Strength for the Free World: Men of Good Will - 1952 Reel 1 · Part 1

Description

A pastiche of footage from other ECA films. Christmas, 1951—The Marshall Plan is helping Western European countries bridge the “dollar gap” by increasing exports: handmade toys from Germany, Christmas trees and skiing in Austria. People of Brittany demonstrate quaint Christmas customs; Norwegian men participate in the “Home Guard” (and “highly-trained” women’s auxiliary corps provide smiles and cups of coffee); orphans in Switzerland dance a slow polka; Italians put on a Christmas pageant and, along with assistance from the U.S. and other countries like Norway, help flood victims in the Po Valley. Over footage inside Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral, narrator states that others in Europe continue to face problems and have to help each other, but “whatever their religion, Europeans have faith.” Films ends with Austrian children singing.

Collection

Records of the U.S. Information Agency

Series

Moving Images Relating to U.S. Domestic and International Activities