<P> Hollywood studios also went all - out for the war effort, as studios encouraged their stars (such as Clark Gable and James Stewart) to enlist . Hollywood had military units that made training films--Ronald Reagan narrated many of them . Most of all Hollywood made hundreds of war movies that, in coordination with the Office of War Information (OWI), taught Americans what was happening and who the heroes and the villains were . Ninety million people went to the movies every week . Some of the most highly regarded films during this period included Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Going My Way, and Yankee Doodle Dandy . Even before active American involvement in the war, the popular Three Stooges comic trio were lampooning the Nazi German leadership, and Nazis in general, with a number of short subject films, starting with You Nazty Spy! in January 1940, nearly two years before the United States was drawn into World War II . </P> <P> Cartoons and short subjects were a major sign of the times, as Warner Brothers Studios and Disney Studios gave unprecedented aid to the war effort by creating cartoons that were both patriotic and humorous, and also contributed to remind movie - goers of wartime activities such as rationing and scrap drives, war bond purchases, and the creation of victory gardens . Warner shorts such as Daffy - The Commando, Draftee Daffy, Herr Meets Hare, and Russian Rhapsody are particularly remembered for their biting wit and unflinching mockery of the enemy (particularly Adolf Hitler, Hideki Tōjō, and Hermann Göring). Their cartoons of Private Snafu, produced for the military as "training films", served to remind many military men of the importance of following proper procedure during wartime, for their own safety . Hanna Barbara also contributed to the war effort with slyly pro US short cartoon The Yankee Doodle Mouse with "Lt ." Jerry Mouse as the hero and Tom Cat as the "enemy". </P> <P> To heighten the suspense, Hollywood needed to feature attacks on American soil, and obtained inspirations for dramatic stories from the Philippines . Indeed, the Philippines became a "homefront" that showed the American way of life threatened by the Japanese enemy . Especially popular were the films Texas to Bataan (1942), Corregidor (1943), Bataan (1943), They Were Expendable (1945), and Back to Bataan (1945). </P> <P> The OWI had to approve every film before they could be exported . To facilitate the process the OWI's Bureau of Motion Pictures (BMP) worked with producers, directors and writers before the shooting started to make sure that the themes reflected patriotic values . While Hollywood had been generally nonpolitical before the war, the liberals who controlled OWI encouraged the expression of New Deal liberalism, bearing in mind the huge domestic audience, as well as an international audience that was equally large . </P>

What role did the federal government play in the u.s. economy during the war