A Call for Arms! (1940)
8m
Running Time
December 31, 1940Release Date
Plot.
"What a life for a couple of nudes!" Two dancers find a new way of doing their bit for the boys in this frothy wartime propaganda short. Lord Kitchener's famous finger persuades Joan and Ireen, dancers in a 'Non Stop Nudes' revue (not that we see anything that warrants that title), to make a radical career change. Swapping their skimpy costumes for dowdy munitions factory overalls, they join a growing domestic army of women keeping the machines rolling. Belfast-born Brian Desmond Hurst was essentially a feature film director, whose best-remembered work is the Dickens adaptation Scrooge, but whose credits also included the war films Dangerous Moonlight (1941) and The Malta Story (1953). The Call for Arms was one of three propaganda shorts he made between 1940 and 1941, the most memorable being Miss Grant Goes to the Door, in which a pair of village spinsters outwit a Nazi paratrooper.
Where to Watch.
Free
Currently A Call for Arms! is available for streaming online, rent, buy or watch for free on: BFI Player
Streaming in:🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Details.
Wiki.
A Call For Arms is a short propaganda film made for the British Ministry of Information in 1940. It was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starred Jean Gillie and Rene Ray as two 'nudes' (showgirls) who do their bit for the war effort by going to work in munition factories. It was co-written by a Sgt. Terence Young who worked for Hurst on many projects before, during and after World War II.