Forgotten Victory (1939) User Reviews

Kubanka

[boblipton · 6/10 · 19 July 2019]

John Nesbitt's Passing Parade tells the story of Mark Carleton (played by Donald Douglas), a US Government crop scientist who travelled through Eastern Europe and the Mideast, looking for a variety of grain that could stand up to the harsh weather of of the American Midwest, a hard wheat.... and found it in a Siberian variety called kubanka. That was not the end of his quest, when American millers found the wheat too hard to mill into bread.

Disgrace followed.... until Black Rust attacked the Midwest, and only the remaining stands of what is now called 'durum' wheat were left standing.

This was an early release of the movie series, based on Nesbitt's radio segment. The movie series, like the radio segment, lasted until 1949, telling forgotten stories of everyday victories. This is a good one.

He helped feed the world!

[Bronco46 · 10/10 · 9 June 2020]

Another amazing story that lends credance to the idea that God is looking after the United States. There have been almost inumeral number of events/turning points in the history of the United States that have been unbelivablly important to well being of this great nation. This is the story of a man who may not have even known at the time, how important his worldwide journey looking for hardy seed stock was. It's not clear if he was specifically looking for just wheat. Or if he was just a study of agriculture and traveled the world studying. And just happened to find something that changed history, and has fed hundreds of millions of people over the decades. And interesting story, well told!

One of the Best of the Series

[Michael_Elliott · 12 August 2011]

Forgotten Victory (1939)

**** (out of 4)

Terrific entry in John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series is without question one of the best. The short tells the story of Mark Carleton (Donald Douglas), a worker for the USGA who travels across the world trying to find wheat that farmers can grow no matter about the drought situation. He finally finds such a wheat in Russia but after the U.S. farmers plant it they are shocked to see that it's too rough to turn into flour. Then, another disaster hits the farmers but this is when Carleton's wheat might come in handy. If you're not familiar with the Passing Parade series then it's best described as a MGM series that tried to remind people of important people of the past who had been forgotten over time. I'm not sure how many people will remember Carleton today but this is a pretty incredible little story and future Oscar-winner Fred Zinnemann does a marvelous job getting it to the screen. In 9-minutes this short contains more drama than most features as the director really builds up the human drama of the story and he really nails the emotions that Carleton had to go through as there were several up and down moments in his life. As usual, Nesbitt's narration strikes the right cord and it too helps add to the drama of the story. Zinnemann directed dozens of shorts before turning to features and it's easy to see the talent that's on display here.