Productivity : Key To Plenty (1949)

1940s, 1950s, Films from the Archive, Stock Footage

Traces the development of machine power in the United States from 1850. Explains that the country’s mastery of machine power has enabled it to achieve great production, a large income and a high living standard. Educational film about economics, making the point that a healthy economy depends on vigorous use of new technology. Interesting as a period piece from the postwar economic boom, the film harps incessantly about America’s high standard of living. Don’t miss the curious series of animated diagrams, in which a robust cartoon figure of the typical American is contrasted to a Briton, a Frenchman and a Russian, standing next to anemic bar graphs of their respective economies. Another cartoon figure holds a throbbing plate of money. 01:23:48:00 B/W 1949 ws, ms Suburban neighborhood; EXT small generic house. 01:24:06:00 B/W 1949 vs Sequence showing a typical late 1940s or early 1950s family: Man on lawn chair reading magazine; teenage boy washing car; housewife in kitchen fills pot with water, places pot on stove, opens refrigerator; 78 rpm record on phonograph, CU; teenage girl sits on couch, turns on lamp; CU telephone; housewife arranges flowers in vase. 01:25:40:00 B/W 1949 ws Midwest main street of 1940s town or small city (probably Evanston, Illinois; bus passes by with “EVANSTON BUS COMPANY” on EXT); people window shopping (good shots); movie theater EXT; public library EXT (doesn’t read well). 01:28:22:00 B/W 1949 ms, cu Glass blower making bottle; these shots are contrasted to modern bottle factory, VS bottles on conveyor belt. 01:29:25:00 B/W 1949 ms Montage of machines: tractor; concrete-paver; jackhammer; printing press; typewriter; sewing machine; steam shovel. (Industry / people at work) 01:30:04:00 B/W 1949 vs Long sequence, recreation of life in mid-19th century: Waterwheel, and grain mill, VS; horse-drawn wagon; various craftsmen in their workshops: blacksmith, shoemaker; farmer plowing field with oxen. 01:32:34:00 B/W 1949 vs Historical 19th century recreation continues: woman cooking at fireplace hearth; young woman sewing; woman visits well, raises bucket of water; woman emerges from cellar of log cabin with pitcher of milk; family at dinner table, father says grace, PAN to food (note flies on food). 01:36:14:00 B/W 1949 vs Montage of energy sources: Freight train loaded with coal; coal mine, worker shovels coal onto chute; landscape of oil derricks, PAN; oil pump; vat of bubbling oil; hydroelectric dam (also at 1:43:13); generator; power lines. 01:37:12:00 B/W 1949 vs Montage of heavy industry, machinery: car factory INT WS; steel mill; huge metal press; factory workers; VS CU machiner; printing press; factory EXT, tall smokestacks (closer at 1:39:28). 01:39:14:00 B/W 1949 ms Businessmen in conference room looking at SALES TRENDS sales chart. 01:39:20:00 B/W 1949 ws Workers punch time clock. 01:42:18:00 B/W 1949 vs Sequence contrasting old-fashioned hand labor with modern machinery: horse-drawn plow DISSOLVEs to tractor; black boy picking cotton DISSOLVEs to harvester; old-fashioned streetcar DISSOLVEs to streamlined modern streetcar; steam locomotive DISSOLVEs to modern train. (Changing times / modernization / contrasting “old” with ”new”). 01:43:28:00 B/W 1949 CU, MS Montage, people at work, brief, idealized shots: Machinist; secretary typing; carpenter sawing; woman at sewing machine; businessman on telephone; bricklayer; draftsman; truckdriver