THE CINEMA
Ministry of Information Films
Siastc.z August, 1940, the Ministry of Information has distributed almost every week to the great majority of British cinemas a new five-minute film of propaganda or instruction. The achievement has lately been impressive from a qualitative as well as a quantitative standpoint, but it has now been decided to abandon this official weekly message to the nation in favour of fewer and longer films. The first of a new monthly series is shortly to be released to the theatres, and has already been shown to the Press. The series carries the title Into Battle, and each issue will run for about fifteen minutes. The first subject is Hold Up Your Head, Comrade, and is concerned with those units of the Pioneer Corps which are largely manned by refugees from Germany and Austria. The film begins with a roll-call of names so polysyllabically beyond the compass of the British sergeant's tongue that he calls in despair for the help of a German N.C.O. After this effective opening the commanding officer of the uhit describes the origin and the work of his force, and intro- duces a number of his men to the camera. They leave the fortifica- tions they are building to describe their sufferings in Nazi gaol or concentration-camp or perhaps to recount proudly some ingenious method of escape. The film includes a camp concert at which the grim, predominantly Jewish, audience sings again a defiant anti- Nazi song which was first heard in Dachau. Afterwards we see rifles issued for the first time to this primarily non-combatant body, and in a final sequence, in which the Pioneers stand looking to sea though the barbed-wire defences of the coastal guns they have installed, the commentator reminds us that at last these hunted men are on the right side of the wire and the right side of the guns. The film contains moments of horror. There is a cheerful little boxer who explains with an embarrassing reluctance the manner in which his hands were dislocated by an ingenious method of Nazi
torture. The dreadful details are reinforced by illustrative pictures. The film—directed by Michael Hankinson from a script written by Arthur Koestler—is a good beginning for the new series, although its purpose is perhaps somewhat vague. It is, however, a timely reminder of one of the original causes of the war, and is good propaganda for our attitude towards at least some " enemy " aliens. Perhaps later films in the series will reveal rather more definite objectives.
The Ministry of Information expects its film output in 1942 to be at least double that of 1941—no mean achievement, bearing in mind that there has • been no increase in man-power in the con- tracting production units. Non-theatrical distribution accounts for most of the additional films, and the introduction of the monthly fifteen-minuter in place of the weekly five-minuter means that new channels are being found for concise messages appropriate only to the shorter films now abandoned. The solution adopted is a two- minute trailer to be attached to the newsreels. Recent poster films of this kind have dealt with such subjects as economy in bath-water, the saving of scraps for pigs, feeding chickens and the food value of potatoes. A most impressive variety of techniques has been used. Official policy on the feeding of hens is elicited by an inquisitive and garrulous hen who puts on her Sunday best and takes train for London to call on the relevant official ; the moral on the collection of pig-food is contained in a comic song illustrated by crayon drawings economically animated in the style of Disney's "Baby Weems " ; the potato-cooking film is an excellent burlesque of a jerky old silent melodrama of drink and redemption with the lure of well-cooked potatoes proving stronger than the temptations of the bar-room. All of these short films are extremely funny, but - only the exuberantly sensual essay on enjoying a bath in five inches of water combines entertainment and instruction with complete
Previous page
