Inflation

I'm not usually up at 05:30 but this morning [27aug2011] I am and "Inflation" came on. Took me a while to find where it is documented but once I began looking I wasn't ready to give up. Due to the star and subject matter I was sure that someone would have entered something and, sure enough, I finally found it. I started opening titles in the filmography but it just wasn't there. I was about to give up when I read the biography. Its not high art by any means but Edward Arnold is a favorite actor of mine and I'm so glad I had the chance to see this short. I thoroughly enjoyed it, a very well done short on a very timely subject. No spoilers, just a recommendation.

This is really first-rate World War II propaganda. Edward Arnold, an under-rated supporting actor who played the cold-hearted villain very well in some of Hollywood's greatest 1930s movies, like *You Can't Take it With You*, *Meet John Doe*, and *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington*, is perfect here as the Devil, who is in league with Adolph Hitler to destroy American arms production. He explains how selfish buying, especially on credit, of things we do not need leads to inflation, which in turn can lead to social unrest. The last part of this short movie, when he addresses the audience directly, is blood-chilling.

It also reminded me, in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, how our government once played to a sense of our obligation to our fellow Americans, a time when paying one's taxes was an act of patriotism and not an indication of stupidity, etc.

If the federal government made similar shorts today to urge Americans to join together to fight a virus that is threatening us, would movie goers break into laughter? Or would we be so surprised that we'd sit there in a state of shock?

Watch this film. It's only 17 minutes long. And while you watch it, ask yourself why we couldn't make such a film today.

In this wartime short subject Edward Arnold looks like he's having a grand old time playing Mephistopheles planning with one of his number one supporters over in Germany the economic destruction of the USA through Inflation. I wonder if the folks at MGM from Louis B. Mayer on down knew that among Adolph Hitler's other interests was one in the occult. He may really have been trying to communicate with the devil, especially as the war started going against Germany.

Arnold between chuckles on the phone to Hitler gives us a short economics lesson about how the evils of inflation can cripple the American economy and thus the effort on the home front to back our troops in battle. Actually not a bad lesson to learn right now as we are going through an inflationary cycle at the moment.

Inflation is also significant as the screen debut of young Esther Williams. The former swimming champion and Olympic hopeful until the 1940 games were canceled had signed an MGM contract and went through the usual preparation back then that contractees had to go through. This short subject where she plays Mrs. Joe Smith American opposite Stephen McNally was a trial run so to speak. But Esther doesn't get near a pool.

Anyway though to see Arnold ham it up and love every minute of it, put Inflation on your shopping list if it won't bust the budget.

Five months after WWII's Pearl Harbor, Americans were cautioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to curb their spending and to buy war bonds while he encouraged paying off debts and mortgages in a responsible manner.

To thwart this common sense talk, we have EDWARD ARNOLD as The Devil, spreading his own version of what Americans should do so that they will be defeated by the enemy. In a phone call from his friend Adolf, he outlines his own plan after advising one of his associates to "put more heat on the 7th level".

In an illustration of encouraging spending, we see Joe Smith (STEPHEN McNALLY) and his young wife (ESTHER WILLIAMS) going on a buying spree using credit for things they can't really afford. After admonished by storekeeper HOWARD FREEMAN, who turns on FDR's radio speech when the couple want to buy a new radio, they see the error of their ways.

It's a sardonic morality tale, benefiting mostly from the relish with which Arnold plays his Devil role. His laughter is full of dark menace as his huge close-ups convince us that he wants his evil plan to work, happily engaged in causing a "Roman holiday of spending" and encouraging a man to cash in his $300 war bonds.

In the end, of course, the Devil is outmaneuvered by smarter Americans who refuse to get caught up in black marketing, hoarding and cashing in their bonds--and the American spirit wins.

Good little propaganda film spotlights Arnold at his best--or should I say "worst" (as The Devil).

Edward Arnold plays the devil here, sitting in a big office, often conversing by phone with Hitler on how to destroy morale on the American home front. The Devil decides the best idea is to ignite inflation and get people grousing about high prices and then working at cross purposes to undermine the war effort.

There are examples shown - A young couple making more money than they ever had before due to steady work in munitions factories and going on spending sprees. A chorus dancer who has a run in her last pair of nylons tempted to go on the black market and buy what she needs. A businessman cashing in his war bonds to buy something he thinks his business really needs.

In each case the short shows how much their focus on the present could be hurting the war effort and causing inflation. I was rather surprised - FDR really did understand how economics worked and how inflation was fueled. In that he's a step above politicians today. He realized that there being more money in circulation due to war spending and less supply due to manufacturing have a war focus would mean inflation. He also understood that his price controls could be circumvented by a black market for goods. His only weapon against it was shaming the public into not turning to that black market, which is what is happening in this short.

It's all very amusing, with Arnold as the Devil laughing maniacally at the idea of American women in bidding wars over luxury items like fur coats and talking to Hitler on the phone like he's a tedious colleague, but it gets its economic message across at the same time. Recommended for students of film history.