Millions of Us

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Moving Image:Millions of Us
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Millions of Us is a short film from 1936 released on 16mm. It is held in the Prelinger Archives collection.

From Educational Film Catalogue (1939):

"The story of the millions of unemployed exemplified in a young man who is driven by hunger to take employment as a scab and the experiences that lead him to recognize his common interests with the strikers and the working people generally. The first labor film made in the U.S.A." Distributor

shot list:

21:01:14:09 Low angle of woman walking down alley, away from camera; Los Angeles City Hall in background.

21:01:19:07 Back street in downtown area; Los Angeles Leather Co. sign over loading dock in BG; woman leans into frame to pick up something from garbage can

21:01:23:12 CU newspaper headline Numberless skilled workers counted among unemployed declares Chief

21:01:31:15 Raggedy woman with paper bag rummages in trash can, looks up, and walks down a dirty alley passing by a homeless man sleeping on the street.

21:01:41:26 CU newspaper headline Skilled Workers Among Unemployed

21:01:44:28 CU starving man sleeping on sidewalk in 1930s-style coat and cap; dissolves into CU steak and eggs being fried.

21:01:56:06 CU cup of tea being poured. The inside of the tea cup read We ll Tak a Cup of Kindness.

21:01:59:11 A variety of breads, as if poured from a bag, superimposed over the hungry man asleep in the street. The bread is the object of his starved dreams.

21:02:04:02 Two hands in CU tearing a large loaf of bread, possibly challah or egg bread, into two pieces; VS well-dressed people eating meals superimposed over sleeping homeless and hungry man.

21:02:24:07 Homeless man in CU abruptly awakes. MS shows him getting up and looking around. He is dirty and disheveled in appearance.

21:02:44:12 The homeless man sees another man exit a building taking out the trash and approaches him in the hopes of finding working. The man points to the sign on the door of his building. Sign CU No Help Wanted.

21:02:49:19 MS the homeless unemployed man in profile reads the no help wanted sign, sighs in disappointment, and walks away.

21:03:04:05 The homeless unemployed man peers longingly through a window at food being cooked in Dantes Caf .

21:03:08:22 Wealthy looking man in a business suit exits Dantes Caf and lights a cigar. The unemployed man formerly goggling in the caf window implores the man for money. The man points at something with his cigar across the street.

21:03:16:03 CU unemployed man looks across the street and see a sign: Unemployed Relief-Headquarters.

21:03:24:15 The shabby looking unemployed man walks to the street corner. 1930s style automobiles pass by. An fashioned stop light changes from stop to go by way of retracting signs.

21:03:39:22 CU newspaper The Daily Dispatch headline City is Unable to Provide for Transient Unemployed.

21:04:03:27 Unemployed man starts to climb outside steps, then collapses, looking defeated.

21:04:37:09 A wealthy woman approaches the downtrodden man and mercifully hands him a card. The card in CU All ye down-trodden ones call at 354 Rockwell St. Jesus Saves.

21:04:47:19 Unemployed man walks by brick wall with fading painted signs: New Awake America Your Only Hope Is Prayer followed by another religious quotation on the next wall with Repent or Perish beneath it, and Revival or Revolution on the last wall on the shot.

21:05:02:16 Man sitting against wall with posters Re-Elect a Real American George W. C. Baker and First Of All Human Rights.

21:05:26:02 CU unemployed man smiling with missing teeth.

21:05:38:19 CU sign: Sister Mary Mission

21:05:42:16 Sign: Gone for the day / Services every Saturday night / Jesus Saves!

21:06:00:13 MS outdoor loudspeakers

21:06:02:14 VS rich people stepping out of fancy cars, taxicab and limousine.

21:06:25:02 VS elderly men sitting on park bench; CU four men looking up as if they hear a call over loudspeakers

21:07:12:20 CU large pyramid of oranges.

21:07:19:12 Police officer checking out the produce steals a piece of fruit, and eats it in front of the unemployed man.

21:07:38:06 Fat rich woman in a fur coat and feathered hat plays with her dog inside of an expensive car.

21:07:48:25 CU policeman eating apple

21:07:54:28 Camera pans over the fruit and up to the price signs.

21:08:07:15 A man spills produce from his grocery bag and one of the apples rolls up to the foot of the poor unemployed man. He looks down at it, cross-cut with the policeman s glance at the fallen fruit. The policeman nabs the fruit before the unemployed man has a chance to grab it and then returns it to the man from whose bag it fell.

21:08:47:01 Man chalks words on outdoor sign: Metal Workers Wanted Strike Conditions.

21:09:07:01 Metal workers on strike picketing outside large plant.

21:09:12: 21 VS Strikers marching by camera wearing protest signs Workers Unite and Fight! Don t Scab! Give Us Our Demands

21:09:18:26 Nicely framed shot of OFFICE stenciled on a brick wall.

21:09:19:24 CU unemployed man wearing jacket and cap looking toward camera; MS he walks towards camera into CU; 2 men enter frame, back to camera, and confront him (NICE IMAGE OF CONFRONTATION); shot-reverse shot of spirited conversation between two and one. Lone man tries to pass; one of the two men punches him on the chin; he falls. Another man joins him as he rises and walks him along alley

21:11:28:21 Group of strikers, men and women, sitting at table outside; one man puts on sandwich sign WORKERS UNITE AND FIGHT ; woman serves unemployed man food; he eats greedily; while he eats, organizer speaks with him

21:13:11:28 VS of the workings of the metal factory in CU. Large gears. Shipments coming in by steamer and processing; stock footage of docks and longshore workers

21:13:29:25 VS; quick pan up a skyscraper (Empire State Building); cut to rich industrialist business executive types posing in two rows as if for a photograph.

21:13:54:00 Milk being automatically bottled.

21:14:00:01 Men waiting in a long line for food and bread (famous New York City breadline footage)

21:14:04:28 A large tractor ploughs wheat in a field; brief shot of traders at commodity exchange

21:14:13:28 Man pours a bushel of grain into the ocean.

21:14:17:17 Grain being shoveled into a fire and burned.

21:14:20:22 A loaf of bread being sliced into pieces.

21:14:22:21 Protestors in the street and sign Fight or Starve.

21:14:55:08 CU statue of Abraham Lincoln.

21:16:00:19 MS unemployed worker puts on Don t Scab sign, tips his hat.

21:16:06:25 Soviet-style high-angle shot looking up at Black and White workers marching past camera at oblique angles

21:16:12:05 Brief montage, quick shots: Man in CU with sledgehammer breaking off his chains of wage labor.

21:16:15:05 VS cross-cutting between low-angle of workers united marching together and Unite! sign in CU.

21:16:29:27 CU hand writing The End in cursive writing with chalk on blackboard

Millions of Us
Produced byAmerican Labor Productions, Inc.
Production
companies
American Labor Productions, Inc.
Distributed byAmerican Labor Productions, Inc.
Release date
1936
LanguageEnglish
Thumbnail
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