Field Guide to Sponsored Films - National Film Preservation ...

Deadline for Action
Ernest Flook. NARRATOR: Art Gilmore. CAST: Florence Shaen, Rev. C.S. Reynolds, Henry Rupp Jr., William E.
Hill. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger, MacDonald.
Safety film produced for railroad workers that illustrates the impact of occupational accidents
on families and friends. The Days of Our Years shows how a single workplace accident can
disrupt an entire community. Filmed on location in working-class neighborhoods of Los
Angeles. NOTE: Shot in Kodachrome. Viewable online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/DaysofOu1955.
110. DEADLINE FOR ACTION (1946, sound, 40 min, b&w, 16mm)
SPONSOR: United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America. PRODUCTION CO.: Union Films.
PRODUCER: Carl Aldo Marzani. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered; “How Unions Pack Punch into ‘Sales’
Films,” Mod Ind 13 (Feb. 15, 1947): 115–18; J.A. Livingston, “Economist Says CIO Builds Wage Backfire,”
Wash Post, Mar. 23, 1947, B3; Charles J. Lazarus, “Quebec Censors,” NYT, Sept. 28, 1947, X4; Ec Ed, 11;
Raymond Spottiswoode, “Deadline for Action,” in Ideas, 199; EFG (1951), 285; “Interview with Carl
Marzani,” Cineaste 7 (Spring 1976): 33–35; Selling, 47. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Influential union film arguing for political action through the ballot box. The film traces
the story of an ex-serviceman who joins the picket line against his antilabor employer but
also learns the importance of fighting big business through democratic elections. In explaining
the rationale behind the post–World War II strikes against General Electric and Westinghouse,
Deadline for Action uses footage of police suppression of the picketers and animated
sequences depicting corporate dominance of the American political system. Wrote J.A.
Livingston, “It’s worth seeing, both as a technical tour de force and as a masterful piece of
propaganda. There’s no doubt about this job—it was not done by amateurs. But there might
be some doubt whether it was made in America.” NOTE: Also released in a 21-minute version.
Business responded by producing the film Crossroads for America (entry 100). Viewable
online at Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/Deadline1946.
111. DEATH TO WEEDS (1947, sound, 21 min, color, 16mm)
SPONSOR: Dow Chemical Co. PRODUCTION CO.: Jam Handy Organization. NARRATOR: Al Prough. RESOURCES:
Copyright 3Mar47 and 5Mar74 MU1751. HOLDINGS: LC/Prelinger.
Promotional film introducing Dow products containing 2,4-D, the first successful selective
herbicide. Beginning with a faux-medieval “death sentence” to weeds, the short makes its point
by showing crops before and after the application of the new herbicide, the process of applying
the product through crop dusting, and a time-lapse sequence of a weed withering in a pot.
NOTE: Produced in Kodachrome. Viewable online at the Internet Archive, www.archive.org/details/DeathtoW1947.
112. DECISION FOR CHEMISTRY (1953, sound, 53 min, b&w, 35mm)
SPONSOR: Monsanto Chemical Co. PRODUCTION CO.: MPO Productions Inc. DIRECTOR: Sidney Meyers. WRITER:
Burton J. Rowles. CAMERA: Michael Nebbia. MUSIC: Alex North. RESOURCES: Copyright not registered;
“Audiences Decide for Monsanto,” Bus Scrn 15, no. 1 (1954): 130; S.P., “The American Scene,” NYT, Feb.
7, 1954, SM20; Mildred Weiler, “Monsanto’s 50 Films Soft-Pedal and Sell,” Industrial Marketing, Mar. 1956,
92–96. HOLDINGS: AAFF, LC/Prelinger.
Film surveying the role of chemistry in American life and the central role of the people,
products, and plants of Monsanto. Intended for nontheatrical use and broadcast, Decision for
Chemistry is structured around questions asked by a young boy. NOTE: Also released in 33minute
nontheatrical and 28-minute television versions. A 16-minute version was shown in
1954 on NBC’s Omnibus. The film was selected as one of 20 contemporary American documentaries
to be shown at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1954. Sidney Meyers also
directed the acclaimed documentary The Quiet One.
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