WORLD WAR II BRITISH PROPAGANDA FILM "NOW YOU'RE TALKING" 85954
Made in 1940, NOW YOU'RE TALKING was one of a trio of fast-paced shorts released in 1940 intended to illustrate the potentially catastrophic consequences of unguarded chatter in public places during wartime.
The plot of the film is this: When a fallen
Nazi aeroplane is recovered,
British scientists have high hopes of learning valuable secrets. But a disgruntled factory worker inadvertently alerts enemy agents to the discovery, with disastrous consequences.
From the
BFI: As part of a wider publicity campaign, which saw posters bearing such iconic slogans as "
Careless Talk Costs Lives" festooned in cafes and bars, the
Ministry of Information commissioned these short films from
Ealing Studios, with a hefty combined budget of £6,
000. The films follow a similar narrative but vary in their characterisation and choice of locations in order to target audiences of different classes - a deliberate distribution strategy on the part of the
MOI, which wanted the message to be disseminated as widely as possible.
This film was made with working-class audiences in mind, and distributed to cinemas in industrial areas. The main action is divided between a factory laboratory, where two scientists (one of them played by
Alec Clunes, father of
Martin) are about to take delivery of a recovered enemy aircraft, from which they hope to learn vital secrets; the factory gates, where worker Alf learns he has to work late to unload the lorry carrying the miraculously undamaged plane; and a local pub, where the loose-tongued Alf, in exchange for a pint of mild and bitter, reveals too much to an inquisitive stranger.
Interestingly, a later survey of wartime propaganda films by
Mass Observation reported that the three films were better received by middle-class audiences than working-class ones. In some working-class quarters, it reported, there were objections to the casting of the spies as workers and the upper-class characters as heroes.
The other films in the trilogy,
Dangerous Comment, with its spy bartender and heroic officers, and
All Hands, in which the Nazi agents include a café proprietress, were designed for the upper and middle classes respectively.
Cast:
Sebastian Shaw (
Charles Hampton);
Dorothy Hyson (Mrs
Hampton);
Edward Chapman (Alf Small);
Judy Campbell (
Doris);
George Merritt (
Fred Perkins);
Lloyd Pearson (
Jake); Alec Clunes (
Harry); George Relph (spy);
Johnnie Schofield (man)
Director:
John Paddy Carstairs,
Production Company: Ealing Studios,
Sponsor: Ministry of Information,
Producer:
Michael Balcon,
Script by:
Jeffrey Dell,
Roger MacDougall,
Basil Dearden
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