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Title of error

Uncle Sam - the Good Neighbour

Adolf Hitler glowers from the cover of a Spanish-language version of Mein Kampf in this account of how US diplomats fought the rise of Nazism in South America in 1938.

Anthology 1939 18 mins

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Overview

In the ‘crisis year’ of 1938, American diplomats and foreign-service officers aimed to bring US Secretary of State Cordell Hull’s ‘Good Neighbour Policy’ to South America, where Nazi Germany’s trade agreements threatened to lure countries like Brazil and Argentina into fascism’s sphere of influence. This issue shows the rigorous recruitment and training process for entry into the foreign-service and assesses the success of Cordell’s policy.

Although low-key in the context of the March of Time’s other ‘crisis’ films of 1938, this issue nonetheless shows evidence of a coherent editorial policy, an acute awareness of the danger of the Nazi threat and a willingness to shout about it. The reconstructions of the recruitment process for the diplomatic service are somewhat stilted (and inadvertently amusing to modern viewers), but the patrician young men who feature in the film show that the ostensibly democratic call for ‘able citizens’ to join the revitalised American foreign service was, in 1938, very much restricted to privileged white males.

Original title

The March of Time 4th Year No. 11

Genres

Anthology

Country

USA

Language

English

Subjects

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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’.