Following the war, Peter Rathvon at RKO, who had seen Our Job in Japan during his own military service, decided to produce a commercial version of the film.[2] He hired the original writer and editor to work on the new project. Theodor S. Geisel, better known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, co-authored Design for Death with his wife Helen Palmer Geisel. Elmo Williams was the editor for both films. Subsequently, Sid Rogell replaced Rathvon, and became the film's producer.
The film was given wide release in January 1948; a review in Daily Variety characterized it as "a documentary of fabulous proportions ... one of the most interesting screen presentations of the year".[3]Bosley Crowther, writing in The New York Times, was not complimentary; he wrote that the film "makes the general point that too much control by a few people is a dangerous – a 'racketeering' – thing and that another world war can be prevented only by the development of responsible, representative governments throughout the world. That is a valid message, but the weakness with which it is put forth in a melange of faked and factual pictures and in a ponderous narration does not render it very forceful".[4]
In his memoir, Elmo Williams maintains that he and Geisel created Design for Death nearly in its entirety, and that the credits for Fleischer and Warth were nominal ones.[2] Rogell, Fleischer, and Warth received the Academy Awards for the film.
