Author Archive: Retro

The infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany.

The official World War II US Government film statement defining the various enemies of the Allies and why they must be fought.

Part VII of the “Why We Fight” series of wartime documentaries. This entry attempts to describe the factors leading up to America’s entry into the Second World War

Explorer Edward Salisbury takes an expedition across the Pacific Ocean to such exotic locales as Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and the New Hebrides Islands, and record the lives of the various natives they encounter there.

The Nazi Strike was the second of Col. Frank Capra’s government-ordained “Why We Fight” series. This hard-hitting documentary artfully assembles existing stock footage to trace the rise of Adolf Hitler and his thirst for world conquest. Virtually wresting the German government from more moderate politicos, Hitler installs a dictatorship. Having subjugated the Jewish citizens in his own country, Der Fuhrer moves onto the Rhineland and Austria, and demands the annexation of Czechoslovakia. Despite his assurances of “peace in our time,” Hitler marches into Poland. World War II is the undesirable but inevitable end result. Like all the “Why We Fight” films, The Nazi Strike was designed to clarify the meaning and importance of the war effort to the average GI.

Documentary revealing the nature and process of the fight between the Soviet Union and Germany in the Second World War.

The Battle of Britain was the fourth of Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series of seven propaganda films, which made the case for fighting and winning the Second World War. It was released in 1943 and concentrated on the German bombardment of the United Kingdom in anticipation of Operation Sea Lion, the planned German invasion.

The Official World War II US Government account of Chinese defense against Japanese aggression.

A compilation film, produced by the American Museum of Natural History, with footage from six major expeditions of the 20th-Century; the Stoll-McCracken Siberian Artic expedition, for the American Museum of Natural History, on the schooner “Morrissery.”; the exploration of Borneo and Bali by Gene Lamb; an African expedition by James L. Clark, vice-director of the American Museum of Natural History; the Imperial-Trans-Atlantic Expedition under the guidance of Lieutenant Commander J. R. Stenhouse that made it to the Ross Sea; footage from the Byrd Antartic Expedition, shot by Dr. Laurence E. Gould, geologist and second-in- command; and footage from the Tarlano Ethnological Expedition of the Amazon River by Harold Noice.