Castle Films presents “News Parade of the Year 1941” — a black-and-white review of several of that year’s top news stories. Narrated by actor and opera singer Basil Ruysdael, the picture begins with coverage of the fifth year of China’s Second Sino-Japanese War (mark 00:16) and footage of bombing raids and residents fleeing for shelter. There are battle scenes from Tobruk in Northern Africa and scenes of war-torn Greece as Nazis advance through the Balkans (mark 01:03). France submits to German occupation at mark 01:55 as scenes of teary-eyed men and women fill the screen, while Britain avenges the battleship HMS Hood by sinking the German ship Bismarck (mark 02:32). As the film continues, we are shown footage of the August meeting between US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (mark 03:09) that led to the creation of the Atlantic Charter — a pivotal policy statement that defined the Allied goals for the post-war world — as well as scenes of US forces in Iceland, a Nazi U-boat torpedo attack on the destroyer USS Kearny (DD-432), and violent US labor riots that includes scenes of police beating protesters with clubs (mark 06:13). Most of the film focuses on World War II, however, including the battleship USS North Carolina (BB-55) at mark 07:17 and the ongoing war in Russia (mark 07:55) with scenes of tanks, aircraft, and cavalrymen engaged in the fight. “A fateful year in which the whole world sinks more deeply into the abyss of war,” the narrator concludes at mark 09:26 as a ship sinks slowly into the sea.