4.0 out of 5 stars
Oscar-winning documentaries, star-filled varieties, cartoons and more!, August 4, 2008
This review is from: WWII Battles & Victories (DVD)
"BATTLES & VICTORIES" is a fine compilation of material from many sources. The discs are programmed to simulate what a theatergoer might experience from 1942 to '45. Thus, newsreels of battle footage and war-themed cartoons accompany the movies.
"The True Glory" and "Fighting Lady" both won Oscars for Best Documentary. "Prelude to War" shows the errors made at WWI's close that led to an even larger conflagration 20 years later. The six fine documentaries on disc #3 cover famous battles and warcraft. Besides superlative contemporary documentaries, there's two variety movies. "Hollywood Cavalcade" was made just prior to the war and features such famous entertainers as Buster Keaton and Al Jolson, and "Stage Door Canteen" is even MORE star-studded! Also, "Strictly G.I." is a film of a "Command Performance" radio show.
ST. CLAIR DVD multi-packs are reasonably priced, and offer fine quality video/audio transfers of unrestored public domain material. Discs are single-side recorded, plastic storage cases fairly sturdy, content details appear on box's back cover and most DVDs include bonus items.
A related ST. CLAIR product is their
WWII FRIENDS & FOES set. This one consists entirely of very highly-regarded vintage documentaries.
PROGRAM for WWII: ACTION--
(Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.)
DISC ONE--
(8.4) The True Glory (1945) - Dwight Eisenhower/Peter Ustinov
BONUS:
August 1942 - First Raid on French Coast
Hollywood Goes to War (1945)
(8.1) Strictly G.I. (1943) - Bob Hope/Betty Hutton/Lana Turner/Judy Garland
Summer 1944
(6.8) Secret Agent (Superman cartoon) (1943)
D-Day Newsreel: 101st Airborne Division
(6.6) Any Bonds Today? (1942) - Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny/Arthur Q. Bryan as Elmer Fudd
DISC TWO--
(7.3) Prelude to War (1943) - Narrated by Walter Huston (with boxer Max Schmeling as a paratrooper!)
(6.4) D-Day: The Normandy Invasion (1945)
Battle of France
BONUS:
The Andrews Sisters
(6.6) Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) - Alice Faye/Don Ameche/Stuart Erwin/Buster Keaton/Al Jolson/Ben Turpin/Chester Conklin/James Finlayson/Rin Tin Tin/Mack Sennett/Fred 'Snowflake' Toones
(6.5) Stage Door Canteen (1943) - Featuring dozens of stars and a cast of hundreds!
German Surrender
(6.4) D-Day: The Normandy Invasion (1945)
Martha Raye and Carole Landis
(6.6) Winning Your Wings (1942) - James Stewart (narrator)/dir. by John Huston
(6.4) Jungle Drums (Superman cartoon) (1943)
(7.0) Daffy - The Commando (1943) - Mel Blanc: voices of Daffy Duck/Von Vulture and Hitler
DISC THREE--
(7.5) The Battle of Russia (1943) - dir. by Frank Capra
(7.8) The Battle of Britain (1943) - dir. by Frank Capra
(7.0) The Battle of Midway (1942) - Henry Fonda (narrator)/dir. by John Ford
(7.5) The Fighting Lady (1944) - Robert Taylor (narrator)
Memphis Belle
(7.5) Thunderbolt (1947) - James Stewart/Lloyd Bridges (voice)
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1.0 out of 5 stars
There's a sucker born every minute, April 9, 2006
This review is from: WWII Battles & Victories (DVD)
Well it's amazing what you can dress up as a value for money WWII documentary package so lets call this what it is.
"WWII Battles and victories" distributed by St Claire Vision is a three DVD 8 "documentary" set comprising a mixture of 1940's vintage US Government propaganda and assorted Hollywood
"information" films ranging in length from 133mins to 17 mins. Portions of these films have been sold separately as the "Why we fight" series" (perhaps by a different distributor?).
If you are thinking that "Battles and Victories" refers to any kind of analysis or documenting of significant military or historical events during WWII think again.
For the most part each of the documentaries is a "day in the life of" recounting of some WWII event such as Midway with an overlayed propaganda narrative, dubiously accurate archival battle footage and very ,very little in the way of fact.
There are even corny overdubs of combat footage with a Hollywood actor issuing orders to soldiers etc. The dubs are not even lipsynced.
The film quality and production values are what you would expect for 60 year old films but make no mistake- if you are thinking this series is akin to say World at War, History Channel WWII Documentaries or some of the technical docus on tanks and planes of WWII- forget it.
My guess is the producers bundled together some old archival newsreel and other footage they got for peanuts from the studios, threw it onto DVD, put it in the documentary section of Amazon and other distributors alongside real, retrospective, technically detailed and historically informative productions, gave it a title that sounded like the other proper docus of the genre and hoped nobody would notice.
Unless you want archival 1940's propaganda footage for your next college assignement then don't bother with this dubious production.
Laughing all the way to the bank.
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