Know Your Ally: Britain

Know Your Ally: Britain was a 45-minute propaganda film made in 1944. It was narrated by Walter Huston and produced by the United States War Department and Signal Corp to solidify Anglo-American solidarity within the ranks as well as counter Nazi propaganda aimed at weakening the Alliance.

Synopsis

The film opens with a shot of a football team making a touchdown and the crowd cheering. The narration begins, informing us that that victory was won by a team where everyone knew the job they had to do: "We're playing another kind of a game now, only this one isn't for fun. It's for keeps." the narrator declares, with shots of a tank battle now on screen. British life and society are briefly introduced. The narrator notes especially the high population density of Britain and the solidarity that this inspires between various elements of its society.

Here's where he lives – a little island no larger than the state of Idaho. Half a million people live in Idaho. 96 times that number live in Britain. The Nazis and the Japs scream about Lebensraum – "living space" – but on a square mile of Britain there are more people than on a square mile of Germany or Italy or Japan.

In 1938, the year the Yankees won the pennant, the British were going about their daily lives, working and cheering football on their day off. 300 miles (480 km) away, however, others were cheering for Hitler. The Brits try to reason with him through the Munich Agreement, but he breaks his word, invading Czechoslovakia and Poland. Now "John Britain," as he is personified, is at war, and pretty soon he is at war alone, since western Europe soon falls to the Nazis.

Various differences in British and American culture are addressed, sometimes humorously, other more soberly, such as the position of the monarchy and the peers in British society. "Britain is like your Grandma's house; she's been around a long time and keeps a lot of old things she doesn't wish to part with."

The British Empire is a trickier subject, with the narrator explaining the home-rule of Canada, South Africa and the other white dominions, then giving a rosy picture of how much self-government India has, and how, because of its strategic significance – "an effective block by the democratic world to keep the Nazis and Japs from uniting" – it cannot be independent just yet.

See also


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