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England had one of the world's most important film industries at the time of World war II. Although not quite up to Hollywood, the British made many important films. We know that the British film studios like Ealing mafe many important films during the war. Dilms like "Mrs Miniver" even won an oscar. What we are less familiar with is how German films handled the issue of the rise of the NAZIs before the outbreak of the War. Film studios in the 1920s including German studios made anti-war films in the 1920s. We are unsure as to just when attitudes began to change in the 1930s. During the War of course censorship and war acts gave the HGovernment the ability to control film content. This was not the case before the War.
I have little informationm at this time about pre-War British films. The film industry in the 1920s probably took an anti-war view, but I do not yet have any information on specific films. Hitler and the NAZIs seized power in 1933. British newspapers followed developments in Germany and the rise of German military power. This does not seem to hve been reflected in actual British films. Here we need more informtion. Hopefully our British readers can provide more information on actual British films. As far as we can tell, the public's anti-NAZI sentiment does not seem to have been reflected in the films made during the 1930s. A British reader suggests having a look at these films: Korder's "The Lion Has Wings" (1939), and Hitchcock's "Sabotage" (1936). Carol Reed did a couple of films. "Night train to Munich" (1940) comes to mind. Often the setting is a fictitious European country but it is an authoritarian state." The only things is that with the exception of "Sabatoge", these were not pre-War films. And "Sabatoge" was not an overtly anti-NAZI film. The plotters are foreign, but have more of a Communist than a NAZI feel about them.
Japan's invasion of Mamchuria did not result in hostilities with China. China simply did not have the forces needed to oppose the Japanese. Japan invaded China proper in 1937 which did result in open hostilities. Although China could not match the Japanese, they had no choice, but to resist. The result was the fall of major Chinese cities to Japan. This culminated in the seizure of the Chinese capital, Namking. The Japanes "Rape of Nanking" srands as one of the great attrocities of World War II, although the beginning of the Japanese-Chinese war occurred before the advenbt of war in Europe. I recall several films dealing with China and Japan, but these were American films. I do not know of any British films.
NAZI Germany initiated World War II with the invasion of Poland (September 1939).
We have little infrmation about British films made during the War. Early British War films were "The Lion Has Wings" (1939) "Night train to Munich" (1940). In addition to Hollywood films made after ther start of the War in Europe, Here we are especially interested in the films that include children in the plot. British films were also ewidely circulated in America. The best know is probably "Mrs Minerva" (England, 1942). Another film was "The Pied Piper (England (1942). Another film is "Went the Day Well" (1942).
British film studios were private companies. Thus the British Government could not control the political content of the films before the War in the same way the NAZIs and Sovits could. We suspect, however, that the Government was not without influence. Here we need more information, but suspect that the Governmet's Apeasement policy had some impact. Once the War began, the Government was given extrodinary powers and could control the content of movies. Just what the laws and regulations were we do not yet know.
It is interesting to note how Hollywood ignored the Soviet aggressions. The beginnings of World war II almost always focus on the NAZI invasion and attrocities. In fact there were two counties that invadsed Poland. Two weeks after the NAZI invasion, the Soviets invaded from the east. Not only did the Soviets invade Poland, but Soviet attriocities in Poland werre also unimasginable. The NAZI invasion was in fact made possible by the NAZI-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (August 1939). This made Hitler and Stalin essentially allies. The Sovierts proceeded withj actions against Filland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Romania. The strartling fact is that Hollywold compleletly ignored the fact that Stlalin allied himself with Hitler and that the Soviets invaded not only Poland, but other neigboring countries. I am not sure why this was. Of course the Allies (Btitain and France) also ignored the Soviet aggressions. The silence from Hollywood does suggest a ledft-wing bias.
After Pearl Harbor, of course, Hollywood enthusiastically signed up for the war effort. There were also a number of related films made after the War.
I'm not sure how British studios dealt with the post-war era.
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