The film daily year book of motion pictures (1943)

by showing the picture first in the countries which furnished the source of material for the production. It was hailed everywhere as a sincere and successful attempt to entourage the feeling of good-will between the hemispheres. Currently in production is a second South American feature which has been tentatively called Surprise Package. Mexico which was not pictured in Saludos Amigos, will have a prominent sequence in Surprise Package. Again Disney and his aides made certain that their material was authentic, and spent two weeks in Mexico prior to starting work on this attraction. Whimsy will mingle with the realistic when The Gremlins is brought to the screen in feature form by the squire of Burbank. The Gremlins will be filmed with the sanction and support of the RAF, discoverers of the little hobgoblins of the air who are becoming internationally famous for their exploits. There have been all sorts of conleptions of the Gremlins, but actually only lighting men of the RAC ever come in contact with them, so the legend goes. Through representatives of the RAF, Disney will be supplied with authentic material about the Gremlins, who it is understood are now consorting with American flyers over the continent. The Fifinellas, Widgets and Spandules sound like Disney material of top calibre, and will offer a little relief from the more sordid type of war material reaching the screen. 2. Training: Practically all the scores of pictures coming under this category for the Army and Navy are of hush-hush status. I h rough pictures of this type it is hoped that the services can in some instances cut by as much as 45 per cent the time it takes to teach technical men. However, there are two productions which are privileged and can be mentioned. They both make Gone with the Wind look like a short by comparison in length. First comes Rules of the Nautical Road, which will run more than 20,000 feet. This production, produced under the supervision of the Navy, is highly important for the training of mariners, and the prevention of collisions on the inland waters and high seas. It starts with the making of the amazing point that naval collisions each year result in the loss of more than $150,000,000 in shipping and many lives, and points up the rules of the nautical road to aid in the elimination of unnecessary accidents due to lack of knowledge of signalling or defiance of the common laws of sea courtesy. It will be just as valuable after the war as it is today in marine schools. Another "colossus," being filmed for the Navy, is Aerology. Taking up where text books end, Aerology tears apart every weather element, which will be of incalculable value to fighting as well as civilian pilots in knowing what goes on inside thunder and lightning storms, fogs, ice, and in fact every element other than mechanical a pilot encounters after taking his ship olf. Hundreds of pilots the world over have contributed to the Navy's fund of material going into this picture, through stories of their encounters with weather. It will be as standard as any text book in flying schools after the war. 3. Educational: Here, at last, the film comes into its own as an "instructional" instrument. Most of these pictures are being made for the Office of the Coordinator of InterAmerican Affairs, but for showing wherever a motion picture projector can be found. Included in the group coming under this heading are: The Grain that Built a Hemisphere, the story of corn and corn products; The Winged Scourge, which relates the why and wherefore of maleria and how it can be overcome; Defense Against Invasion, all about vaccination and innoculation; Water Supply, an invaluable treatise on the prevention of water pollution; and The Amazon Awakens, the story of the greatest delta land in the world. All of these pictures are to be in technicolor, and are indicative of the power of the motion picture as an educational medium. 4. Psychological Pictures under this classification can be rightfully termed "entertainment" and are being made under the regular Disney theater program. But they treat with topics that are psychological. Four in this group thus far scheduled are Der Fuehrer's Face, a satirical comedy which might laugh Hitler out of Germany if it could be shown in the Fatherland; Education for Death, a powerful, if short treatment of Gregor Ziemer's slashing indictment of the Nazis; Chicken Little, bringing the little nursery rhyme up to the minute with a ludicrous scourging of the bandier of false rumors; and Emotion and Reason, a plea for a good level-head job of winning the war. # * * In a separate category is The Spirit of '43 successor to The New Spirit, which the Treasury Department commissioned Disney to produce, because of the terrific success of the latter, in exploiting income tax payments. This year there will be twice as many persons paying this excise as last year, and consequently the Treasury Department's educational problem is twice as great. Yes, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and all their pals have gone to war— completely all out for it. It is another evidence of the part the industry is playing in the gigantic task ahead of the nation both on the war front and the home front. It is casting its shadow, too, on the future when the school room will echo to the sound projector relating the story of biology, chemistry, medicine, surgery, and, in fact, every other educational subject to a wide-awake, alert studentry which will grasp its lesson faster for being able to visualize it along with reading about it. 203