Reich was created as a morale boosting propaganda film. The film was the first assigned to Tom Daly who would produce and direct, and later take on a more significant role at the NFB. Using a compilation documentary format that relied heavily on combat footage shot by the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit, and the British Army film unit, Road to the Reich was edited to provide a powerful message. One of the most striking images was the incorporation of enemy footage that showed captured Canadian troops at Caen who were later brutally killed by the Waffen-SS. The deep baritone voice of stage actor Lorne Greene was featured in the narration of Road to the Reich. Greene was known for his work on radio broadcasts as a news announcer at CBC, as well as narrating many of the Canada Carries On series. His sonorous recitation led to his nickname, "The Voice of Canada", and to some observers, the "Voice-of-God". When reading grim battle statistics or narrating a particularly serious topic, he was known as "The Voice of Doom". Reception Road to the Reich was produced in 35 mm for the theatrical market. Each film was shown over a six-month period as part of the shorts or newsreel segments in approximately 800 theatres across Canada. The NFB had an arrangement with Famous Players theatres to ensure that Canadians from coast-to-coast could see them, with further distribution by Columbia Pictures. After the six-month theatrical tour ended, individual films were made available on 16 mm to schools, libraries, churches and factories, extending the life of these films for another year or two. They were also made available to film libraries operated by university and provincial authorities. See also Break-through (1944) References Notes Citations Bibliography Bennett, Linda Greene. My Father's Voice: The Biography of Lorne Greene. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse, Inc., 2004. . Ellis, Jack C. and Betsy A. McLane. New History of Documentary Film. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. . Ford, Ken. Caen 1944: Montgomery's Break-out Attempt. Oxford, Oxford Publishing, 2004. . Leach, Jim and Jeannette Sloniowski, eds. Candid Eyes: Essays on Canadian Documentaries. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2003. . Lerner, Loren. Canadian Film and Video: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. . Rist, Peter. Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. . External links Watch Road to the Reich