SALUTE THE SOLDIER [Main Title]

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  • Title: SALUTE THE SOLDIER [Main Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 3727
  • Other titles: A MESSAGE FROM FIELD MARSHAL SIR ALAN BROOKE [Main Title] SALUTE THE SOLDIER WEEK 1944 [Alternative Title]
  • Summary: A short film drama, produced for the 1944 "Salute the Soldier" fund raising week, designed to encourage civilians to continue to invest their money in National Savings. Attached to the film is a short appeal by Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke emphasising the importance of the savings and sacrifice of the British people at this particular time.
  • Description: The film opens with good views of St Paul's Cathedral and the Wilfred Lawson character talking to camera, stating that that this is the first time he has been in London since the war began and that although parts of old London have gone, a great deal is still the same. He walks along the Embankment and looks at Capt Scott's RRS Discovery then walks toward the Duke of York's Column, Waterloo Place and looks out over St James' Park. On the steps leading up to the column he meets a convalescent soldier played by Jimmy Hanley. They talk and then go to a coffee house together. Over coffee the soldier tells the older man of his wartime experiences with his four companions who were as different as "chalk, cheese and caviar". The soldier was at Dunkirk (where "Chalkie" died), in the western desert (where "Caviar" was killed) in Italy and then in Burma (where he was wounded). His experiences are illustrated by actuality footage and obvious studios shots. Throughout their conversations and his recollections the dialogue stresses the importance of savings and the need for supplies and equipment "as long as the people back home remember to lend and save they will be able to get the job done quicker" with the "people on the other side of the war doing their stuff" the soldiers would be able to "finish the business". The soldier leaves the coffee house to return to hospital and the film ends with a short montage of munitions production and an end title "the beginning of THE END" . Attached to the film is a short appeal "A Message from Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke GCB, DSC Chief of the Imperial General Staff". Seated at a desk, reading to camera, the Field Marshal's short speech looks forward to the forthcoming invasion and the need to continue saving. "The Army looks to the country during the final struggles ahead for the same support which has been so generously shown during the periods of its growth". "In times such as these there can surely be no need for any form of appeal in its ordinary sense for these are days of great moment in our history". "Let us then enable history to record 1944 as a year when the British Army reached the summit of its strength and efficiency, aided by the savings and self-sacrifice of the British people". End title "YOUR WEEK TO SALUTE THE SOLDIER"
  • Alternative Title: A MESSAGE FROM FIELD MARSHAL SIR ALAN BROOKE [Main Title] SALUTE THE SOLDIER WEEK 1944 [Alternative Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: MGH 3727
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1944
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: National Savings Committee (Production sponsor) P&C Film Productions Limited (Production company) James, Henry C (Production individual) May, Hans (Production individual) Sikorski, Jan (Production individual) Tomson, T (Production individual) de Beliaeff, C (Production individual) Watson, Harold (Production individual) Claff, George (Production individual) Mason, Cecil (Production individual) Popp, Rolf W (Production individual) Margo, Nina (Production individual) Chorlton, Michael C (Production individual) Lawson, Wilfred (Production cast) Hanley, Jimmy (Production cast) Elphinstone, Derek (Production cast) Mapp, Neville (Production cast)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 1775 ft; Running time: 20 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MGH 3727

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