America at War

America was in deep shock after the attack on Pearl Harbour. This issue of March of Time looks to the past in order to lift the morale of its audience and also remind them why the country went to war in 1917. Scenes of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s renowned ‘infamy speech’ to Congress are followed by a retrospective assessment of America’s involvement in the First World War, which is evoked in a skilfully-edited montage of real and reconstructed scenes, showing the parallels between then and now.

Much of the footage in this issue is taken from ‘The Ramparts We Watch’, a feature film produced by March of Time and released in the USA in 1940 . The film shows life in a small town - New London, Connecticut - in the years leading up to America’s involvement in World War One. The intention was to draw explicit parallels between the totalitarian threat presented by Germany in 1914 and 1939 and to warn against complacency and isolationism. Using a skilful and innovative mixture of documentary footage and acted scenes (the townsfolk were played by non-professionals), the blend was so effective that it was - as Edgar Anstey enthusiastically noted - ‘hard to tell where news-reel ends and acted scene begins’.