Conquer by the Clock

This 1942 wartime propaganda short, directed by montage master Slavko Vorkapich for RKO-Pathé, is a relentless call to American workers to maximize productivity during WWII. Filmed in stark black-and-white, it opens with a clock striking “zero hour” on December 7, 1941—Pearl Harbor—setting a melodramatic tone. To the beat of pendulums and metronomes, narration equates time with victory, urging workers to “keep their sleeves rolled up.” Dynamic montages showcase a day’s output: rifles for a battalion, 30,000 bushels of corn from 1,000 acres, steel forged at Republic Steel, and ships built at Brooklyn Navy Yard. Workers run to jobs, hands grip hammers and pitchforks, while the film warns that slacking—depicted in a parable of a girl smoking instead of inspecting cartridges—kills soldiers by sending duds to the Pacific. Stars like Mickey Rooney may cameo, but the real star is time, visualized as a commodity and weapon. Clocks spin, forming a “V” for victory, as a chorus sings patriotic doggerel. A globalist, rhythmic “mechanical symphony,” it fuses New Deal collectivism with war’s urgency, shaming the tired as “saboteurs” in a world where every tick counts.