One-sheet poster printed in shades of red, white, and blue on rectangular, off-white paper with photographic images from the film “The Ramparts We Watch.” The poster has a narrow, white margin on all four sides, and is divided into three sections. The top section is composed of a horizontal rectangle, filled with an abstract image of a cloudy sky. Overlaid on the sky in large, white, block letters with black shadowing is the film title with small, red text above. The center section has a white background, and three lines of red text are in the upper right corner. Most of the section is filled with a collage of black-and-white photographs of numerous people. They are all depicted from the shoulders up, and decrease in scale from the top left corner to the bottom right. The bottom section is narrow and has a blue bar with white text across the top. Below the blue bar is an image of red and white striped swags, gathered in the center by a blue semicircle with three white stars. Overlaying the swag is a line of black text, and a line of blue text within a black bar that spans the bottom of the poster. In the bottom right corner of the poster is a white studio logo, and in the bottom margin is small black text with copyright and printing information. The poster is heavily creased and has yellowed with age, particularly on the torn and ragged bottom edge. There are several losses and stains along the bottom and left edges.
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Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
Overall: Height: 41.000 inches (104.14 cm) | Width: 27.000 inches (68.58 cm)
One-sheet poster for the American feature film “The Ramparts We Watch,” released in the United States on August 16, 1940, and re-released in September with a revised ending. “The Ramparts We Watch” was the first feature-length film produced by March of Time, a subsidiary of Time, Inc., who was primarily known for newsreels. As a result, the film blends newsreel and archival footage with dramatized scenes. Filmed in New London, Connecticut, producers recruited local residents for the cast. The film begins in 1914, when Americans are learning about the escalation of war in Europe. It centers on the residents of an unnamed small town, which includes Austrian and German immigrants who are directly affected and treated with suspicion. As the war progresses, residents of the town and nation begin debating whether the United States should remain neutral. After the U.S. enters the war in 1917, many of the men in the town volunteer or are drafted. The film’s final section is an appeal to the audience, explicitly arguing that in the present day, the country is facing a similar threat from Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and advocates for intervention. “The Ramparts We Watch” incorporated footage from the German propaganda film “Baptism of Fire,” and the filmmakers were accused of piracy by a German distribution company and threatened with reprisals by the German government. The film was also banned in several U.S. states because of the footage. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
U.S. One-Sheet Poster for the film “The Ramparts We Watch” (1940)