Dating to 1943, THE WAR FOR MEN’S MINDS was produced in 1943 by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and released in the USA by United Artists as part of the wartime The World in Action series. The film was produced by Stuart Legg . The War for Men’s Minds describes the impact of propaganda from the Axis powers in 1943, during the Second World War.

The film shows how in 1943, Allied forces are confronting a sophisticated means of war, the propaganda campaign that the Axis powers employ. In Italy, the Fascist regime led by Benito Mussolini made use of propaganda, including pageantry and fiery speeches, to inspire the nation and lead the populace to war.

The Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler’s leadership of Germany also used propaganda to gain widespread support for Nazi policies and later, to maintain power. Both Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, the head of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda were skillful masters of propaganda.

The Nazi Party’s manipulation of all forms of media from newspaper, books and films became omnipresent and extended beyond Germany. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl created two epic propaganda films, Der Sieg des Glaubens or Victory of Faith (1933) and Triumph des Willens or Triumph of the Will (1935) that depicted the fervent Nazi multitudes in the 1930s Nuremberg Rallies.

Despite President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s passionate address in his 1941 State of the Union, articulating the Four Freedoms: Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want and Freedom from fear, a homegrown German American Bund was formed, espousing Nazi values. By the time they entered the global conflict, Americans rejected the politics of fear and hate.

Through the efforts of information bureaus and traditional media sources such as newspapers, radio and newsreel films, the Allies have attempted to counter the Axis propaganda. The universal principles of liberty, equality and fraternity along with the four freedoms have become the basis of the fight in which the Allied nations are engaged. The war on information and propaganda fronts, and the hopes for the future are also founded on cooperation and common purpose of all the democracies.

Cast

The deep baritone voice of stage actor Lorne Greene was featured in the narration of The War for Men’s Minds. Greene, known for his work on both radio broadcasts as a news announcer at CBC as well as narrating many of the Canada Carries On series. His sonorous recitation led to his nickname, “The Voice of Canada”, and to some observers, the “voice-of-God”. When reading grim battle statistics or narrating a particularly serious topic, he was known as “The Voice of Doom”.

The War for Men’s Minds was produced in 35 mm for the theatrical market. Each film in the wartime The World in Action and Canada Carries On series was shown over a six-month period as part of the shorts or newsreel segments in approximately 800 theatres across Canada. The NFB had an arrangement with Famous Players theatres to ensure that Canadians from coast-to-coast could see them, with further distribution by Columbia Pictures.

After the six-month theatrical tour ended, individual films were made available on 16 mm to schools, libraries, churches and factories, extending the life of these films for another year or two. They were also made available to film libraries operated by university and provincial authorities. Continuing into the postwar era, a total of 199 films were produced in the The World in Action before the series was canceled in 1959.

We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com