The True Glory (1945) is a co-production of the US Office of War Information and the British Ministry of Information, documenting the victory on the Western Front, from Normandy to the collapse of the Third Reich.

The True Glory
Full film (restored)
Directed byGarson Kanin
Carol Reed
Written byPaddy Chayefsky
Produced byOffice of War Information, Ministry of Information
StarringDwight D. Eisenhower
George S. Patton
Sam Levene
Peter Ustinov
CinematographyRuss Meyer
Music byWilliam Alwyn
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
  • 27 August 1945 (1945-08-27) (UK)
  • 4 October 1945 (1945-10-04) (U.S.)
Running time
87 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish

Although many individuals, including screenwriter and director Garson Kanin, contributed to the film, British director Carol Reed is normally credited as the director. The documentary was promoted with the tagline, "The story of your victory...told by the guys who won it!" The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[1]

Format edit

The documentary film is notable for using multiple first-person perspectives as narrative voices, somewhat in the manner of Tunisian Victory (1944). However, in The True Glory, instead of just an American G.I. and a British Tommy, the voices include a Canadian, a French resister, a Parisian civilian family, an African-American tank gunner, and several female perspectives including a nurse and clerical staff. The film is introduced by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe. Prominent commentators include General George S. Patton; Best Actor Tony nominee and American Theatre Hall of Fame and Grammy Hall of Fame Broadway and film star Sam Levene; two-time Academy Award-winning film actor and director, Peter Ustinov; and three-time Academy Award-winning playwright Paddy Chayefsky.[2]

The title is taken from a letter of Sir Francis Drake, which is quoted in a final caption: "There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory."[3]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "The 18th Academy Awards (1946) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  2. ^ None credited, THE TRUE GLORY restored., UK Ministry of Information & US Office of War Information, retrieved 17 March 2020
  3. ^ Bonner-Smith, D. (1950). "Drake's Prayer". The Mariner's Mirror. 36: 86–87. doi:10.1080/00253359.1950.10657582.

Further reading edit

  • Chapman, James (1996). "'The Yanks Are Shown to Such Advantage': Anglo-American rivalry in the production of 'The True Glory' (1945)". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 16 (4): 533–554. doi:10.1080/01439689600260531.
  • Krome, Frederic (1998). "The True Glory and the Failure of Anglo-American Film Propaganda in the Second World War". Journal of Contemporary History. 33 (1): 21–34. doi:10.1177/003200949803300102. JSTOR 260995. S2CID 159874874.

External links edit