The Ramparts We Watch (DVD)

Billed as "a saga of modern America", The Ramparts We Watch was the first feature-length motion picture from The March of Time, the monthly newsreel that packed cinemas almost as much as the main attraction. With Pearl Harbor still over a year away, producer Louis de Rochemont was becoming concerned by the United States' reticence to intervene in the growing conflict in Europe. To call attention to those fears, he mounted a massive production that recreated American life immediately before our entry into World War I. Through a series of moving vignettes, The Ramparts We Watch effectively dramatizes how America's formerly isolationist ways nearly spelled doom for the entire world. In order to ensure a documentary-style realism, de Rochemont employed a cast of almost entirely non-professional actors, mostly culled from the town of New London, Connecticut in which the film was shot. Some Broadway performers were utilized, however, to add dramatic heft to the weightiest scenes. One of them, 20-year-old Georgette McKee, made such an impression that Jack Warner offered her a studio contract. As Andrea King, she would have a long career on film and television, and become a popular pin-up girl for American G.I.s during the coming war. But de Rochemont's real coup was using clips from the Nazi propaganda film Baptism of Fire, smuggled out of Canada, during the picture's conclusion. This footage shocked and horrified American audiences not familiar with Hitler's heinous acts. Its unauthorized use brought quick reprisals from the German government, who still was not at war with America. The Ramparts We Watch was pulled from theaters, despite protest from The March of Time's lawyers. Rarely seen in the decades since, it is a fascinating time capsule of two distinct periods in American history.

• war