December 7th
About December 7th
The released cut opens on the wreck of the USS Arizona and on memos from Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. Early on Sunday, 7 December 1941, a soldier at the aircraft warning post reports planes and is told they are probably American. The attack is then shown with staged shots and what combat film existed, and dead sailors give their names and hometowns in a single voice: "We are all alike. We are all Americans." The last ten minutes answer a victory broadcast put in the mouth of Tojo, and show ships being salvaged, martial law under Governor Joseph Poindexter, and children in gas masks. An 82-minute version that was not released in 1943 adds a 6 December argument between Uncle Sam (Walter Huston) and his conscience, Mr. C (Harry Davenport), and ends with the ghost of a sailor (Dana Andrews) talking to the ghost of a World War I soldier (Paul Hurst).
Cast & crew
More about December 7th
Gregg Toland and John Ford directed. Toland also photographed and co-wrote. The Navy produced it inside Ford's Field Photographic Branch. Alfred Newman wrote the music. Robert Parrish edited. Carleton Young narrates. Ford and writers Laurence Stallings and Frank Wead had drafted a script before Ford left Toland in charge. Samuel G. Engel worked on the prologue with Toland. The long cut was finished by February 1943. In March, Ford and Toland, with James McGuinness and Parrish, removed the prologue and epilogue. By May they had the 32-minute version. The Office of War Information is named as distributor. The released short is given as 32 minutes, and also as 34. The unreleased cut runs 82 minutes, and one timing of it is 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 53 seconds.
Themes
Background
Stimson and Knox each asked in early 1942 for a film in three parts: Hawaii before the attack, the attack, and the American response. Little footage of the raid itself existed, so most of that section was recreated.
In film history
The 32-minute cut won the documentary short Oscar at the 16th Academy Awards in 1944. The 82-minute version, with its argument that Japanese residents of Hawaii were a security problem, was held back by the Navy and stayed at the National Archives.
Making
In October 1942 Navy Undersecretary James Forrestal invited Lowell Mellett of the Bureau of Motion Pictures to see a rough cut, over objections from William J. Donovan. Mellett opposed release. Ford and Donovan still got the short version shown in June 1943 to military and civilian workers who had clearance, and later to Academy members so it could qualify for an Oscar.
Reviews
Lowell Mellett, head of the Bureau of Motion Pictures in the Office of War Information, recommended against releasing the film. He said a factual event should not be presented as a picture that was largely fiction.
Audiences
It was not given a wide release. In June 1943 the 32-minute version was shown to selected military and civilian audiences with security clearance, and then to members of the Motion Picture Academy.
Look
Gregg Toland shot salvage and rebuilding on Oahu beginning in February 1942. From July 1942 to February 1943 the attack was restaged at Twentieth Century Fox with miniatures.
Technique
With almost no film of the attack itself, Toland's crew rebuilt the raid on a studio lot with miniatures and other effects, cut against whatever footage had been made in Hawaii after the fact.
Music
Alfred Newman composed the score. The memorial section uses "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and a bugle playing "Taps."
Preservation
The National Archives kept the 82-minute version. It was released some fifty years after the attack. The 32-minute cut is the one that circulated in 1943 and won the Oscar.
Notes
- It is the only film on which Gregg Toland received a director credit.
- A character named Private Joseph Lockhart is the man at the warning set who is told the planes are friendly. Ford's drafts also used a Private Lovett for that incident.
- The long version stages the Japanese consul in Honolulu receiving information, and a Nazi visitor, as part of Mr. C's case against Uncle Sam.
- Lea Jacobs has argued that the shape of Ford's The Battle of Midway, finished while Toland was still shooting, left a mark on stretches of this film.
- George O'Brien is on some cast lists. The speaking roles named in the long version are Huston, Davenport, Andrews, and Hurst.
Awards
- Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject (1944)
Scenes
- Two beams throw a V-shaped shadow over a stain and a sailor's cap beside the wreck of the Arizona.
- Dead servicemen name their hometowns while photographs of their families are shown.
- In the long version, Dana Andrews's sailor walks a military cemetery with a World War I ghost.
Also available
- Internet Archive (December7th)
- Wikimedia Commons (December 7th (1943).webm)
Quotes
We are all alike. We are all Americans.
