Powell | |
| ATS | A film about the Auxiliary Territorial Service, a women's formation | |
| The Battle of London | Jack Kemp | |
| Christmas Under Fire | Charles Hasse and Harry Watt | Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject |
| Fighting Fields | Stanley Russell | |
| Food for Freedom | ||
| Green Girdle | Ralph Keene | |
| The Heart of Britain | Humphrey Jennings | |
| How to Dig | ||
| How to File | ||
| Merchant Seamen | ||
| Plastic Surgery in Wartime | ||
| Queen's Messengers | ||
| Shunter Black's Night Off | ||
| Target for Tonight | ||
| Words for Battle |
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Burma Victory | Roy Boulting | |
| A Diary for Timothy | Humphrey Jennings | |
| Farm Work | ||
| Homes for the People | ||
| Song of the People | ||
| Steam | ||
| The Ten Year Plan | ||
| This Was Japan | ||
| The True Glory | Shows the final invasion and victory in Europe; won Academy Award for Documentary Feature |
In Australia the Australian News & Information Bureau, as well as the Australian Department of Information, produced the following
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Advance to Libya | Frank Hurley | |
| 1942 | Kokoda Front Line! | Won Academy Award for Documentary Feature | |
| 1942 | Men of Timor | ||
| 1942 | Moresby Under the Blitz | Ken G. Hall | |
| 1942 | Soldiers Without Uniforms | Charles Chauvel | |
| 1943 | Assault on Salamaua | ||
| 1943 | The Bismarck Convoy Smashed | ||
| 1945 | Mid East | Frank Hurley |
In Canada, the National Film Board of Canada either distributed or produced the following
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ACK ACK | Peter Baylis | French title:Défense contre avions |
| Battle of Brains | Stanley Hawes | |
| Call for Volunteers | Radford Crawley | |
| Churchill's Island | Stuart Legg | Won Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject. First NFB Oscar winner. |
| Fight for Liberty | ||
| Food, Weapon of Conquest | Stuart Legg | |
| Guards of the North | Raymond Spottiswoode | |
| Heroes of the Atlantic | J.D. Davidson | Watch online |
| Iceland on the Prairies | Radford Crawley | |
| The People's War | ||
| Soldiers All | Stuart Legg | |
| Strategy of Metals | Raymond Spottiswoode | |
| Strategy of Metals | Graham McInnes | Combination of A Call for Voluntters (above) and Ottawa, Wartime Capital |
| Tools of War | ||
| Warclouds in the Pacific | Stuart Legg | Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject |
| Who Sheds His Blood | Judith Crawley | |
| Wings of a Continent | Raymond Spottiswoode |
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Battle for Oil | Stuart Legg | |
| Battle of the Harvests | Stanley Jackson | |
| Blitzkrieg Tactics | Contains footage of Nazi film Feuertaufe | |
| Everywhere in the World | Stuart Legg | Stresses Commonwealth and American solidarity |
| The Face of Time | Graham McInnes | Centenary of Canadian Geological Survey. Contains war related information. |
| Ferry Pilot | Stuart Legg | |
| Field Training in Winter | Stanley Hawes | |
| Fighting Ships | Graham McInnes | |
| Forward Commandos | Raymond Spottiswoode | |
| Freighters Under Fire | ||
| Geopolitik - Hitler's Plan for Empire | Stuart Legg | |
| Great Guns | Graham McInnes | |
| If | Philip Ragan | |
| Inside Fighting Canada | Jane Marsh | Watch online |
| Inside Fighting China | Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject | |
| Inside Fighting Russia | ||
| Voice of Action | James Beveridge | Watch online |
| Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Break-through | James Beveridge | Watch online |
| Keep Your Mouth Shut | ||
| Train Busters | ||
| Trans-Canada Express | Stanley Hawes | Watch online |
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | John Bull's Own Island | Stuart Legg |
The US had the largest film industry of any of the Allied powers, and its use for propaganda purposes is legendary. Because it was so big, there was no single governmental or semi-governmental agency that centrally controlled it. Instead, the Office of War Information co-ordinated efforts among many entities to produce propaganda:
OIAA:Office of Inter-American Affairs
OEM:Office for Emergency Management
OSS: Office of Strategic Services
USAAF: United States Army Air Force
USASC: U.S. Army Signal Corps
USASSD: U.S. Army Special Service Division
USDA:United States Department of Agriculture
USDT:United States Department of Treasury
USN: United States Navy
USDW:United States Department of War
WACMPI: War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry
(The "a" next to the year is to prevent redirects to the equivalent British list)
Pre-December films given IMDB release date were available.
| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminum | WACMPI | ||
| America Builds Ships | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| America Preferred | WACMPI; USDT | Released 20 May | |
| Army in Overalls | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| Bits and Pieces | WACMPI; OPM | Released June 5 | |
| Defense Review No. 1 | WACMPI; | ||
| Defense Review No. 2 | WACMPI; | ||
| Men and Ships | WACMPI; BPI | Released June 23 | |
| Pots to Planes | WACMPI; OEM | Released November 22 | |
| Power for Defense | WACMPI; NDC | Released February 18 | |
| Preflight Inspection of the B-17E | USASC; UASAAF | War Department Training Film 1-532 | |
| Red Cross Trailer | WACMPI; | ||
| Where Do We Go? | WACMPI; USO | Released May 28 | |
| Women in Defense | WACMPI; OEM | Released May 28; narrated by Katharine Hepburn; written by Eleanor Roosevelt |
- The 1942 Academy Award for Best Documentary, whose time frame included part of 1943, was split among four films, including the two seen here. Also, that year saw the almagation of the feature and short subject documentary categories into a single category.
| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Tale of Two Cities | USDW; Army-Navy Screen Magazine | Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | |
| That Justice Be Done | OWI; OSS; WACMPI | Nuremburg Trials | |
| Seeds of Destiny | Gene Fowler Jr. | USDW; UNRRA | Asks public for humanitarian aid to post-war Europe and Asia |
| Special Delivery | USDW; Army-Navy Screen Magazine | Operation Crossroads(the atomic tests bombings on Bikini Atoll) |
| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Don't Be a Sucker! | USDW | Anti-intolerance film | |
| Thunderbolt! | USDW | About US airstrikes in Italy; introduced by Jimmy Stewart |
| Title | Director | Agencies or Organizations involved | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Challenge to Democracy | OWI; OSS; WRA | Concerns Japanese American internment | |
| GI Bill of Rights | Army-Navy Screen Magazine | ||
| Know Your Ally: Britain | OWI; USASC | ||
| Ring of Steel | OEM | Recruiting short. Narrated by Spencer Tracy | |
| Training Women For War Production | NYA | Narrated by Eleanor Roosevelt | |
| Victory Gardens | USDA |
The low countries were overrun by Nazi Germany in the May-June 1940 blitzkrieg. The Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands most important colony, was conquered by Japan in early 1942. However each had a government in exile which set up the Belgian Ministry of Information and Netherlands Information Bureau, which produced the following films. There also films made by the resisence while the respective countries were occupied.
| Year | Title | Director | Agency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Belgique toujours | Hippolyte De Kempeneer | Belgian resistance movement | Dutch title: Immer België; English title Forever Belgium |
| 1942 | Little Belgium | Belgian Ministry of Information | Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject | |
| 1942 | People of the Indies | Netherlands Information Bureau | ||
| 1942 | Holland in the Western Hemisphere | Netherlands Information Bureau | ||
| 1942 | High Stakes in the East | Netherlands Information Bureau | ||
| 1942 | The Dutch Next Door | Netherlands Information Bureau | ||
| 1943 | Glorious Colours | Alfred Travers | Netherlands Information Bureau |
In Stalinist Russia, unless otherwise noted, the Central Newsreel Studios produced thse films.
In addition to the above the Soviet cinema import company Artkino produced the following for foreign markets
| Year | Title | Director | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Our Russian Front | Joris Ivens & Lewis Milestone | Narrated by Walter Huston |
| 1942 | Moscow Strikes Back | Ilya Kopalin & Leonid Varlamov | Nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject |
| 1943 | Russians at War | ||
| 1947 | The Nuremberg Trials | C Svilov | Soviet view of the Nuremberg Trials |