The Cummington Story
A few months ago, I wrote here about the Bureau of Motion Pictures that had been organized by Robert Riskin, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of It Happened My Night, as well as such movies as Meet John Doe, Lost Horizon and You Can't Take It With You, and father of my friend Vicki, a former president of the Writers Guild of America -- of which her father was one of the founders. (He also was the husband of actress Fay Wray, of King Kong.) The film office was a division of the Office of War Information.
As I mentioned at the time, the Bureau of Motion Pictures made a series of short movies to show the American way of life for presentation throughout Europe during WWII. One of the most notable, Hymn of Nations, which I embedded in that previous article above, even received an Oscar nomination for Best Short Documentary. Several others were especially popular, even with American audiences, including a charming short film which I posted here called, Autobiography of a Jeep.
Another of the most popular of the films is oddly-enough timely for today's politics, The Cummington Story. Made in 1945, it told of refuges from Europe coming to the United States when their own country was being overrun by the war, and trying to assimilate with the town where they've been settled. It's notable that the movie doesn't whitewash everything and make it all sweetness-and-light, and shows the difficultly and mistrust the refugees face at first when they arrive.
Also of note is that the score to the film was written by Aaron Copland.
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