President Roosevelt's Call

Fyne !President Roosevelt's Call Robert Fyne Kean College President Roosevelt's Call Hollywood War Films, 1937-1945:An Exhaustive Filmography ofAmerican Feature-Length Motion Pictures Relating to World WarII. McFarland & Company, Inc. 1996. (482 pages. Cloth. $125.00) During the first week of December 1941, two isolationist senators—Gerald P. Nye and Bennett Clark—were accusing the film industry of secretly planning to pull America into the European conflict by producing dozens of warmongering pictures. Over and over again, these anti-New Deal officials spouted indictments that studio moguls were turning out interventionist dramas—titles warning about the Nazi menace—purely for profit. Unrelentingly , the two men continued their senate floor diatribes right up to December 7th. On that Sunday afternoon, like many of their supporters, these reactionaries , realizing they had placed the proverbial foot in their mouths, quietly faded away. Pearl Harbor, ofcourse, changed everything. Quickly, men were mobilized, blackout shades lowered, scrap drives initiated, and Hollywood producers, now basking in their new-found perspicacity and with a wide, "we-told-you-so" grin, took up President Roosevelt's call to make movies that would keep the public alert. For the next four years, hundreds of propaganda films were cranked out, that, in one way or another, lauded Allied intransigence while maligning Axis villainy. What were these titles? Did these photoplays foster morale? Were they, as FDR asserted, the best way to inform all citizens? While the World War II propaganda film has been the subject of many recent books, probably no title can answer these questions as completely, thoroughly, or comprehensively as Hollywood War Films, 1937-1945: An Exhaustive Filmography ofAmerican Feature-Length Motion Pictures Relating to World War II. Written by Michael S. Shull and David Edward Wilt, this 482-page study (it must have taken years to write; their title really means what it says) contains a listing of every picture—no matter how remote—depicting the global conflict. Beginning with 1937, the year antifascist photoplays attracted attention, Shull and Wilt trace those uneasy days before America's entry into the fight, the War declaration, the different combat zones including the Home Front, and finally , the euphoria of V-J Day. One ofthe strengths of Hollywood War Films is elaborate statistical charts that list complex summary information . What movie, for example in 1942 made the most pejorative references to Japan? Manila Calling (35 times) or how many pictures referred to the Spanish Civil War from 1942-45? (8 photodramas). How about Tojo? How often was this autocrat vilified? (23 times). How much praise for Stalin? (18 times). The Black Market was depicted in 30 titles, while the thorny subject ofdraft avoidance picked up 13 citations. Eleanor Roosevelt made 7 entries, but her husband was mentioned in 103 titles. How many nasty epithets did John Wayne's men utter to their Nipponese adversaries in Back to Bataan (1945)? (30 uncomplimentary remarks). On an upbeat side, praise for the USO was proffered on 80 different occasions. Other information frameworked Hollywood's unremitting production schedule. In Republic's B-horror The Lady and the Monster, a subtle reference to the War is an "A" ration sticker on a station wagon's windshield. As a reminder, Shull and Wilt explain, that government restrictions are in place. In another B-meller, Columbia's Mark ofthe Whistler, a poster of a serviceman—prominently displayed in a drugstore window—reaffirmed Home Front sacrifices, while a subtle reference to the wartime national 35 mile speed limit—in Columbia's One Dangerous Night—adjured audiences to save gasoline. Even Boston Blackie helped out. In One Mysterious Night, the ace gumshoe solved a robbery for the United Nations War Fund. In all, Shull and Wilt's book must be the definitive study about the World War II propaganda film and it is really frustrating to see the publisher's whooping $125.00 price tag emblazoned on the inside cover. No doubt, this will keep the title out of many private hands and relegate ownership to libraries or—in some isolated examples—a few well-heeled colleagues . Since this is the case, all readers of Film & History should pitch in. Please fill out your library request...