''The Ramparts We Watch'' is a 1940 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

, the first of four full-length features produced by

The March of Time ''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945. The "voice" of both series was Westbrook Van Voorhis. ...

, which was much more well known for the series of

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

s they produced from 1935 to 1951. The picture was produced and directed by

Louis de Rochemont Louis Clark de Rochemont (January 13, 1899 – December 23, 1978) was an American film maker known for creating, along with Roy E. Larsen, the monthly theatrically shown newsreels ''The March of Time''. His brother, Richard, was also a pro ...

, from a screenplay by

Robert L. Richards Robert L. Richards (March 3, 1909 - June 1984) was a film screenwriter. He attended Horace Mann School (high school) and graduated from Harvard in 1932. He worked for ''Time'' magazine and the ''March of Time'' radio program and newsreel for 7 ...

and Cedric R. Worth, and was distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, who released it on August 16, 1940. The film used no professional actors, instead relying on residents of the town where most of the filming took place:

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decade ...

. It also used footage from a Nazi propaganda film, ''Feuerteufe'' (Baptism of Fire).

References

External links

* 1940 films American black-and-white films 1940 drama films Films directed by Louis de Rochemont The March of Time films American drama films 1940s American films {{1940s-drama-film-stub