At least their intentions were good. I guess. For a movie which many of the segments are supposed to promote diversity and tolerance. All of the actors are white. The African American segment stuck out like a sore thumb so they did not have to tell an actual story using black talent. They substituted Hungary for Turkey. Probably because they could not find any ethnic or middle eastern looking actors. Or didn't want to seriously deal with actual hatred between nations.
shareConsidering the time period during which it was made, it was very typical for the times. The factual information they covered regarding African-American citizen's participation in the military and other varied facets of American life - Medical, Political, Legal, Scientific, Military, Entertainment, and everything else they showed, I found more interesting and informative than any fictional, made-up short story which would have only used a handful of actors of any kind. Naming and giving screen time to the many real people who made actual contributions to American life I found of more value. Showing that real African American citizens had and continued to make significant contributions to American life was of much higher value.
The thing I did find a little "off" was the women's participation in the "WAAC" which was changed and upgraded to the "WAC" in July, 1943, taking out the "Auxiliary" component and establishing its permanence, when this movie was made some eight years after the fact. There was no more current film that could have been used after that many years, AND after the military was desegregated in 1948? Nothing more current? I mean really - there's a segment dealing with participating in the Korean "Conflict" and we're still showing early WWII era segments as something current?
I just enjoyed most of it as entertainment, not much more, but still, entertainment with some factual basis. A good bit was done "tongue in cheek" though, particularly the segment Gary Cooper does so well about Texas! He's a hoot! "Misapprehension" indeed!