The Road to Victory

"The Road to Victory" is a short film made to further the bond drive in order for the United States to fight WWII. It is available on YouTube if you are interested.

The film is a strange one when it begins...supposedly in 1954 in a family's living room. In this screwy view of the future, it's already a lot like the Jetsons! You see folks flying all about in airplanes instead of cars...and one of the characters talks about wanting one of those rocket instead of a helicopter! Soon after, they turn on a television-like device and watch to see what life was like back in 1944!

What follows are a variety of famous Hollywood actors singing about war and victory as well as Cary Grant reading a very moving letter from a dying soldier. All in all, very interesting due to the many guest appearances. Worth seeing.

By the way, the same material in this film was used in another short from 1944...."The Shining Future". However, "The Shining Hour" as expanded to 20 minutes instead of 10 and was apparently aimed towards Canadian viewers!

In the world of 1954, this short subject informs us, we will all be tired of eating steak and teenagers will be asking their parents for a new airplane.

This star-studded film makes use of people on short and long-term contract players to offer a fanciful look forward to an idyllic future to sell war bonds. It offers three songs, including Bing Crosby singing the title song. While it's a straightforward effort without substance beyond its central message, the silliness of the opening and the real talent of the musical performers make this a short that fans of old movies will enjoy.

Looking at the credits of this film there were listed a lot more stars than I saw in this 10 minute film. Then I saw this was a short version of another short subject where only half the people got into half the running time of the original film Shining Victory.

This is told from the perspective of the future and wow did they ever get things wrong. No doubt mankind was making great technological strides, but I remember 1954 at the age of 7 and young people like Jimmy Lydon didn't have rocket planes just yet.

But we did get to see both Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sing in this Warner Brothers production and since it was for the war effort Jack Warner didn't have to pay MGM and Paramount for their respective services. Cary Grant reads a moving letter from a dying GI in a hospital and Dennis Morgan and Irene Manning do One Alone from their version of The Desert Song. Jack Warner was certainly going to get a plug in for one of his films.

The Road To Victory, a nice bit of nostalgia that really went overboard in the prognostication department.