Divide and Conquer (1943). US War Department, Special Services Division. Held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Divide and Conquer
The third orientation film, on the conquest of western Europe: the fifth column, the sweep through the Ardennes, and the armistice carriage at Compiègne.
- Year
- 1943
- Made by
- US War Department, Special Services Division
- Directed by
- Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak
- Free to use because
- A work of the United States government — no copyright, anywhere
The note
This is the one about the fall, and it is the angriest of the seven. It survives here as the National Archives holds it, in four reels, each a separate transfer — so the film plays as four movements rather than one, with the reel changes audible. That is how the print exists; nothing has been stitched or smoothed. The Compiègne sequence, with the same railway carriage used twice in twenty-two years, is the sequence everyone remembers, and it works on sound alone. Federal work, no copyright.
Divide and Conquer, 1943. US War Department, Special Services Division. Directed by Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak. This is the film’s soundtrack: narration, score and location sound, streamed from the Internet Archive’s master. No picture — the audio is the work. A work of the United States government, and therefore free of copyright anywhere it is used.
4 recordings
Divide and Conquer (1943). US War Department, Special Services Division. Held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Divide and Conquer (1943). US War Department, Special Services Division. Held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Divide and Conquer (1943). US War Department, Special Services Division. Held by the Internet Archive; public domain.