Challenge of Ideas, The (Part I) : U.S. Army Pictorial Center : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

ANALYZES BASIC IDEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE U.S. & THE COMMUNIST STATE. DESCRIBES OBJECTIVES & TECHNIQUES USED BY THE USSR TO INFLUENCE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD. EMPHASIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THE U.S. STRONG SPIRITUALLY & MORALLY.

Ken Smith sez: A cavalcade of stars -- Edward R. Murrow, John Wayne, Frank McGee, Helen Hayes and, of course, Lowell Thomas -- spend the bulk of this film telling us that Americans are "under God," and that the U.S. government follows an international policy of "watchful, non-intrusive friendship" and "hands-off internal affairs" (tell that to Cuba or South Vietnam in 1961). When these celebrities finish trumpeting our manifest destiny, they start warning us about the communists, who want "world conquest" and are a "perversion of us and everything we stand for."
The section with John Wayne is the best -- he spouts lines such as "beauty is of national concern to us" while we see stock footage of Miss America, lady wrestlers, clips from Personal Hygiene (!), and a marine corps trio playing Rock Around the Clock. Many good "American" vs. "communist" montages.

Zero = first pix

00:00 United Nations General Assembly
00:14 Crates being unloaded from cargo ship
00:15 Foreign folk dance troupe
00:18 Lighting of Olympic flame at Olympic Games
00:21 U.S. Capitol building, Washington, D.C.
00:25 John F. Kennedy
00:30 Flags in front of United Nations building
00:44 Edward R. Murrow smoking at desk
00:52 Soldiers carrying duffel bags, embarking on boat
01:14 American servicemen (soldiers), families
01:15 American tourists abroad (various locations)
01:21 Fighter planes on tarmac
01:22 Submarine seen from the air
01:25 Frontal view of battleship
01:30 Soldiers look through binoculars
01:31 Sign: "Russian Zone" (Berlin, Germany)
01:38 Sign: "Army Reserve" outside building
02:02 Hand fills out income tax return
02:30 Diplomats at international conference
02:39 Small town in United States
02:46 Old man raises hand at meeting
02:50 Teacher draws large triangle on blackboard
02:51 Teenage girl raises hand in class
03:23 CU Joseph Stalin (?)
03:25 The Kremlin seen from the Moscow River
03:29 U.S. Capitol building
03:34 Men playing horseshoes
03:36 Couple sits on bench watching bathers at beach
03:38 Young couple holding hands
03:43 Minister giving sermon
03:47 Men eating on street
03:48 Rodeo
03:53 Blue-collar workers walking in a group
03:58 LS smoking factory (smokestacks)
03:59 Welders
04:01 Woman textile mill worker
04:03 Black worker (man) examining glass jars on assembly line
04:07 Men work on airplane engine
04:10 John Wayne gives anti-Communist talk and smokes cigarettes a lot, while sitting in director's chair
04:38 Fifties couple dancing cha-cha in nightclub
04:42 Automobile assembly line
04:45 Traffic on highway
04:49 Football scrimmage
04:50 Boxing
04:53 Bucking bronco at rodeo
04:56 Women wrestlers
05:00 Small town parade
05:05 Woman buys greeting card
05:07 Beauty pageant: crowning the beauty queen
05:12 Woman applies lipstick
05:15 Man on beach eating hotdog under umbrella; ogles woman with nice legs
05:27 Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C.
05:34 Quaint grave marker from the Old West
05:38 Country and western band with guitar and accordion
05:46 Square dancing
05:54 Jazz clarinetist in U.S. Army uniform
06:00 Guitarist in talent show
06:10 Three U.S. Marines with guitars and bass singing "Rock Around the Clock"
06:18 Large chorus singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic"
06:28 Mount Rushmore (South Dakota)
06:30 VS American scenics
06:57 Striking workers picketing
07:02 Crowd at stadium rises to its feet
07:05 Political convention
07:15 Aerial shot of Washington Monument at night
07:20 Iwo Jima memorial, Washington, D.C.; statue of Nathan Hale; statue of combat soldier; Civil War statue
07:37 Statue of Abraham Lincoln at Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.
07:54 Visitors to the National Archives view Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution at the Archives building in Washington, D.C.
08:14 People sing hymns in church; montage of churches
08:43 Children in library
08:49 People waiting to vote
08:52 Hog show and auction; stock auctioneers
09:09 Soviet leaders view parade in Red Square, Moscow, U.S.S.R.; Nikita Khrushchev waves his hat
09:25 Drawings of Russian life; hammer and sickle graphics
09:29 Tanks and rockets parade by in Red Square
10:11 Hanson Baldwin gives anti-Communist speech; points to map of world with Communist countries in black
11:29 Political rally in Third World country
11:30 Gamal Abdel Nasser (?) (Egypt) gives speech
11:37 Taj Mahal
11:20 Spanish steps in Rome; tourist takes pictures
13:37 Turning globe
14:29 Newspaper headline: "Communist Coup in Prague" (Czechoslovakia)
14:41 Communist meeting hall with picture of Josef Stalin
14:51 Eastern European voting
15:02 Communist military parades
15:20 Tanks in China; battle scenes; marching Chinese soldiers
15:45 Guerrilla war in streets (street warfare)
15:58 Book burnings
16:05 Flag burnings
16:10 Riot police
16:38 Frank McGee gives anti-Communist speech
17:20 Soviet factories, products and shipping
18:00 Nikita Khrushchev waving from automobile
18:05 Fidel Castro shaking hands
19:06 Round table with diplomats (U.N. Security Council or European conference?)
19:40 Foreign automobile workers
19:45 NATO conference
20:00 Americans training foreign workers
21:00 NATO meeting, 1959
21:25 Nurse delivers baby, holds baby up, baby cries
21:20 Suffragette
21:26 Interior of cathedral
21:34 Blue-collar workers receiving paychecks
21:38 American family at dinner
22:40 Anti-American demonstrations and riots; Anti-American propaganda
23:40 People entering London Underground (subway)
23:56 Lowell Thomas gives anti-Communist speech
24:40 Montage of sensational newspaper headlines exposing corruption
25:27 American servicemen (soldiers, military) with flags
25:35 Liberty Bell swinging (ringing)
25:40 Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
25:59 Helen Hayes gives anti-Communist speech
27:34 Silhouette of Statue of Liberty
27:42 House in snow (General George Washington's headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey?); bridge at Concord, Massachusetts
27:58 Seascape; waves breaking on rocks
28:11 Pioneers building fort
28:11 Railroad workers hammer Golden Spike; trains meet; people cheer
28:19 Montage of axes, shovels, saws, forges, steel beams
28:32 VS Statue of Liberty; people look up in deference; young Black girl looks up at statue; VS people looking up
29:30 John F. Kennedy's "Ask Not" quotation superimposed over Statue of Liberty

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