Main Street Today is a 1944 short film (20 minutes) directed by Edward Cahn.
It is a propaganda film about the American war effort. In a nameless small town, a factory produces breeches for artillery. Otis Bird, the factory owner (Ray Collins), can't meet his quota and desperately needs to hire more workers for a third shift. Unfortunately it seems there is no more labor to be had in the town, as everyone is still working their civilian jobs, and there is no housing to bring in outside workers.
The excuses are many. The housewife can't leave her dog in the backyard, the owner of the hair salon can't find help as it is...eventually, there's a town meeting to discuss the situation. Mr. Bird makes his appeal but the townsfolk mention all their own excuses, as well as the hazard of losing their job in civilian life when the war ends. Finally, they all gain a new perspective when the owner of the newspaper reads a letter from his son, who is fighting in Italy.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Don't be selfish! Work for the war effort!
- Dutch Angle: Used with the opening shot of the newspaperman in his office reading a letter, one which will turn out to be the letter from his son.
- Match Cut: Used repeatedly in a sequence showing women moving from domestic tasks to war work.
- There's a cut from a woman operating a blender to that same woman operating a drill press.
- A woman at the beauty parlor giving a manicure cuts to that same woman using tin snips.
- A cut from a woman operating a sewing machine to that woman running a lathe.
- Narrator: Producer John Nesbitt introduces the town and its people
- The Needs of the Many: The overriding point of the film, that people have to set aside their own concerns and work for the war effort, so we can defeat Germany and Japan.
- Precision F-Strike: All the other material produced by subcontractors to make those artillery pieces "won't be worth a tinker's damn" if the factory on Main Street doesn't get into gear and start up a third shift to produce the breech blocks. (This may sound pretty mild but it was just five years after MGM had to make a special appeal to the Hays Code censors to allow Clark Gable to say "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" at the end of Gone With the Wind.)
- Stock Footage: Of factory scenes, specifically a steel mill, to illustrate work at the plant.
- Title Drop: The last line, after the town has mobilized to fill the third shift, has the narrator saying "That is what we are working for on Main Street today."
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The opening narration says that they call their street "Main Street", but it could be Broad Street or some other name; the point is that we're really in Anytown, USA.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Vance is writing a letter to his son about the resistance in town to coming out to work third shift at the factory. As he writes, the story (namely, that resistance) plays out in a series of flashbacks.
