The Life and Death of Cancer

In mid-1944, former Disney men Larry Morey and John Sutherland set up Plastic Productions with the idea of creating stop-motion animated shorts. Several were released under the Daffy Ditties label by United Artists.

In November the following year, the company announced it would make industrial and commercial films, the first being Railroading by Radio, then said in April 1946 it was getting out of the “puppet” business. Variety reported on May 3 the company had signed with the American Cancer Society for a “cancer short for for showing to schools and social groups, to make public aware of disease and its diagnosis and cure.” The cost was to be $50,000.

The Traitor Within was not in production long. Variety reported on Aug. 28 it had been finished.

The cartoon took advantage of representational designs, still fairly new in 1946, and limited animation techniques, including drawings dissolving into each other.

A cycle shot of some cells in the human body (wear a cap and overalls) is interrupted by the narrator. “Once in a while, something goes wrong with the normal cells, and cancer originates.” Even in this faded print, you can see black death enveloping the healthy cell.



“It steals food from the normal cell.”



The cancer cell divides.



The narrator goes on to tell us cancer can be cured if it is stopped early. By surgery. By x-ray radiation. By rays emanating from radium.



The cartoon had distribution problems, like other films, because war-time materials for processing still weren't readily available. Variety said on Dec. 9, 1946: "John Sutherland Productions likewise is temporarily stymied in one of its educational shorts, “The Traitor Within,” made for American Cancer Society. With 250 prints ordered from Technicolor, Sutherland has been able to get delivery on only one print, which now is in hands of Society."

The uncluttered visuals and low-key narration still make this an effective film.

Unlike Sutherland cartoons at the end of the ‘40s and into the early ‘50s, The Traitor Within has a card with credits. The director was George Gordon, animation by Pete Burness, Irv Spence and Elmer Swanson, with “art direction” by Bernice Polifka. Norm Wright was responsible for the story and Paul Smith, ex-Disney, the music. Unfortunately, none of the voice actors are identified.