Film Record: Sternwheeler Odyssey

Still from Sternwheeler Odyssey in Movie Makers, Dec. 1942, 489.

Date produced: 1942

Filmmaker(s):

Sidney Moritz

Languages:

English

Length:

600 ft

Format:

16mm

Colour:

Kodachrome

Sound Notes:

Silent

Sound:

With music and sound effects on disc.

Awards/Recognition:

ACL Ten Best 1942 - Honorable Mention General Class

Description:

"The romance and color of a trip down the Ohio River on one of the Greene Lines few remaining flat bottomed passenger steamers are used to good advantage by Sidney Moritz in Sternwheeler Odyssey. The variety of the passing landscape, stops at wharves en route, with all the confusion of ropes, cargo and roustabouts, and general views of the stately river traffic plying the waterways gives this friendly little picture a touch of glamour. On board, the passengers and crew including "Ma" Greene, America's only woman river captain, present lively camera material. The churning paddle wheel, filmed from various angles, and the cascading waters that flatten into arcs of waves in the wake of the boat, become a motif that sustains the feeling of a ship in motion throughout the picture." Movie Makers, Dec. 1942, 508.

Resources:

Discussed by Moritz in "Back to Old Times" (Movie Makers, Oct. 1943, 375, 393-394).

The film won fourth prize in a Metropolitan Motion Picture Club members' film contest in 1942 (Movie Makers, Jan. 1943, 14).

Locations:

• Kenawa River, Ohio (Filming)
• Ohio River, Ohio (Filming)

Subjects:

•           Rivers
•           Ships

Genre:

• Documentary

Form:

• Short

Screenings:

• Screened by the Metropolitan Motion Picture Club in 1941: New York City, N.Y.
• Screened by the Amateur Motion Picture Club of St. Louis in 1942: St. Louis, MO
• Screened by the Bell Laboratories Club in 1942: Murray Hill, N.J.
• Screened by the Brooklyn Amateur Cinema Club in 1943 and 1944: Brooklyn, N.Y.

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