"Within the brief confines of Lady on June Street, Leo Caloia presents a satisfying example of the personality film worked out in story form. Faced with the common problem of family filming, he has resolved the riddle with imagination, humor and marked cinematic ability. The "lady" in question is pictured as a lazy, luxury loving wife, spiritually eager to be the best of helpmates, but physically enslaved to satins and sweetmeats. Dozing, as she regards with languorous ambition an advertisement for homemade shortcake, she dreams vividly of a sweet but unaccustomed success with pot and pan. Crash! In her dream, the lady slips, and her magnificent shortcake slithers across the kitchen linoleum. Bump! In reality, she has rolled sleepily from her couch, to awake with a thud on the living room floor. The film fades swiftly as she hurries the tops off canned beans and sauerkraut." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 632.
"What we have all wished a newsreel presentation of an important event could be has at last been brought to actuality by T. J. Courtney in his fine Kodachrome film Royal Visit — Halifax 1939. Let us hasten to add, also, that this film, besides being the apotheosis of the newsreel presents a carefully connected story of the events of the long anticipated day of the Royal visit in his city. Chiefly outstanding is the skillful and always appropriate use of closeups and atmosphere shots made with great care before, during and after the event and cut in with real skill to heighten the effect. But, most of all, the film is remarkable for its pace and sincere interpretation of public feeling; the early preparations for the Royal visit; the breathless expectation; the high enthusiasm at the time of Their Majesties' appearance, the promise of long remembrance at their departure — all these are clearly shown by Mr. Courtney's cinematic commentary. The complications that must have confronted him on this exciting day must be considered in our approval, too. He succeeded admirably in picturing the general excitement and enthusiasm, but at no time did his camera desert its steady support and accurate framing of the principal subject. The natural, close shots of the King and Queen are unsurpassed." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 632.
"When you ramble about on a cinematic tour of old Quebec in Carl Nerish's St. Lawrence Sketches, you feel that here at last is a new and different theme for the travel film. The Old World atmosphere of that delightful city is shown with loving sympathy. One of the outstanding points is a clever and human continuity device employed to carry the story along during a tour of the city in a horse drawn carriage. Spoken titles are used with striking closeups of the quaint cab driver who is pointing out the sights to Mr. Nerish and his audience. By studying each shot of the driver, Mr. Nerish was able not only to present a varied series of shots of him, but also to show enough background material to add a good deal to the scenes presented in the regular course of the film. Equally effective are the shots of people in the market place, where a telephoto enables Mr. Nerish to get unposed views. A carefully chosen, but somewhat detailed, musical background was played throughout the film, and it served in no small measure to lend atmosphere to the production. Special credit is due the filmer for his precisely executed titles. Such painstaking work as that involved in centering and lining up movable title letters is seldom seen." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 632.
"Sweeping in its conception, stirring in its execution, Then Came the King is a vivid and beautiful epic of honest patriotism. In it, Earl L. Clark has examined the Western way of life, and he has found it good. With elaborate but never exhausting detail, the film traces the history of Canada — and more briefly her American neighbor — from 1800 to the present day. Then, in a world challenged by war and a Canada accused of waning fealty to the Empire, Then Came the King pictures with a magnificent climax the deep and unfaltering affection in which a loyal people hold their rulers. People of all classes and occupations are shown saluting Their Majesties. Sensitively planned and superbly titled, the film very definitely has something to say — and says it with distinction. Viewpoint after viewpoint strikes sensuously on the eye as exactly right for the effect desired. Sequence after sequence marches down the screen with the brave and stirring rhythms of epic poetry. On a few occasions, Mr. Clark's striking imagination has outstripped his straining technical skill, but. from his first frame to his last, the work is stamped unerringly with a fresh and genuine creative spirit." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 632.
"No better example of human interest in a vacation film will be seen for a long time to come than was exhibited in Two Perfect Weeks, made by Walter F. Hinkle. Strangely enough, there was practically no material of actually catching fish, yet the film gives one the impression that the party consisted of all genuine fishermen and that no more dyed in the wool sportsmen could be found than these happy vacationists. Starting with a clever introduction, the film moves rapidly along into camp. Here, a most handsome array of interest packed close shots serves to tell the story of tired business men at play, until the entire audience is ready to sit down and enjoy a meal of freshly cooked fish. The film ends in a novel way. To signalize the return to civilization, each member of the party is seen shaving off the beard that grew during the two weeks at camp. Although each of the group is introduced by means of a different type of activity, the picturization is at no time slow or dull. The secret lay in the fact that there was no "monkey business" in front of the camera, but rather a good collection of intimate views of the persons going about their various tasks. The color titles are well executed." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 632-633.
"Mexican Silhouette, conceived as a gamble, has grown up to glory. After but a few years of average movie making experience, Clement K. Chase — as with so many — felt an irresistible urge to attempt, in one film, a concentration of all his accumulated skill and experience. He turned to a subject he knew with intimacy and affection, and Mexican Silhouette was the result. It is a splendid educational and general interest study, divided flexibly into three main sections — Mexico, D. F., Mexican Agriculture and Mexican Cities. To these subjects, Mr. Chase has brought a mature photographic skill, marked by tripod steadiness, stimulating compositions and a dramatic feeling for the use of filters. Well titled in the original silent version, the film is now being distributed commercially in both sound and silent editions." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 633.
"Imagine, if you can, a subject which would be harder to present in motion pictures than the effects of a spinal anaesthetic. This is the problem that Leslie P. Thatcher solved so ably in his Technique and Principles of Spinal Anaesthesia with Nupercaine. Because most of the action takes place within the body, it was necessary to do some real thinking before a suitable motion picture presentation could be worked out. For example, the action of the fluid as it floats in the spinal canal was shown dramatically and effectively by floating some of the drug in a solution in a slowly tilting glass phial. A considerable use of X-rays served to show clearly just how the hypodermic needle should be handled, while well photographed diagrams and models aid the film's clarity. Operative scenes represent the best technique, and the action clearly demonstrates the qualities of Nupercaine as an anaesthetic. The picture is a study in straightforward exposition and, as such, it should serve its sponsors admirably. It is to be noted that Mr. Thatcher showed admirable restraint in his brief shots of operations. While sufficient for the medical man, they are not too long or gruesome for a lay audience." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 633-634.
"In An Apple a Day, F. Radford Crawley has epitomized, in color, the story of a Canadian apple orchard. He shows, in perfectly exposed Kodachrome scenes, how the trees are grafted and pruned, how the orchard is mulched with straw and how the trees are sprayed. He shows the apple pickers at work in attractively chosen angle shots and, without interrupting the flow of action, he introduces the different varieties of apples grown in Canada. Horse drawn carts carry the apples to the packers, and there follows a tightly edited sequence of the ring pack method, culminating in a brilliant closeup of the top of an open basket of apples. In an epilogue, the basket is opened in a home, and children bob for apples at a Halloween party. Ingeniously managed upward angles show the children's faces bobbing for apples floating in the water above the camera. (The method of producing these shots was described in The month of plenty, by Mr. Crawley in the October, 1938, Movie Makers. The execution of the plan is perfect in the film.) Brilliant close shots of beautifully colored fruit stud this film like jewels, and especially satisfying are the subtitles, made by double exposing white lettering on a scene of an arched branch of an apple tree, filmed against a dark, late afternoon sky." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 634.
"Combining the sensitivity of an artist and a camera skill that theoretically only professional experts could acquire, Robert P. Kehoe has produced, in Chromatic Rhapsody, a film that would command the amazed admiration of any movie club in the country. This beautiful picture can only be described as a scenic — a scenic held together rather tenuously by editing to create a symphonic arrangement of color and to associate scenes with the seasons. It is in the sheer beauty of color cinematography that Chromatic Rhapsody excels. This reviewer has never seen, in any medium, more gorgeous color photographs of autumnal foliage and winter landscapes. One is so impressed with the flawless color that he is inclined to suspect that nature puts on a special show for Mr. Kehoe. The truth is probably that Mr. Kehoe has a special understanding of nature and an intuitional sensitivity to light and color. For the rest, as Mr. Kehoe would say, he simply follows exposure instructions. The film is marred somewhat by lack of complete camera steadiness, the only flaw in an otherwise superb cinematic accomplishment. A charming musical score, arranged by double turntable, accompanies the movie's presentation." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 634.
"Ralph E. Gray's 1939 entry, Guatemala, the Glorious, is another of those studies of Central American lands for which this fine filmer is noted. No less an ethnologist than a movie maker, Mr. Gray has an insatiable curiosity which always runs to the unusual and striking folkways of the countries he records in Kodachrome. He has found these folkways in Guatemala, as he has found them before in Mexico, and he knows the trick of making them interesting, by a most intelligent interplay of distant, medium and close views. He has footage of the mysterious ceremony at Chichicastenango which has not been obtained before, as he filmed the interior of the church for the first time. Mr. Gray's editing and titling bear evidences of haste, without which his entry would have won higher rating, but, in spite of these, it maintains his high standard of fascinating subject matter expertly presented." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 634.
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema