Quebec – Path of Conquest

Quebec – Path of Conquest is an 11-minute 1942 Canadian documentary film, made by the National Film Board of Canada as part of the wartime Canada Carries On series.[1] The film was directed by Radford Crawley and produced by Raymond Spottiswoode. Quebec – Path of Conquest describes the importance of the province of Quebec to Canada and the Allied war effort during the Second World War.[2] The film's French version title is Québec, tremplin stratégique.

Quebec – Path of Conquest
Title Frame
Directed byRadford Crawley
Produced byRaymond Spottiswoode
Narrated byLorne Greene
Music byLucio Agostini
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
  • 1942 (1942)
Running time
11 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Synopsis

In 1934, Nazi Germany had identified the resources of Eastern Canada, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway as prime targets in a future global "blueprint for conquest". An Axis attack on North America and Canada would be aimed at this region, and its resources. From rich timberlands in the hinterlands to the mines of the Canadian Shield, the bountiful resources of Quebec have been harnessed for a new purpose. Many of the mineral products of the province, such as chrome, asbestos, mica, gypsum, magnesium and copper are important to the war effort.

The population of Quebec, totalling more than three million residents and countless others living abroad, rather than being easily conquered, will become a new front in the war. Farmers, factory workers and the ordinary citizen in Quebec have thrown themselves into the war effort. The workers who have a rich heritage of Québécois crafts and hand-made products have been turned into a modern industrial workforce able to handle the most complex and sophisticated machinery.

One of the other significant contributions from Quebec are the weapons of war produced by the province's industry, mainly concentrated in Montreal where munitions factories and aircraft manufacturing plants were built and were running at full capacity. From the airfields along the eastern seaboard come the bombers that are built in North America, as they are ferried across the Atlantic Ocean. The seaports that also are found in this region provide not only the warships but also the merchant shipping from countless nations setting out in convoys to supply Great Britain and other Allies across the Atlantic.

The importance of Quebec cannot be underestimated, as is the resolve of its people to fight against Axis aggression.

Production

Quebec – Path of Conquest was the part of the wartime Canada Carries On propaganda short film series, produced with financial backing from the Wartime Information Board for the Director of Public Information, Herbert Lash.[3] Like Un du 22e, the first NFB film produced by the French-language division about the Royal 22e Régiment, Quebec – Path of Conquest was aimed specifically at encouraging young French-Canadian men to support the war and enlist.[4]

The images of a mythic Quebec, complete with homespun community events was used to create the impression of a populace united in facing a common enemy, a complete departure from the actual resistance to the war that was occurring among the Québécois.[5][Note 1] Typical of the NFB's series of morale-boosting films, Quebec – Path of Conquest used the format of a compilation documentary, relying heavily on newsreel material in order to provide the background to the dialogue.[7] Original footage was shot at Montreal's docks and factories, notably the Montreal factories where munitions and aircraft were manufactured. Ship and rail yards were also prominently featured.[8][Note 2]

The deep baritone voice of stage actor Lorne Greene was featured in the uncredited narration of Quebec – Path of Conquest. Greene's participation as a narrator was particularly useful in a propaganda film, as he was well known for his work on both radio broadcasts as a news announcer at CBC.[10] In narrating many of the Canada Carries On series, his sonorous recitation led to nickname, "The Voice of Canada", and the "Voice-of-God".[11] When reading grim battle statistics or narrating a particularly serious topic such as Quebec's role in the war effort, he was known as "The Voice of Doom".[12]

Reception

Quebec – Path of Conquest was produced in 35 mm for the theatrical market. Each film in both the NFB The World in Action and Canada Carries On series was shown over a six-month period as part of the shorts or newsreel segments in approximately 800 theatres across Canada.[13]

The NFB had an arrangement with Famous Players theatres to ensure that Canadians from coast-to-coast could see them, with further distribution by Columbia Pictures.[14] After the six-month theatrical tour ended, individual films were made available on 16 mm to schools, libraries, churches and factories, extending the life of these films for another year or two. They were also made available to film libraries operated by university and provincial authorities.[13]

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See also

References

Notes
  1. In the wake of the Canadian conscription plebiscite in 1942 showing strong public support for the war everywhere except in Quebec, the NFB produced Quebec – Path of Conquest as an attempt to sway sympathy with the Québécois.[6]
  2. Workers at companies such as Canadian Vickers and Noorduyn built NA-64 Harvard trainers and Consolidated PBY Canso flying boats. The Canadian Pacific Railway’s Angus Shops turned out a range of weapons, including Valentine tanks, while the Montreal Locomotive Works built Ram and Grizzly tanks, and the Sexton self-propelled gun.[9]

Citations
  1. Lerner 1987, p. 75.
  2. Khouri 2007, pp. 132–133.
  3. "Recognize leadership of Winnipeg women."The Winnipeg Tribune, April 18, 1941. Retrieved: March 29, 2016.
  4. Saouter, Catherine. "Cinema in aid of the war effort." National Film Board of Canada, 2008. Retrieved: March 29, 2016.
  5. Alemany-Galway 2001, pp. 106–107.
  6. Nohlen 2005, p. 127.
  7. Morris, Peter. "Film Reference Library: Canada Carries On." Canadian Film Encyclopedia. Retrieved: March 29, 2016.
  8. "The Second World War." Ville de Montréal. Retrieved: March 30, 2016.
  9. "Life on the Homefront: Montréal, Quebec, a City at War." Canadian War Museum. Retrieved: March 30, 2016.
  10. Bennett 2004, p. 254.
  11. Rist 2001, p. 84.
  12. "Bonanza's Canadian Lorne Greene." Bite Size Canada. Retrieved: March 29, 2016.
  13. Ohayon, Albert. "Propaganda Cinema at the NFB – The World in Action." National Film Board of Canada, September 30, 2009. Retrieved: March 29, 2016.
  14. Ellis and McLane 2005, p. 122.

Bibliography
  • Alemany-Galway, Mary. A Postmodern Cinema: The Voice of the Other in Canadian Film. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8108-4098-0.
  • Bennett, Linda Greene. My Father's Voice: The Biography of Lorne Greene. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse, Inc., 2004. ISBN 978-0-595-33283-0.
  • Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy A. McLane. New History of Documentary Film. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. ISBN 0-8264-1750-7.
  • Khouri, Malek. Filming Politics: Communism and the Portrayal of the Working Class at the National Film Board of Canada, 1939-46. Calgary, Alberta, Canada: University of Calgary Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-55238-199-1.
  • Lerner, Loren. Canadian Film and Video: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-8020-2988-1.
  • Nohlen, Dieter, ed. Elections in the Americas: A Data Handbook, Volume I, North America, Central America and the Caribbean. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6.
  • Rist, Peter. Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. ISBN 978-0-3132-9931-5.
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