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?”

DVD and Blu-ray available at Milestone Films

Leo Hurwitz

Year

1948

Runtime

75 minutes

Format

35mm

Collaborators
SeeHide Full Credits

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