I love to find, watch and rate rare movies in the IMDb, so whenever I have time I take a dive in the less voted films and see which of them I can find, that is how I ended up watching Morgenthau Trailer, which since it has no copyright can be found in YouTube and seen. The Morgenthau trailer is both one of the shortest and less voted films in 1942, it is a product of its time, being one of probably hundred of short films made in an attempt to get the citizens in the United States to buy war bonds to support the expensive war effort. There's not much you can expect for this shorts, no matter in which way they come, they are simply short messages that intend to rise your patriotic feelings and help the army.
I have seen dozens of those shorts, mostly in DVD extras, and out of all of them this is probably the worst of all. There is no much you can do to deliver the message, but if you are interested in this historical things, then you'll know most of them have something special in them, either a celebrity, or cartoon characters or even an attempt at a small story to show the need of your support. The Morgebthau trailer has nothing of that.
It simply shows us Henry Morgenthau, who was the United States Secretary of Treasure sitting in a desk and giving the audience a long explanation about how the war bonds were necessary to support the army. Well it's not actually a long explanation, since it barely lasts around two minutes, but it feels quite long. I don't doubt that mr. Morgenthau was good in his job, but he was a terrible communicator. I was watching this two minutes short willingly and genuinely interested in it, and despite that it was so boring it felt quite long, and I watched the time a couple of time to see how much longer it was going to be.
Besides the technical explanations, Mr. Morgenthau seems somewhat uncomfortable talking to the camera, and besides a close ups to his face and then back to full body there is nothing interesting in the way it was filmed.
I have serious doubts that this short convinced anyone in doubt about buying war bonds, in a way in which a celebrity or a cartoon could do it. Failing in this mission and boring me so that's why I rated it so low. The only reason to see it is historical curiosity.
I have seen dozens of those shorts, mostly in DVD extras, and out of all of them this is probably the worst of all. There is no much you can do to deliver the message, but if you are interested in this historical things, then you'll know most of them have something special in them, either a celebrity, or cartoon characters or even an attempt at a small story to show the need of your support. The Morgebthau trailer has nothing of that.
It simply shows us Henry Morgenthau, who was the United States Secretary of Treasure sitting in a desk and giving the audience a long explanation about how the war bonds were necessary to support the army. Well it's not actually a long explanation, since it barely lasts around two minutes, but it feels quite long. I don't doubt that mr. Morgenthau was good in his job, but he was a terrible communicator. I was watching this two minutes short willingly and genuinely interested in it, and despite that it was so boring it felt quite long, and I watched the time a couple of time to see how much longer it was going to be.
Besides the technical explanations, Mr. Morgenthau seems somewhat uncomfortable talking to the camera, and besides a close ups to his face and then back to full body there is nothing interesting in the way it was filmed.
I have serious doubts that this short convinced anyone in doubt about buying war bonds, in a way in which a celebrity or a cartoon could do it. Failing in this mission and boring me so that's why I rated it so low. The only reason to see it is historical curiosity.