Strange Victory
Strange Victory is the first significant anti-racist U.S. documentary film. With World War II over and Frontier Films dissolved, Leo Hurwitz and Barney Rosset (soon to form Grove Press) teamed up as Target Films to create this eloquent and powerful statement. It was to be their only collaboration. Amidst the high hopes of the post-World War II economic and baby boom, it represented a provocative questioning of the discrepancies between the ideals of the allied victory and the lingering aspects of fascism in U.S. society. In his trademark style, Hurwitz juxtaposes archival scenes of the war’s destruction with newly shot sequences, both actuality and reenacted. It asks the question, “Why are the ideas of loser still alive in the land of the winner?”
Leo Hurwitz
Year
1948
Runtime
75 minutes
Format
35mm
Collaborators
- Alfred Drake
- Muriel Smith
- Gary Merrill
- Saul Levitt
- George Jacobson
- Peter Glushanok
- David Diamond
- Barnett L. Rosset Jr.
- Faith Elliot–Hubley
STRANGE VICTORY
Narrated by
Alfred Drake
[Also] Narrated by
Muriel Smith
Gary Merrill
with
Virgil Richardson
Cathey MacGregor
Sophie Maslow
Jack Henderson
Robert P. Donley
and
Unnamed People
Scenario by
Leo Hurwitz
Narration Written by
Saul Levitt
Photography by
Peter Glushanok
George Jacobson
and
Unnamed War Cameramen
Music Composed by
David Diamond
Editing by
Leo Hurwitz
Assisted by
Faith Elliot
Mavis Lyons
Orchestra Conductor
Lehman Engel
Production Assistant
Howard Turner
Unit Manager
Miriam Raeburn
Sound Effects
Stanley Kotis
Stock Research
Palmer Williams
Harold Mayer
Stills – Yivo, Pálfi, Acme, INS, Press Assoc., Pictures for Democracy
Reeves Sound Studio
Western Electric Sound
Produced by
Barnet L. Rosset, Jr.
Directed by
Leo Hurwitz
A TARGET FILMS PRODUCTION
Extras
Photos
African American pilot comes in for a landing
Nazi antiSemitic cartoon by Streicher
Brown shirts terrorize the streets of Berlin
Jewish doctor is led through the streets of Berlin
Brown shirts demonstrating in Berlin