Inflation

WW2 short from MGM about the Devil (Edward Arnold) conspiring with Hitler to wreck the U.S. economy. He plans to do this by making Americans buy things on credit, ignore rationing laws, and cash in their war bonds. That Devil sure is a stinker! The point of this short was to make American at home think about how they could help the war effort by keeping the economy strong.

I love patriotic WW2 shorts like these. It avoids being too preachy and delivers its message in a clear and entertaining way. Edward Arnold is terrific. Just the year before he was fighting Satan in The Devil and Daniel Webster, now here he is playing him and doing a wickedly delightful job. It's a great short that anybody who enjoys WW2-era material should love. Also features Esther Williams in one of her earliest roles.

An MGM Short Subject.

In a phone conversation with Hitler five months after Pearl Harbor, a delighted Devil describes how INFLATION can win the War for the Axis as easily as bullets & bombs.

This is an imaginative little film which effectively alerted the American public to the 5 ways in which inflation could be unleashed on the economy:

••••• Impulse or overbuying ••••• Buying on the Black Market ••••• Hoarding food & supplies ••••• Breaking the price ceilings ••••• Cashing in War Bonds

Edward Arnold is at his most sardonic as The Devil; playing his role as if Lucifer were a corrupt businessman, Arnold gets to ham it up most deliciously. In her first film role, Esther Williams plays a typical young housewife who learns about the evils of inflation from an FDR radio broadcast.

After Pearl Harbor, Hollywood went to war totally against the Axis. Not only did many of the stars join up or do home front service, but the output of the Studios was largely turned to the war effort. The newsreels, of course, brought the latest war news into the neighbor theater every week. The features showcased battle stories or war related themes. Even the short subjects & cartoons were used as a quick means of spreading Allied propaganda, the boosting of morale or information dissemination. Together, Uncle Sam, the American People & Hollywood proved to be an unbeatable combination.

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.

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.

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).