Hollywood was willing and eager to help. In the long pre-war days the world's biggest cinema industry piddled around making training films for the armed forces, an occasional hammy patriotic picture of its own, tried its hand at box-office propaganda and got smeared by U.S. Senate isolationists for its pains. After Pearl Harbor, Hollywood pleaded with Franklin Roosevelt's Government Films Coordinator, white-haired, volcanically patient Lowell Mellett, for an important assignment.
Last week, four months later, Hollywood at last got its marching orders. They called for little more than a short hike. For Government account, the industry will make 26 shorts...