The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-21

their loads or are hit by the anti
 aircraft guns and crash in flames
 Naval vessels get hit, shells ex-
 plode, men are wounded, killed. Ii
 is real war, for civilian consump-
 tion.
 Commander Ford is working out at the Department of Agriculture
 film laboratory, editing his film
 waiting for the Navy brass hats to
 make up their minds as to how ii
 shall be released. The Navy both
 and does not want to sponsor 1t. Il
 the Navy doesn't sponsor it, may
 be Office of War Information or
 somebody else will. While the bu-
 reaucratS wrangle, the public is be-
 ing kept from what is probably good propaganda medicine for domestic
 and foreign consumption.
 QUITE A
 CONCESSION
 The way Ford got this picture
 makes an interesting story. The idea of putting Ford into the Navy with a Hollywood camera crew was Ford's but when he couldn't sell 1t
 to the Navy, he sold it to Colonel William J. Donovan's old outfit. the Office of the Co., ordinator of h. formation. With Donovan backing, Ford was permitted to let his crew be enlisted in the Naval Reserve. That was supposed to be quite a concession, for many of the detail didn't know an anchor from a mar linspike, and to give such people the rating of a chief petty officer was against all the rules, and sup posedly quite disrupting to Navy morale. Also, the Navy was against having people who were just sup posed to take pictures and do mo- thing else. What the Navy wanted was people who could also stand watch or man gun or maybe even swab deck.
 Finally all these objections were overcome and the Ford crew were mustered into service. Playing a pure hunch, Commander Ford and his men got permission to go to Midway. When the JapS came over in their big effort early in June, there were the cameramen on the job to grind away.
 In the three-day battle the fancy sailors from Hollywood stood around and took it. They were put on land when the Jap bombers came over, they rode in planes on bombing mis- sions, they worked on the landing decks of the airplane carriers and they "shot" scenes from cruisers and battlewagons. A couple of the cameras actually were shot out of the hands of the men operating them. Commander Ford was in the shoulder by a flying fragment of concrete from an emplacement struck by a Jap shell.
 The picture is stark realism of war, but 1t is not without its Hol- lywood touches of pathos, whimsy and sob stuff. When Ford and his men got back to the United States, they dubbed in a sound track with a staff of announcers to heighten the dramatic effects.
 HOKUM-
 BUT GOOD
 When a number of men are wounded aboard one of the ships, the announcer comes in with com ment that the men will be rushed to the hospital bay. But there is no hospital bay! Follows a closeup, showing the roof shot off the hos pital bay, and the doctors and or derlies working away, practically 
 A closeup is shown of young pilot, just back from a mission. The announcer dubs In comment to the effect that this looks like 50 and SOS boy, back in Ohio. Sure. It is SO and sos boy, and his pappy is a railroad engineer. Know the whole family well! Ford sent cameraman for closeup of pappy pulling his train into the station, and another of his mother and sisters.
 Yeh, they're touches of Holly wood corn, all right, but they put over the idea that this is every oody's war. Well, Ford has shown It can be done. Maybe they'll let him do 1t again. Anyway, watch for this picture. End plug.