yet made here. Well written, yet not – without some trace of the bombast, which unfortunately seems characteristic of so many of our propaganda film narratives, the picture graphically reviews our national contribution to the Allied cause. More engrossing than a major screen story, it outlines an amazing achievement, one which audiences here will find is much greater and more versatile than they had imagined.... The acting on the whole is so convincing and the varied Australian types so well portrayed that it would be unfair to single out any particular player for mention. Here is a picture that every Australian should see. Political controversy A special screening of the movie for Members of Parliament and other special guests took place in July. The screening did not go well: reportedly several MPs laughed at sequences and walked out of the theatre. The general consensus was the film compared poorly to its companion feature, Desert Victory (1943), and should not have used actors instead of real people. According to a journalist from the Brisbane Sunday Mail who was present at the screening, one viewer said it had "enough ham to feed the whole Australian army". The journalist went on to criticise the film: The artificiality of the sequences, false values, false sentiments, and complacency of the whole film made almost a painful impression on many of the vice regal, diplomatic and parliamentary audiences upstairs at the theatre. Downstairs, where the audience comprised soldiers, mostly taken from the front line to attend a special training school at Duntroon, there was loud laughter at some scenes intended to be impressive. There was no smell of battle in the film as in the wonderful Desert Victory, which had preceded it. There were no actors and no politics in Desert Victory, only fighters and workers. There were only actors and a strong political flavour in South-west Pacific... Any audience ran be forgiven for laughing in the wrong place. In the search for lightness and brightness, comedy has been over emphasised. The film misses a glorious opportunity to show some thing of the real work of Australian soldiers. The movie was then released in Adelaide. The Adelaide Advertiser said it should not be exported: Despite the excellence of its pictorial matter, its sentiment is out of key, it is boastful, and its characters talk incessantly. Some of the characters employed are more caricatures or comedians than