This is a 1940’s era, black and white movie made by RKO Radio Pictures entitled “The Ramparts We Watch”. It features a script by Robert L. Richards and Cedric R. Worth and was produced and directed by Louis de Rochemont. The film (made just before the entry of the USA into WWII) draws parallels between the First World War and the Second.
The story told in this film is that of America during the years 1914-18, as reflected in the lives of various people in a small American city. In 1914, it is a peaceful land, where people go to the picnic grove in open-air street cars, little boys ride on ice wagons and gay blades dance the Hesitation. Then war breaks out in Europe, America slowly begins to feel it. A foreign laborer leaves the small town for his homeland, people talk. Through old newsreel sequences, the course of world events is woven in with developments in the town. The Lusitania is sunk; America is outraged. Opinions clash; there are peace parades and advocates for preparedness. Wilson is re-elected. Training camps are started. There is sabotage in American munitions factories, armed neutrality, then war — all reflected in the emotions of the townsfolk.
The movie opens with squadrons of planes flying overhead, a suggestion of the coming conflict of WWII. But the movie flashes back to 1914 as Americans prepare to enter the first World War at 2:00. The American community is presented in peace, 2:30. Children order sweets, 2:45. Images of daily life are shown, 3:10. Scenes from American industry, 3:30. Woodrow Wilson greets well-wishers, 4:28. The Panama canal construction, 4:37. Teddy Roosevelt, 4:50. The U.S. army numbers at 100,000 men, 5:05. One of the first airplanes is shown flying, 5:20. The Hesitation Canter Waltz, an outgrowth of the Turkey Trot, 5:31. Students attend university, 6:00. Young people sit at a soda counter, 6:20. June 9, 1914 a newspaper train arrives with bad news, 6:54, the Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated in Austria, newspaper headline shows, 7:18. Newspaper headlines are shown from around the world, 7:40. Postman delivers letter to immigrant family in U.S., 8:23. Immigrant family goes to the theatre to see the news from the war, 10:07 where Kaiser Wilhelm visits the naval base at Kiel. Kitchener’s army is reviewed by King George V, 11:04. Prince of Wales is surrounded by admirers, 11:13. Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, 11:26. Czar Nicholas II reviews the fleet, 11:37. Immigrants discuss papers they received from their home countries to join the war effort, 12:17. Men leaving their families at the Austrian consulate to return to war, 13:09. The invasion of neutral Belgium, 13:49. Taxi cab army rushes in from Paris, 14:00. Britain’s “contemptibles” defend the Flanders front. American newspaper headlines urge neutrality, 15:08. American students argue the war at home, 16:00. A German immigrant family discusses the war, 17:15. The imperial armies of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm rally at their posts, 17:36. The United States rallies around neutral Belgium, 18:02. Politicians discuss how the war is affecting Belgian children, and Herbert Hoover organizes 35 vessels carrying money and food to Belgium 18:40. Belgian children are housed and fed, 19:36.
The climactic sequence of the picture (shown in later reels) points the parallel between events in those days and current happenings, is made up of clips from the Nazi picture, “Feuertaufe,” a hideous account of the German invasion of Poland. This is said to be the picture which was shown in Norway and other nations to frighten the intended victims of Nazi aggression. By a brilliant conception of Louis de Rochemont, producer of the film, non-actors were used to play the numerous roles of the townsfolk, thus imparting the illusion of photographed actuality. Through this device, the old newsreel and the fictionized story blend perfectly.
One might reasonably contend that “The Ramparts We Watch” lacks suspense, that it drags in spots. One might hold that it tells a half-truth, that it should have pursued its first purpose. But no one can say that it does not recapture a memorable and poignant phase of our national life, that it fails to remind us effectively of our vital heritage.
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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
