AllMovie

This unsubtle but effective Soviet propaganda film is divided into eight parts. Part One is "The Hitler Beast," a grimly satiric anti-Nazi animated cartoon put together by the talented animator Ivan Ivanov-Vano. Part Two is a patriotic song rendition by Boris Chirkov, with English subtitles by Philip Stirling. Directed by Vladimir Feinberg, "A Drop of Milk" concerns a humble Polish peasant moved to violence against his Nazi oppressors after his family is murdered. Next up is "Air Raid," directed by Victor Eisemont, elucidating the destruction of a Nazi bomber. The fifth entry, jointly directed by I. Mutanov and Alexei Olenin, is "Three in a Shell Hole," the story of a trio of trench soldiers. Number Six, directed by Eugene Cherviakov, is "Saboteur," wherein a Nazi agent is captured by Soviet partisans. This is followed by the best of the batch, "100 for One," a harrowing fact-based story of 100 hostages rounded up for execution in the retaliation for the death of a Nazi officer; Herbert Rappaport directed. The film concludes with a fantasy vignette, in which Napoleon telegraphs a warning to Adolph Hitler regarding the invasion of the Soviet Union.