“Diary of a Sergeant,” a 1945 U.S. Signal Corps documentary short about Harold Russell, a paratroop sergeant who lost his hands in a World War II demolition accident. (In the film, Alfred Drake supplies the voice of Russell.) It was this film that inspired William Wyler to cast Russell in a starring role in The Best Years of Our Lives, appearing opposite Dana Andrews and Fredric March:
(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)