Halfway to Hell (1953)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Quentin Reynolds wrote, produced, stars in and narrated this documentary that takes a look at both WWI and WWII and we see how Stalin and Hitler were pretty much the same person. Through newsreel footage as well as footage taken "behind the Red Curtain" we see what happened during the war and why it must not ever be repeated.
When most people think of WWII documentaries they probably think of the ones that were made during the war by the likes of Frank Capra, John Ford and John Huston. Those films were basically propaganda movies where they used footage to draw up support for America and its Allies as well as explain why Germany and Japan were so dangerous.
This documentary here is somewhat of a "final" explanation on the war and the various things that led up to it. It seems the goal of Reynolds was to explain why America got into the war as well as explain why Hitler was able to do what he did. The newsreel footage is perfectly edited together to tell the story. There's a bit of footage from the concentration camps and we see a lot of dead bodies including the inspections of some of the bodies. This will certainly disturb many people but I'm sure that's why the footage is here.
The film manages to be entertaining for its hour running time but to be fair there are many documentaries like this one out there. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but it's an entertaining film for what it is.
