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Crime and Prisons

A strikingly liberal plea for prison reform and a view of the Anschluss seen through the lens of NBC’s news machine.

Non-Fiction 1938 21 mins

Overview

The case for prison reform in the USA is presented in characteristically dramatic March of Time style, as degrading tasks like rock-breaking are contrasted with a plea for meaningful work to rehabilitate young offenders. The vigorous look at Hitler’s return to Austria following the Anschluss, uses the dictator’s own words from Mein Kampf as a warning of further steps to the domination of Europe.

Both stories show March of Time’s bold style and confident use of the medium. Shots of a clergyman benignly watching prisoners play table-tennis illustrates the brio with which March of Time presents its arguments for reform: even as the commentary insists that the prison is not ‘coddling’ its inmates, the footage risks suggesting the opposite. Nazi Conquest No.1 depicts the Anschluss with a combination of genuine footage and a reconstruction of NBC’s on-the-spot report by Max Jordan in Vienna. The dramatic presentation of NBC’s scoop gives a heightened sense of immediacy to the crisis.

Original title

The March of Time 4th Year No. 2

Genres

Non-Fiction

Country

USA

Language

English

Subjects

Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945) Wilhelm II, Kaiser of Germany (1859-1941) Radio broadcasting NBC Austria Alcatraz Prison Farming Maryland Horse racing Prisons Schooners United States of America Vienna Occupation of territories Rehabilitation (of offenders) Chain gangs

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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’.