Commissioned by the Department of Information, 100,000 Cobbers was essentially an exercise in propaganda, designed to increase enlistment at a crucial point in the war. It was filmed at the training camps in Liverpool, but did include well-known actors in fictionalised scenarios.
As a contemporary newspaper frames it:
The film is a documentary record of the second A.I.F. from the issue of the first recruiting poster down to the finished product, advancing through the smoke of battle in his first contact with the enemy.
The lighter side, with something of a pathetic tinge, is well presented by Joe Valli as "Scotty"–a veteran of the last war who successfully passes himself off by slicing about 10 years from his correct age. Shirley Ann Richards, too, is seen in the role of a chiropodist treating foot worn soldiers at the camp.
From the time the recruits reach the enlistment depot every phase of their lives and training is presented wtih a realism hitherto lacking in some of our propaganda films. Instruction in and the operation of automatic weapons, trench mortars, tanks and field guns and the throwing of hand grenades pass quickly across the screen, to be followed by field exercises showing light tanks, Bren gun carriers and other mechanised vehicles participating as in a real action.
As the film proceeds to its climax, one's emotions are stirred by the departure of the trainees, now tough and seasoned soldiers after six months' training.
Source:
'A Film for Everybody', The West Australian, 12 March 1942, p.7.
