This film is part of Free

Title of error

See Help

Men of the US Navy

Your navy needs you! This film was made to appeal to young Americans’ sense of duty and patriotism, while promising an exciting life at sea at a critical point in the Second World War.

Documentary 1942 18 mins

Overview

An opening montage showing stricken vessels and shipyards working at full stretch sums up the critical state of the US Navy six months after Pearl Harbour. An appeal to camera by Admiral Ernest J. King is followed by a sequence showing the variety of careers available to the young naval recruit. From gunner, medic and photographer, to torpedo expert, machinist and nurse, the film’s appeal is based on a very American mixture of patriotism and the drive for self-fulfillment.

Essentially a recruitment film, this March of Time issue should be seen in the context of the times. In the first six months of the war, the US Navy had suffered more losses than in the whole of World War I and, given the desperate need for new recruits, it is understandable that the film emphasises the exciting careers on offer, while underplaying the dangers of war at sea. Nonetheless the lengthy sequence which promises the best medical care, is there partly to assuage the fears of new recruits but also reflects March of Time’s characteristic interest in the progress of science: the latest treatments are revealed to the viewer in shots of operating theatres, gleaming new sick bays, plasma banks, X-Ray machines and sulfa drugs.

Original title

The March of Time 8th Year No. 4

Genres

Documentary

Country

USA

Language

English

Subjects

World War II

Watch for free

Inside Nazi Germany Inside Nazi Germany

Documentary 1938 16 mins

A genuinely historic film, which caused much controversy at the time: the first commercially -released American motion picture to explicitly attack Hitler and Nazism.

Watch for free

Presidential Year Presidential Year

Documentary 1948 15 mins

‘Crisp and sincere’,‘carefully trained’ or ’resonant and vibrant’? Which voice would appeal to you if you had to pick the Republican candidate for the 1948 Presidential Election?

Watch for free

Great Britain Coronation Great Britain Coronation

Anthology 1937 24 mins

Weatherproof bunting, fog, clockwork dolls and a Hollywood exodus to London: this sideways look at preparations for the Coronation of George VI provides a wry American take on a very British ceremony.

Watch for free

Metropolis Metropolis

Documentary 1939 18 mins

This ode to New York from March of Time shows us how seven and half million people from every race and nationality in the world, live, work and play together in ‘the greatest metropolis of the New World’.