During the highly charged years of World War II, movies perhaps best communicated to Americans who they were and why they were fighting. These films were more than just an explanation of historical events: they asked audiences to consider the Nazi threat, they put a face on both our enemies and allies, and they explored changing wartime gender roles. We'll Always Have the Movies shows how film after film repeated the narratives, character types, and rhetoric that made the war and each American's role in it comprehensible.

Robert L. McLaughlin and Sally E. Parry have watched more than six-hundred films made between 1937 and 1946--including many never before discussed in this context-- and have analyzed their cultural and historical importance. This extensive study shows how filmmakers made the chaotic elements of wartime familiar, while actual events became film history and film history became myth.

Robert L. McLaughlin is associate professor of English at Illinois State University.
Sally E. Parry is Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Illinois State University.

Reviews:

"A terrific book that explores not only the themes of hundreds of films but also their impact on patriotism and national will in a time of war."--WWII History

"Provides and excellent analysis of the many wartime motion pictures that Hollywood produced. It is recommended not only to the many film buffs who still enjoy watching classics . . . but also to those who seek a greater understanding of America's home front during the war."--Journal of America's Military Past

"Addresses many probing questions pertaining to the wartime movies. . . . Enjoyable reading."--America in WWII

"Surveying the wide, diversified field of WWII films, the authors . . . examine how many films went beyond simply evoking patriotism to maintaining support for the War on the 'home front' and to forming perspectives and expectations on it and characterizing the enemy."--Antiques Today

"This orderly book has an impressive dot-connecting clarity, and it never condescends to the films it dissects. . . . This is a carefully thought-out book that serves its subject with confidence, lucidity, and insight. It leaves you armed with valuable information for the next time you stumble upon one of these movies."-- Washington Post Book World

"Whether dealing with famous flicks or lesser known titles, McLaughlin and Parry maintain a scholarly tone, treating blockbusters and B-movies with equal rigor, but never forgetting the view from the peanut gallery or the history and movie buffs among them."--Publishers Weekly

"A unique and exhaustive analysis of many home front films of different genres that have been ignored for decades but are significant in their effects on the wartime American moviegoing public."--Ralph R. Donald, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

"Through the lenses . . . Hollywood films from 1937 to 1946 are rearticulated as myth-making propaganda. . . .It opens the window to a vanished and deeply interesting world that these pages recover with a sense of sympathetic understanding."--Journal of American & Culture