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Browse 60 movies from Crown Film Unit
An Englishman and Frenchman sharing a hotel room discover their children are fighting on the same side, French Resistance and R.A.F.
Jan 1944
Tradition, dance and song, modern customs and development and welfare services in the Caribbean Islands.
Jun 1951
An African tribe in the Eastern Nigerian village of Umana work to build a maternity hospital, with the aid of government officials, and against the opposition of some tribal members.
Aug 1949
A World War II drama-documentary showing the struggles of Merchant Navy seamen following an attack by a U-Boat. Western Approaches is a vast area of ocean control covering thousands of square miles of the Atlantic. In these waters is set this single incident in the fiercest and longest sea battle in history. The players are not professional actors but serving officers and men of Allied Navies and Merchant Fleets. This film is dedicated to them and their comrades who made the Allied victory possible.
Dec 1944
A dramatised account of Norwegian fishermen outwitting occupational forces during World War II, directed by Jiří Weiss and written by acclaimed author Laurie Lee.
Feb 1944
British educational documentary film about the principal instruments in the modern symphony orchestra, illustrated through Benjamin Britten's composition, "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", for which it was commissioned.
Jan 1946
Humphrey Jennings’s Crown Film Unit short on the summer 1944 V-1 “doodlebug” campaign, tracking a salvo from the coast toward London as it runs Britain’s layered defenses—coastal AA guns, RAF fighters, and barrage balloons—capturing both interception and impact in a stark report of terror and resilience.
Focuses on the work of the Air Transport Auxiliary or ATA. By 1941, literally hundreds of RAF fighters and bombers needed to be flown each day between aircraft factories, maintenance depots and RAF aerodromes. This vital task was carried out by the men and women of the ATA, a civilian air force operating from their own pools and stations all over Britain. Essentially a dramatised account of typical ATA deliveries, the film features coverage of the ATA's own fleet of Ansons, as well as being notable for some excellent Spitfire film and very rare footage of the Whitley bomber, including take off and in-cockpit sequences.
Oct 1942
A short film about how builders help contribute to the war effort.
Edward R. Murrow narrates Humphrey Jennings' short documentary about life in England during wartime.
Jan 1941
An explanation of what is involved in the devaluation of sterling.
Jan 1949
A narrator recounts the state of Great Britain near the end of WWII via a visual diary for the titular baby boy born in September 1944.
Nov 1945
Poetry by Rudyard Kipling, John Milton, and William Blake, and excerpts from speeches by Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, all read by Laurence Olivier, illuminate documentary footage of England during its defense against the Nazi blitz in World War II. This short film serves as both propaganda and as a rallying cry to the British people.
Documentary about an average day during the Blitz.
Jul 1941
Documentary style presentation of the work of RAF Coastal Command. Shows their work in protecting convoys and attacking enemy aircraft, ships and U-boats, all done by the actual men & women of the RAF.
British film written and directed by Humphrey Jennings, filmed in documentary style showing the lives of firefighters through the Blitz in World War II.
Apr 1943
A story acted and narrated by men of the Merchant Navy illustrates the way their war is fought: a merchant ship in convoy is sunk by a torpedo; the crew are rescued and later join another ship; and a young seaman among them is motivated to take a gunnery course.
The true story of the massacre of a small Czech village by the Nazis is retold as if it happened in Wales.
Jun 1943
In a follow up to 'A Welcome to Britain', Burgess Meredith returns to look at a post-war Britain.
Jan 1948
A woman blames herself for her husband's death. To overcome her grief and her guilt she becomes a nurse but then a patient dies while under her care.