American Portrait (1940)
1940 · Ephemeral film · 28 min · dir. Wallace Fox
- Documentary
Synopsis
This movie's preamble explains the importance of salesmanship after the great depression The industrial revolution has created a life of modern convenience for America, and there are more products available than most people can fathom. David, one of the main characters in this drama, is a life insurance salesman. His livelihood and profession rely on people willing to take out new policies. Throughout the beginning of the film, a narrator points out modern inventions like telephones, electric toasters, and other conveniences, and explains the significance of these items.
Synopsis from TMDb
Details
- Director
- Wallace Fox
- Studio
- Wilding Picture Productions
- Released
- 1940-07-31
- Running time
- 28 minutes
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Prelinger Archives
Cast & crew
Wallace Fox Director
Alan Ladd- Mary Brodel
Ben Alexander- Charles Miller
Milburn Stone
Hal Taliaferro
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · Nice drama · HappySwordsman · 2018-08-22
Nice, well-produced drama that I found entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the sequence where a man is driving a car, and through several shots we see how cars evolved from a primitive horseless carriage to a art deco classic.
★★★ · Alan Ladd will save us all. · Spuzz · 2012-11-06
Life Insurance and the many benefits Man gets from it are certainly well represented in the archive, this film adds to it, with a certainly grand spectacle added to it, a many decade historical retrospective of how one man succeeded in selling the stuff. Told by a old yapper to his granddaughter (who looks to be falling asleep by the time this is done) this film tells of a man (Alan Ladd!) who grows up selling life insurance, and the many things that have come since then (mainly, the automobile). This film is OK, it's a little long-winded, and there are other films (most notably the similarly…
