Listen to Britain (1942)

1942

Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister's Crown Film Unit short, made for the Ministry of Information, which carries no narration at all. Its argument is assembled from sound: factory machinery, a lunchtime piano recital, dance halls, night trains and the drone overhead, cut together so the viewer concludes unprompted what is worth defending. It remains the strongest demonstration that the most effective wartime persuasion often makes no explicit claim.