December seventh: the Pearl Harbor story. December seventh: the movie. Know your enemy: Japan.
Notes:
Walter Huston, Harry Davenport. Produced by Kit Parker Films; the War Dept., Special Service Division, with cooperation of the Signal Corps, in 1943, and Dept. of the Navy. Running times - Feature: 84 minutes, B & W, 2001, Not Rated. Bonus materials: approx. 76 minutes. Bonus Material includes: UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL Pearl Harbor first films! MOVIETONE NEWS EXTRA! First actual battle films. Includes comments by Al Brick, the Movietone cameraman who filmed the footage. JAPAN'S REACTION! When this "uncensored" version was first shown in Japan in 1995 it was treated as a major news story. See the actual newscast in both Japanese and English. Full commentary by four actual Pearl Harbor survivors! Learn the inside story on how the un-cut version of December 7th was made and why the U.S. Government kept it classified and away from public view for decades. Compare the cut and uncensored versions! Feature has English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired. Includes: Frank Capra's infamous "KNOW YOUR ENEMY: JAPAN" (1945) 56 minutes. Produced for the U.S. Army, this propaganda piece is a combination of authentic newsreels, captured enemy films, scenes from Japanese feature films, plus re-enactments filmed in Hollywood.
Contents:
Feature film (84 min.) -- Bonus materials (ca. 76 min.).
Summary:
John Ford's "DECEMBER 7TH" was banned by the U.S. Government for nearly fifty years. This special edition is now available; presenting the fully restored, 84-minute version, with subtitles added to the controversial Japanese language sequences and a special "behind the scene" introduction. (A completely censored 34-minute version of the film was released and earned John Ford his fourth Academy Award.) This full-length version stars Walter Huston as Uncle Sam and is set in Honolulu on the day before the Japanese attack. Uncle Sam vacations complacently in Hawaii, concerned with the on-going war in Europe. On Sunday morning, December 7th, air squadrons appear, "swooping down like flights of tiny locust". The attack on Pearl Harbor, America's first battle of World War II, is vividly illustrated as only Hollywood can do.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.