When Hitler Kicks the Bucket

This short film is a "soundie" from the 1940s. "Soundies" were short clips featuring musicians playing popular songs. Think of them as grandparents of the modern music video.

So, why rate something like this an 8? You gotta hear it! Produced in 1943, when World War II was very much still undecided, this song looks forward to the day when Adolf Hitler would be dead. It describes the celebratory mood that would prevail, not just in the USA, but worldwide. I imagine that sentiment was pretty accurate.

It is a product of its time - with the song title referring to the future day when Adolf Hitler would be dead - because at the time this was produced, he was very much alive, and wouldn't die until April of 1945.

But there are other indicators which make this film a time capsule. The singer, Toni Lane, refers to Americans eating horsemeat (not typical American cuisine for sure), mentions 'tearing up ration cards,' and looks forward to people being able to drive their cars without gasoline being rationed by the "OPA" - I had to look that one up. The OPA was an administration set up during WWII to regulate prices and ration resources like gasoline. These are all foreign concepts to the modern American, but they were evidently part of everyday life in the 1940s. Fascinating to contemplate.

So yeah, I totally recommend this. Not only for the funny lyrics about Hitler, but to get an idea of life on the home front during a major war. This is good stuff.

8/10. See it on YouTube.

Toni Lane sings about that eagerly anticipated moment in this satirical soundie.

Soundies were three-minute short films, meant to be played on a video jukebox called a Mills Panaram. You could find them in bars, diners, and suchlike places. Drop in a dime, and one of ten soundies on the reel would play. They were changed weekly and during their heyday, from 1940 through 1946, Mills and other producers turned out more than two thousand soundies. While some featured well remembered artists, ad others people who would become well known later -- Doris Day and Ricardo Montalban had their first film appearances in the soundies -- some starred people who are not well remembered, but deserved their time in the spotlight as much as anyone. Fortunately, the soundies survive to give many of them their due.