Hollywood's Second World War

For the USA, World War 2 was an all-out war - to mobilize the masses, the US government launched a huge propaganda campaign and cinema, the medium of the masses, was quite simply their most important weapon. Government authorities monitored the production of feature films and the military itself produced documentaries aimed at rallying the American people to support the troops. This film tells the story of four Hollywood directors of European origin, who returned to the "Old World" during the Second World War to make propaganda documentaries for the US Army at the front: William Wyler from Alsace, Frank Capra from Italy, Anatole Litvak from Ukraine and - in post-war Germany - Billy Wilder from Austria.

Cast

Volker Schlöndorff Self George Stevens Jr. Self

Catherine Wyler Self

Anatole Litvak Self (archive footage) William Wyler Self (archive footage) Frank Capra Self (archive footage) Billy Wilder Self (archive footage) George Stevens Self (archive footage) Charlie Chaplin Adenoid Hynkel (archive footage)

Metadata from the source database.