This film is part of Free

Title of error

See Help

Answer to Stalin

Was there a better way of fighting the Soviet threat than the atomic bomb? The ‘answer to Stalin’ was to rebuild Europe with billions of dollars of aid: the Marshall Plan.

Documentary 1948 19 mins

Overview

Images of resurgent European industry abound in March of Time's hymn to the regenerative power of American aid. Footage of power stations and cooling towers in the UK, modern agricultural equipment ploughing French fields and German coal trucks trundling towards roaring blast furnaces are contrasted with scenes embodying the threat of Communism: striking French miners, poverty amid the ruins of Warsaw, and the odd sight of North Koreans entranced by a display of Russian dancing.

Winston Churchill appears in a clip in this issue warning that if it were to destroy its atomic weapons, America would be ‘murdering human freedom’. The Marshall Plan offered a less apocalyptic guarantee of peace and prosperity in Western Europe, in the form of a multi-billion dollar financial initiative to aid Europe. The original plan, announced in 1947 by US Secretary of State George Marshall, and administered by Paul G. Hoffman, also offered aid to Eastern Europe, but this help was rejected by Stalin: a fact which makes the lingering shots of a devastated Polish city (presumably Warsaw) seem all the more pointed when contrasted with footage showing industry thriving in Germany, France and England.

Original title

The March of Time 14th Year No. 1

Genres

Documentary

Country

USA

Language

English

Subjects

Marshall Plan

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’.