Movies

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This, the much-discussed final speech in “The Great Dictator”, is more than a climax and conclusion to Chaplin’s newest film, it is a statement of Chaplin’s belief in humanity, a belief in which his creative powers and artistic development are deeply rooted.

A classic scene of cinema: Chaplin, in costume as a world-conquering dictator dances with the globe.

A one sided record released by His Master’s Voice featuring the husband and wife team on an undated recording.

A great cartoon with caricatures of the remarkable stars of 1938: Katherine Hepburn, the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy, Laurel et Hardy, Edward G. Robinson, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Greta Garbo… and Fats Waller and the great Cab CALLOWAY. Due to those racist stereotypes, this cartoon has been banned. It’s been nominated for the Oscars… but it went to Ferdinand the Bull instead.

Known as “Little Stalingrad”, the small village of Ortona on the Adriatic coast of Italy became the scene of a fierce battle between the advancing First Canadian Division and the elite German 3rd Parachute Regiment of the First Parachute Division.

1,375 Canadians were killed in and around Ortona in December 1943, 2,339 were casualties.

Buster Keaton Performing Stunts in The General with commentary from Buster Keaton Rides Again.

The 20-year-old parachuted into France nine days before the Allied advance and helped sabotage German war efforts. Her code name was Agent Blanche, she was one of 3,000 secret warrior women of Britain’s Special Operations Executive.

An interesting walk through fashion history with the Art Director of British Vogue, Robin Derrick, as he leads the camera from one Vogue cover to the next beginning with the first one in 1916.

A selection of recruitment and propaganda posters produced on behalf of the British and French armies during World War I. Some are quite amusing while other are not. The background music is “Boys in Khaki, Boys in Blue”, witch in terms means British and French soldiers.

We accompany one of the 2,000 American plane formations that are bringing ruin and panic to Berlin. Miles of vapor-streaks are trailing after the huge Flying Fortresses, winging through the frigid sky. Crews are ‘on oxygen.’ Then Berlin is sighted and the bombs start cascading downward. The scene below is like a field of mushrooms. Flak comes up, and one of our motors goes dead. We head back to Blighty. Some shops drop flares announcing wounded aboard, and instant medical care is waiting, when the ships roll to a stop. Colonel Mumford interviews some of the other participants in the raid. They give their crisp, spicy version of this one, and ask for return assignments.””

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Blind Husbands”” was produced by Carl Laemmle in 1919. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim and the man played the lead as well. It is yet one more movie in which von Stroheim looks fabulous in an Austrian officer’s uniform. Silent film with titles in English and French.”

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Two brothers, Phil and Ted Stoneman, visit their friends in Piedmont, South Carolina: the family Cameron. This friendship is affected by the Civil War, as the Stonemans and the Camerons must join up opposite armies. The consequences of the War in their lives are shown in connection to major historical events, like the development of the Civil War itself, Lincoln’s assassination, and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.

A clip of Billy Sunday (with audio)in the 1930s in which the preacher bad-mouths all politicians willing to overturn the prohibition laws.

W.W. II cartoonist Bill Maulden is the subject of this quick clip from the T.V. show “Mail Call”. It is narrated by former Marine D.I. Lew Ermy.

The bikini was invented in 1946 and named after the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the site of atomic bomb testing.The inventors were two Frenchmen, Jacques Heim and Louis Reard. But the design dates back over 1000 years, as can be seen by cave drawings and ancient Greek and Roman depictions.