Tunisian Victory

Tunisian Victory
Directed by Frank Capra
Hugh Stewart
Roy Boulting
John Huston
Anthony Veiller
Starring Leo Genn (narrator)
Burgess Meredith
Bernard Miles
Music by William Alwyn
Dimitri Tiomkin
Distributed by Butchers Film Distributors (UK)
MGM (US)
Release dates
  • March 16, 1944 (1944-03-16)
Running time
 75 minutes
Country United Kingdom
United States
Language English

Tunisian Victory is a 1944 Anglo-American propaganda film about the victories in the North Africa Campaign.

The film follows both armies from the planning of Operation Torch / Operation Acrobat to the liberation of Tunis. Interspersed in the pure documentary format are the narrative voices of supposed American and British soldiers (voiced by Burgess Meredith and Bernard Miles respectively), recounting their experience in the campaign. The British and American talk separately until the end of the film when they have a dialogue, agree to co-operate after the end of the war, with the other Allied nations to create a more just and peaceful post-war order.

Colonel Frank Capra (right) confers with Captain Roy Boulting of the British Army Film Unit on the editing of the film in February 1944

The film was intended as a follow-up to the successful British documentary film Desert Victory (1943). Frederic Krome's article "Tunisian Victory" and Anglo-American Film Propaganda in World War II from The Historian details the acrimony between the British and US film makers on the project. Most of the actual American combat footage taken during Operation Torch was destroyed when the ship carrying it was sunk, requiring many "battle scenes" to be reshot in the U.S. by director John Huston. The direction of the final version involved no less than five individuals: Frank Capra, John Huston, Anthony Veiller, Hugh Stewart and Roy Boulting.

The film was made due in part to American complaints that Desert Victory, a British Propaganda film depicting the North African campaign, downplayed American contributions to the battle. The British response was that the Americans "didn't have any good footage." This remark caused Huston to restage several battles and liberations to achieve high quality footage, even going so far as to film some air battle scenes(which actually occurred in the Mohave Desert) in Orlando, Florida. The British immediately recognized the dubious nature of the film, but since they themselves were guilty of the same recreations, it allowed this uneasy alliance to continue.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Turner Classic Movies interview with Mark Harris, September 2, 2015, 1:45 a.m. EST


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