In an effort to provide information on recently declassified motion pictures and sound recordings the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch will publish a quarterly list of newly declassified records. This quarter's list includes two films documenting post-WWII Europe. Die Erste Schritte [The First Steps] shows the buildup of West German armed forces and the … Continue reading Declassified Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings – 1st Quarter
Category: Motion Pictures
Christmas in the Ford Collection: A Merry Christmas to All, 1926
Christmas movies are a staple of the holidays, with cable channels producing and airing so many that the season now seems to start sometime in November. Holiday films are nothing new, of course. The earliest known adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was made over a hundred years ago, in 1901. Even the Ford … Continue reading Christmas in the Ford Collection: A Merry Christmas to All, 1926
The Enemy Strikes: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944
Seventy years ago, on December 16, 1944, Allied Forces in Europe were taken by surprise when the Germans launched an attack in the Ardennes region, pushing into France, Luxembourg, and Belgium. The offensive came six months after D-Day and the successful invasion of Normandy, on a misty day when the skies did not permit the use of … Continue reading The Enemy Strikes: The Battle of the Bulge, 1944
Favorite Film Finds of 2014
In the motion picture lab, we work on thousands of reels of film a year: tens of thousands of feet of unedited footage of Vietnam, PSAs for the Census Bureau, dozens of early NASA films, and much, much more. Over the course of months, some of it can start to become a blur. Since we … Continue reading Favorite Film Finds of 2014
It’s No Citizen Kane: Legendary Cinematographer Gregg Toland Directs December 7th
By the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th of 1941, Gregg Toland had already won an Oscar for the cinematography of Wuthering Heights and created the distinctive look of Citizen Kane that is still discussed in introductory film classes today. But Toland wanted more than to be the most famous cinematographer of … Continue reading It’s No Citizen Kane: Legendary Cinematographer Gregg Toland Directs December 7th
Mortal Moonshine: Treasury Agents Take On Backwoods Bootleggers
In past blog posts, we've highlighted some of the favorite films of Motion Picture Preservation Lab staff. Because the motion picture holdings at the National Archives and Records Administration are so voluminous, we are always encountering new films that jockey for the top spot on our list of favorite things. One Time Too Often, a 1969 … Continue reading Mortal Moonshine: Treasury Agents Take On Backwoods Bootleggers
Mechanical Computers and Sound Collectors: World War I Anti-Aircraft Technology
This post was written by Harry Snodgrass. Harry is working on a project to preserve and digitize World War I and World War II films and photographs. As we remember and applaud our veterans for their service on Veterans Day, I wanted to bring attention to a lesser-known film in the collection at the National … Continue reading Mechanical Computers and Sound Collectors: World War I Anti-Aircraft Technology
Home Movies from the War Front: The First Fighters in New Guinea
This post was written by Criss Kovac. Criss is the supervisor of the National Archives Motion Picture Preservation Lab. Home movies aren’t usually thought of as a rarity – especially these days as we happily capture our kids, friends, families, and pets on our smartphones-- but home movies taken during war on the front lines are … Continue reading Home Movies from the War Front: The First Fighters in New Guinea
This Week in Universal News: The War of the Worlds Broadcast, 1938
On October 30, 1938, CBS broadcast a radio play of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. The novel, first published in serial form in 1897, tells the story of an alien invasion of England. The Mercury Theatre on the Air production changed the location to New Jersey and employed a series of news bulletins to heighten the realism of the story. … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: The War of the Worlds Broadcast, 1938
This Week in Universal News: The March on the Pentagon, 1967
On October 21, 1967, an estimated crowd of 100,000 gathered by the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to protest the Vietnam War and march on the Pentagon. Organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the demonstration was the first major national protest against the Vietnam War. Along with the signs, chants, and other … Continue reading This Week in Universal News: The March on the Pentagon, 1967