Wartime Newsreels Online

[LizzieMaine]

The University of South Carolina has made a tremendous resource available online -- over 200 complete editions of Fox Movietone News released between the fall of 1942 and the summer of 1944. Unlike most of the newsreels you see these days, these are not excerpts or clips or fragments -- these are the actual reels as released to theatres twice a week, missing only the theatrical opening titles.

Of the five major US newsreels, Movietone was the most "hard news" oriented, and some of these reels contain graphic battle images. You *will* see corpses, and not just German or Japanese corpses. But you'll also see, alongside the gritty war footage, a regular sports department, women's features, and Lew Lehr's comedy "Newsettes" segment featuring bizarre footage of people doing bizarre things.

Most of these reels have not been publicly shown in their complete form since they were originally issued -- nearly all newsreels you see today have been chopped up, edited, rearranged, and otherwise taken out of their original context. This is your chance to see them as millions of people in the Era saw them. The visual quality is also superb -- Fox donated their master 35mm copies of these films to the University, along with all paper documention, and the preservation job is very well done: you aren't going to see the usual blurry 16mm copies or grainy video bootlegs you're used to seeing. This is the real deal.

 

[AmateisGal]

What a resource! Wow! Thanks for letting us know, Lizzie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's fascinating to watch them in sequence -- the earliest ones in the group show a country still trying to come to grips with the idea of being at war: those who think newsreels were nothing but cheesy rah-rah propaganda should have a look at the 10/3/42 issue, in which the first story is a blunt statement by a general that we're losing the war. Things get much grimmer before they start getting better, and by 1944, there's a real sense of "we're almost there but there's still a long way to go."

Some of these films also include public-service trailers after the newsreel ends: Tyrone Power stands up and looks you straight in the eye and tells you to go out to the lobby and buy War Bonds and Stamps. And you better do it if you don't want Tojo breathing down your neck.

 

[KayEn78]

Cool! I'm going to check these out. I'm definitely bookmarking that site.

-Kristi

 

[Cricket]

Thanks Lizzie! I look forward to viewing them! I would be very interested to see the portrait of a country at war in its sequence.

 

[BigFitz]

Thanks for the link!

 

[fortworthgal]

Wow, thanks for posting this!

 

[rue]

Fantastic Lizzie! Thank you

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some of the more interesting editions I've come across --


January 2, 1943: A discussion of postwar peace, the rescue of 31 sailors who spent over a month drifting over the North Atlantic in an open boat, women are trained as parachute packers and manufacturers and testers of high explosives.

February 4, 1943 -- The Japanese have been defeated at Guadalcanal, an explanation of the new system of "point rationing" for foods, and a look at "Dim-Out Fashions."


March 30, 1943 -- A first look at Soviet triumphs over Nazi forces in Russia, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek offers ideas on postwar peace, war workers are given a first-hand taste of Army training, and highlights from the collegiate basketball tournaments.


July 20, 1943 -- The invasion of Sicily is underway, Winston Churchill renews the pledge to defeat Japan, a military kite-maker sends his teenage daughter aloft, and the Man on the Street emphatically rejects the idea of closing down professional sports for the duration.

July 30 1943 -- Mussolini is ousted, a dramatic demonstration of Jeeps in action, and a circus "human cannonball" is replaced for the duration by his sister.