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UnknownUnconditional Surrender (1956)

The development of polio vaccine and the significance of its discovery.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Unknown
Sponsor: National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (Eli Lilly & Co.)
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Medicine: Poliomyelitis; Medicine: Infectious diseases; Medicine: Pediatrics

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: BraddS - - June 2, 2005
Subject: Ouch!
This is a beautifully photographed and well preserved film about the production of polio vaccine in 1955-56 at an Ely Lily plant. For those of us lucky enough to remember what life was like in the 1950s, this will bring back mixed emotions. Before the media figured out how to maximize attention (and advertising dollars)by creating stories about how everything gives us cancer, they scared the **** out of us kids by showing images of other kids welded into iron lung machines for the rest of their lives because they were stupid or unlucky enough to catch polio. (It was another 40 years before I learned that the iron lung was only used for the acute phase of the disease, where it saved your life until you could breathe again on your own.)

The film shows lots of shots of kids getting lots of shots that apparently don't hurt. Those of us who actually remember getting our flesh pierced with those huge, primitive 1950s era needles, however, will conclude that they must have used very selective footage here. And I had also forgotten that you had to get THREE shots in succession to gain maximum immunity. OUCH!!!Extra points to anyone who notices near the end where the bar chart shows that even if you get the vaccine you can STILL get the disease.

Since this film doesn't mention anything about how the cure for Polio was discovered (an interesting story in itself), it was likely used to try and reassure the public that the new vaccine was safe and woudn't give your kids polio, or any other horrible disease for that matter.

The shots of lab animals are kind of disturbing, but are ameliorated slightly by the kind way they are handled by the animal technicians, and no animal is shown suffering at any time during its handling or injection. But the film goes out of its way to NOT tell you why exactly they need those animals, and never makes clear what they have to do to figure out that a test animal did or didn't get a specific disease from being injected with a test dose of the vaccine.

A well made film that stops short of really being informative.

ps: It's Salk, Spuzz, not Paulk! And while we're at it, please let me add my futile voice to the many who have begged you to accept that the possessive of "it" is "its", not "it's" !!!!!

Reviewer: Spuzz - - February 23, 2005
Subject: Looking for footage of mashed up monkey livers? Look no further...
In this interesting (and interestingly titled) short, the invention and the process of making Paulk's polio vaccine is shown. After we see some sad shots of kids with polio, we find out there's a vaccine! We then are shown about how the vaccine is made, and the testing, testing and even more testing the vaccine needs to have before it goes out to market. Because we're testing, we need animals! Monkeys, rats, and YES! Even guinea pigs are used. There are some sad shots of monkeys clamped down getting a shot. But don't worry, as the end results we visit the first kid ever to get a shot, and even the president's kid!

Reviewer: cashel - - March 17, 2004
Subject: to remember
A very important story told in a staight forward manner, The disease may be history but the dedication and courage of the people involved must not be forgotten. The Hollywood movie life story of Sister Kenny (1946), starrung ros russell would be a good intoduction to the subject

Shotlist

A film about polio.

Film about children with polio. Focus on one boy who received the first vaccination. Takes place in Virginia. Images fo family at home (Mom, Dad, son and dog). Shows children receiving vaccinations. Shows lab work performed on monkeys to create the vaccination. Other lab animals shown, too.
polio Infantile Paralysis Poliomyelitis Children Diseases Epidemic Disabilities sick ill landscape Virginia lab animals
Danger Lurks
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