A ‘Classics Collection’: War Stories and More : Movies: Twenty-five films made by the British government in 1929-’46 to be released on video in July.

In case you need reminding of just how dramatically the world has changed in the last 50 years, look no further than “The Classics Collection,” a compilation of 25 films made by the British government that is scheduled to be released on home video in July.

Culled from an archive that includes upward of 25,000 films, the initial “Classics Collection”--films made from 1929-1946--focuses for the most part on World War II and is, among other things, a nostalgic evocation of the last romantic war (the atomic weaponry that came at the end of that conflict finished off any romance associated with war for good).

“Welcome to Britain,” for instance, was a film made in the 1940s to acclimate U.S. soldiers to the ways of England. Featuring appearances by Burgess Meredith, Danny Kaye and Bob Hope (who worked for free as part of the war effort), the film explains such things as the finer points of how to behave in a British pub. Structured as a series of corny vignettes, “Welcome to Britain” makes going to war seem like a summer vacation abroad.

With a release date near the 50th anniversary of D-day, “The Classics Collection” is the first of many British historical films that will soon be making their way into U.S. video stores. The property of the British Crown Archives, which will be the beneficiary of any profits, this vast library of unexploited material is also being marketed to the U.S. film industry as an untapped resource. (It should be pointed out, however, that the archive, which recently opened an office in Los Angeles, consists of finished films only and doesn’t include stock footage.)

“These films have been available in the U.K. for quite some time,” says Peter Steel, head of Footage File, a department of Britain’s London-based Office of Information, formed in 1947. “With the growing market in home video and the anniversary of D-day coming up, this just seemed like an auspicious time to make the films available in America.

“Most of the films were made prior to the arrival of television, at a time when people often got public service information from short films, usually made by the government, that were shown in movie theaters,” adds Steel. “So, these aren’t documentary films--they’re informational films that deal with everything from health concerns to how World War II was progressing. Because they were made by the government, I suppose some people might call them propaganda, but that word is a bit harsh for these films, most of which were intended to boost morale.”

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Although the informational films do tend to be relentlessly upbeat, they nonetheless provide a fascinating record of daily life in wartime Britain (a time when virtually everyone smoked, on the evidence provided here). Of greater interest, perhaps, are the films that intercut actual news footage with scripted sequences, including “D-day to Paris,” which includes film of the final stages of the battle to liberate Paris.

After release of “The Classics Collection,” the BCA hopes to release several feature films drawn from 300 included in the library.

“We have several dramatic films that had theatrical releases at the time they were made--’Western Approaches,’ for instance, which was made in 1944 and is one of the first color films,” Steel points out. “It was made to commemorate the merchant seamen who lost their lives in convoys in the Atlantic and is of particular interest because the cast is composed of real seamen. Equally noteworthy is ‘The True Glory,’ a montage of news footage of the war that was directed by Carol Reed and Garson Kanin and won the Oscar for best documentary feature of 1946.

“One of our earliest films is ‘The Drifters,’ which was made in 1929 by John Grierson, who’s considered the father of documentary filmmaking,” he continues. “Alfred Hitchcock did two films for us during the war (“Bon Voyage” and “Adventure Malgache”), Peter Greenaway did a few in the early ‘80s (among them a profile of fashion designer Zandra Rhodes), and Edward R. Murrow, Laurence Olivier and Richard Attenborough all narrated films for us.

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“My favorites are the lovely black-and-whites made during the later part of the war,” he adds. “There’s one titled ‘Listen to Britain,’ for instance, that’s basically a brief introduction followed music and effects. The point of the film was to illustrate that the U.K. was carrying on as normally as it could, despite the fact that we were at war. A similar film is ‘Worker’s Weekend,’ which shows a crew of workers building an entire aircraft bomber in just 24 hours. The film is about enthusiasm and the importance of commitment to the war effort. The war films were made to boost morale, and they don’t deal much with the damage wrought by the war, because people were already well aware of that.”

Although the archive’s films tend to focus on England’s economy and industries, British culture does surface occasionally, as in “Instruments of the Orchestra,” made to educate people about the symphony orchestra, and “Steps of the Ballet,” which is similarly structured. As to the audience for this far-flung collection of films, Steel says “that’s impossible to predict at this point.”

“With the war films, many of which deal with the finer points of ships and aircraft, I would imagine aircraft buffs might be interested. We recently did several presentations at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, and the audience was really fascinated with the films. Fortunately, it’s not necessary that the films be hugely profitable,” he adds, “because, as a government agency, we just need to break even in order to keep the series going.”

In addition to marketing old films, Britain’s Central Office of Information continues to make new films--or, videos, to be exact. “Around 1974 we began shooting mostly on video,” says Steel, “although occasionally we still use 35-millimeter film.”

Today, COI’s public service films deal with the same subjects that dominate American informational films, such things as AIDS awareness, drug prevention and prenatal care.

“The library continues to grow because we’ve never stopped making films,” said Steel, “and eventually films from the ‘60s and ‘70s will become part of ‘The Classics Collection.’ ”

* For further information, contact British Crown Archives/Dandelion Films, (818) 505-8997.