Destroyed town in Belgium
Creator(s)
- George C. Stevens (Director)
- Library of Congress - Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS)
- Special Coverage Unit (SPECOU) (Producer)
Biographical History
George Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. During World War II, Stevens joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and headed a film unit from 1943 to 1946 under General Eisenhower. His unit shot footage documenting D-Day — including the only Allied European Front color film of the war — the liberation of Paris and the meeting of American and Soviet forces at the Elbe River, as well as horrific scenes from the Duben labor camp and the Dachau concentration camp. Stevens also helped prepare the Duben and Dachau footage and other material for presentation during the Nuremberg Trials. In 2008, his footage was entered into the U.S. National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress as an "essential visual record" of World War II.
The Special Coverage Unit (SPECOU) was placed under the control of the Supreme Headquarters' Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). The SPECOU consists of 45 people: writers like Ivan Moffat, William Saroyan and Irwin Shaw; cameramen like Dick Hoar, Ken Marthey, William Mellor, Jack Muth; sound operators as Bill Hamilton, who comes from Columbia, assistant directors, as Holly Morse, who has worked with Hal Roach.
Scope and Content
Jeep driving through muddy street of severely bombed out town. Civilian digging through rubble with crowbar. Women in winter coats in FG walking down street. Signs reads: "Bastgone." GIs give gift to little girl. Stevens in front of jeep Toluca gives present to little girl (There is a reference that Stevens made in a letter home about giving a Christmas present to a Belgian girl in March, long after Christmas had passed.) Truck pulls into muddy road, in a town that has been devastated by bombs. No buildings are left standing. Sign reads: "keep rollin' Malmady N23, Vielsalm." Pan of flattened area. Good coverage of destruction and rubble. HAS showing cathedral and frozen river. High shot panning across destroyed town at night. MPs carrying wounded man in white sheet, loaded into truck, truck drives off, Stevens in FG.
People
- Stevens, George, 1904-1975.
Corporate Bodies
- United States. Army. Signal Corps. Special Coverage Unit
Subjects
- CHILDREN
- JEEPS
- MILITARY POLICE
- TOWNS
- MILITARY VEHICLES
- CIVILIANS
- DESTRUCTION
- RUBBLE
- WOUNDED
- NIGHT
- WOMEN
- STEVENS, GEORGE
- MUD
- TRUCKS
- CHURCHES
- STREETS
- BELGIUM
Places
- , Belgium
Genre
- Unedited.
- Film