Vintage propaganda and more from Weirdo Video

November 20, 2007 5:06 PM

Please enjoy vintage video propaganda:
Don't Be A Sucker
The Enemy Agent & You
Your Job in Germany
So They Tell Me and
Propaganda Techniques

Uploaded by Weirdo Video, host of rare & authentic 16mm films of cultural, historical and ironical significance. I'm having a blast digging through WV's site—I can't tell if it's the propaganda, music, girls, drugs, adverts, or all this odd of Americana that's got me so tickled. Happy Tubesday!

posted by carsonb (19 comments total)

This is fascinating, a brilliant selection. I watched the "Your job in Germany" one, and it is amazing - preparing for an insurgency in occupied Germany, teaching soldiers to trust no one, they're all lying, cheating and plotting, waiting for their moment to attack ... especially suspect the children. Chilling.
posted by WPW at 5:24 PM on November 20, 2007

Money is often the lubricant on which the Soviet spy machine rolls, so to is the weakness of people who act in an intemperate fashion....

Next time I go out drinking, I am so going to refer to it as 'acting in an intemperate fashion'.

And then I'm going to secretly take photos of people holding hands and sell them to the Soviets.
posted by quin at 5:29 PM on November 20, 2007

I love watching these kinds of things. They're usually funny and entertaining, and at the same time, to varying degrees, disturbing and even scary. Thanks for the post.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:30 PM on November 20, 2007

I watched the "Your job in Germany" one

Me, too. Damn those dirty Krauts, you just can't trust 'em!
posted by briank at 5:46 PM on November 20, 2007

"Don't Be a Sucker", while stylistically simple and obvious, still had a good message to deliver to its audience of 1947, and, I'd say, to plenty of folks today. It delivered its progressive, anti-racist message pretty well, and I was actually more impressed than I thought I'd be, as this sort of thing is usually not so, well, right in its core message.

Finding it curious, though, that the film mentioned the Masons as targets of racist fascists, I started doing a bit of research. (I have to confess to a more or less total ignorance concerning Masons). Anyway, I found the film at the Internet Archive, and the comments on it there are worth reading. One commenter there noted with interest, as I did as well, the odd message that appears at the very end of the film.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:55 PM on November 20, 2007

One of my favorite PSYOP radio broadcasts, was the British language instruction for channel crossing Germans. It included translations for phrases such as "Is that a plane I hear", "the ship is on fire", "we are sinking", and "the water is cold, so cold".
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:06 PM on November 20, 2007

"Don't Be a Sucker" was cool, but 1947 seemed like a strange year for that to come out- I mean, we already defeated the Nazis, so why the propaganda film? Then I remembered that the army was desegregated a year or two after the end of the war, and it sort of made sense that the War Dept might make a film like this at that time.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:30 PM on November 20, 2007

Um, and now that I read the comments on flapjax's link, I see that is why it was made. I'm slow tonight.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:38 PM on November 20, 2007

wow, thanks for the "Your Job In Germany" film... reminded me of that british propaganda film against buying "made in germany" goods after the war is over... can anybody locate or name this film? I can't find it on the tube.
posted by kolophon at 7:14 PM on November 20, 2007

Damn those Germans and their phony peace folk dancing!
posted by wilky at 7:52 PM on November 20, 2007

This was especially well-timed as my roommates are engaged in the fight for their virtual lives c/o Call of Duty 3 but one room over. I'm celebrating this post with a nice, juicy hamburger quarter-pounder smothered in sauerkraut liberty cabbage.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:16 PM on November 20, 2007

Sometimes I walk down the beautiful streets here in Germany, admiring the architecture and the scenery, and I ask myself what the hell am I doing here.

Now I know.


Shhhhhh.
posted by chillmost at 12:18 AM on November 21, 2007

Metafilter: don't be a sucker!
posted by telstar at 12:54 AM on November 21, 2007

DON'T GRAB THAT HAND
posted by bonaldi at 4:09 AM on November 21, 2007

Theodor Geisel (AKA Dr. Seuss) wrote the script for Your Job in Germany.

Be Alert... aloof... suspicious.
posted by Scoo at 8:31 AM on November 21, 2007

Scoo: is that true?

(I'll read your answer later--I'm going to go out and roust some Krauts.)
posted by Turtles all the way down at 9:32 AM on November 21, 2007

Oh, and most excellent post carsonb--thanks!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 9:33 AM on November 21, 2007

Youtube is wierd. Related Videos on the side bar shows:

Autumn 1944 Nazi Propaganda Color Newsreel
Why We Fight from 1943
Our Enemy -- the Japanese (1 of 2)
German WWII Troop Propaganda film
PILLOW FIGHT KLUB / ROUND 1 / HAMBURG

Yes, the pillow fight klub is a bunch of Germans (including women in lingerie) whacking eachother with pillows (set to throbbing club music of course).

You know what other famous German loved pillowfighing in lingerie?

Answer: Trick Question! The answer is all of them!
posted by Pollomacho at 9:40 AM on November 21, 2007

Answer: Trick Question! The answer is all of them!

Yes...and zey are all coprophiliacs who keep a stable of young women...and feed zem...BANANAS.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 9:49 AM on November 21, 2007