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Title:ENROL FOR NATIONAL SERVICE AND BACK UP THE BOYS IN THE TRENCHES [Main Title]
Film Number:IWM 524
Other titles:
Summary: British documentary encouraging people to join voluntary Home Front labour organisations, 1918.
Description: Men prepare the ground for sowing spring corn, plant the seeds in rows, water them using hoses, and plough with horse-drawn ploughs. The film quotes Lloyd George on the need for more volunteers. A mechanical reaper at work. Men pitch hay onto wagons to take to the hayloft. A steam-driven threshing machine pours corn into sacks. A "farm labourer and his lass" walk and talk together romantically. The film emphasises the financial and health advantages of farm labour. Skilled mechanics are also needed to run farm machinery. A steam tractor pulls first a plough then a rake. A mechanical thresher at work. The steam tractor pulls wagons, then carries hurdles for a pen into which sheep are collected.
Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor)
Personalities, Units and Organisations:
Keywords: propaganda, British - practical: recruitment (volunteer labour) (object name)
agriculture, British - arable (object name)
transport, British civilian - agricultural (object name)
recruitment, British civilian: volunteer labour (object name)
society, British - romance (object name)
agriculture, British - animal (object name)
animals, mammals: sheep (object name)
31/3(41) (event)
GB, England (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W
Sound format: Silent
Soundtrack language: None
Title language: English
Subtitle language: English
Technical Details: Format: 35mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 521 ft; Running time: 9 mins
Notes: Title: it is not clear whether this is a complete film or a fragment. In the latter case the title, as given here, may represent a caption and not be correct as an issue title
Summary: the First World War use of the term 'National Service' to mean, exclusively, voluntary non-military service on the Home Front, should be noted
Technical: film is held on a single reel with IWM 523
Remarks: the film uses a mixture of promises, threats of starvation or defeat, and moral blackmail to expound its message