After Austria had been annexed by the Third Reich, Hitler’s Germany turned its attention to Czechoslovakia. In spring 1938, several American documentary filmmakers from Frontier-Film came to Prague headed by Herbert Kline, a young producer and director who decided to record on film the interior political situation in Czechoslovakia and the perils of both domestic and foreign enemies of the time. Kline and his collaborators’ real intentions were kept secret from the very beginning, from fear of possible attacks from the fascist quarter, namely Konrad Heinlein’s Sudeten Party. But the events of September 1939 adversely affected the filmmaking. The Münich Pact deprived Czechoslovakia of its border regions and de facto of its liberty and independence as well. The filmmakers had to cease filming and conceal the material they had shot. From Zlín, where the unedited material was kept, it was taken to France where the film got its final form, and was entitled Crisis.

Blazena Urgošiková – Narodni Filmovy Archiv