Briefs for February 12-13, 2016

I notice that Hold Back the Dawn is airing at 12:30 PM today, just before Honeysuckle Rose. Apparently I've never done a full-length post on the movie before, although I though I had done so. Unfortunately, I found out lunchtime Friday that I was going to be working a half day Saturday, and that completely fouled up my weekend schedule. Charles Boyer plays a Romanian refugee stuck in Mexico on the border with the US, until he meets spinster schoolteacher Olivia de Havilland. Marriage to her would be a good way to get citizenship, after which he can divorce her and marry his real girlfriend. But the two fall in love along the way, complicating matters....

Coming up among the shorts is the 1941 short The Tanks Are Coming at 8:19 AM tomorrow following Ice Station Zebra, not to be confused with the later feature film bearing the same title. This one talks about the new tank corps the US Army is coming up with, and how it's going to be a boon to our defense. This months before the attack on Pearl Harbor sent the US into World War II and showed just how unprepared our military really was. The short is in lovely Technicolor and filmed largely on location at Fort Knox with the full support of the US government, although it uses real Hollywood actors. I'm not quite certain of the public domain status since both Warner Bros. and the US Army are listed in the production credits. But it's currently up on Youtube: