Ministry of Information

A young, Scottish RAF gunner is debriefed by French officials about his escape from Nazi-occupied territory. They are particularly interested in one person who may or may not have been a German agent.

A former leader of the French Resistance finds that one of his fellow actors looks like a detestable official he knew in Madagascar during the war. He tells about his time, operating an illegal radio station while evading the Nazis.

On the 29th September 1945, the incomplete rough cut of a brilliant documentary about concentration camps was viewed at the MOI in London. For five months, Sidney Bernstein had led a small team – which included Stewart McAllister, Richard Crossman and Alfred Hitchcock – to complete the film from hours of shocking footage. Unfortunately, this ambitious Allied project to create a feature-length visual report that would damn the Nazi regime and shame the German people into acceptance of Allied occupation had missed its moment. Even in its incomplete form (available since 1984) the film was immensely powerful, generating an awed hush among audiences. But now, complete to six reels, this faithfully restored and definitive version produced by IWM, is being compared with Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog (1955).

World War II propaganda film.

A documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen. It opens as the assembled allied forces plan and train for the D-Day invasion at bases in Great Britain and covers all the major events of the war in Europe from the Normandy landings to the fall of Berlin.

A parallel is drawn between a housewife's dealings with her butcher, and a burglar and his fence (receiver).

Government information film on how to get maximum wear from a man's suit, narrated by one such suit in the form of an autobiography.

A tribute to the courage and resiliency of Britons during the darkest days of the London Blitz.

Members of three Commonwealth armies, an Aussie, a Canadian, and a New Zealander meet actor Leslie Howard who buys them a beer and makes them understand why they're fighting.

How to make porridge using a haybox.

Ministry of Information-sponsored comedy short showing wartime audiences how to deal with the threat of incendiary bombs.

The story of how newspapers were distributed during the Blitz, stressing the importance of an accurate and objective press on the home front.

From a series of propaganda films made to raise awareness of the risks of idle gossip providing vital information to enemy spies and collaborators. This Ealing Studios production features well-known 1940s actor John Mills, playing a sailor whose girlfriend thoughtlessly blunders away vital wartime secrets. The consequences prove disastrous when his boat next leaves to cross the English Channel.

Commissioned by the Ministry of Information and specifically target working class audiences; ‘Now you’re talking’ follows a plant worker, who lets slip vital information about some overnight research on a captured enemy aircraft. This inevitably leads to this most important of secrets falling into the lap of the enemy.

An exposure of the fallacy of race myths; Nazi and Japanese theories about pure blood and master races are contrasted with scientific facts of mixed origins to prove that no nation or race can be considered inferior or superior.

The true story of the massacre of a small Czech village by the Nazis is retold as if it happened in Wales.

Animated short from Halas and Batchelor encouraging the British public to post early for Christmas.

A 1941 Ministry of Information propaganda film set to the tune of The Lambeth Walk, a popular song from the musical Me and My Girl.

This film explains how sneezing in public can spread disease, and shows how using a handkerchief can stop it.

Is your hedge thin and straggly? Don't worry, help is at hand.