"The imaginative experiments with animated clay figures begun last year in No Credit have, in this year's Proem, proved out as a suave and wholly integrated art form. The unique and wholly delightful work of Leonard Tregillus and Ralph Luce, jr., has here come handsomely of age — both technically and creatively. Proem, conceived as a preface to the theme of Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, is of far greater filmic stature than its already rented status permits it to be rated." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 470.
"A joint project of the members of the Motion Picture Photography Class of the Westchester Workshop, in White Plains, N. Y., Recreation Handmade is notable for its evenness of camera work. It presents in a naturally episodic fashion various handiwork classes available to children and adults of the community. If you like to work with your hands, this film will make you eager to enroll in one of the many activities offered — which, of course, is the purpose of its production. A rather full commentary describes how the courses work. Walter Bergmann, as instructor of the motion picture course, proves with his pupils' film that practical movie making can be taught — and taught well." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 470-471.
"Al Schmidt's Sail Fishing is a well edited and engagingly pleasant presentation of a theme that might easily get out of hand. Mr. Schmidt has covered all aspects of an exciting sport, including the rarely mentioned sharks. However, the greatest virtue of Sail Fishing is not the film itself but the accompanying narrative, which is delivered calmly and with a good deal of humor. Mr. Schmidt has proved that sharks are exciting in their own right, instead of as a backdrop for a babbling and frenetic narrator." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 471.
"An idol stolen from a Chinese temple and the efforts of a loyal retainer to recover it provide George Kirstein with a novel springboard for the unfolding of this unusual travel film. Subsequent events carry the principals from New York to Chicago, through the Southwest to Los Angeles and Hollywood, up the coast to San Francisco and finally back to New York for restoration of the idol. Far from hindering the sightseeing sequences, Mr. Kirstein's device enhances the presentation of this material. While the camera handling is satisfying throughout, tighter editing would speed up the pace and heighten dramatic interest." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 471.
"In Trilogy, Timothy M. Lawler, jr., submits an interesting and, for the most part, successful effort to match romantic verse with appropriately emotional scenes. For his verse, Mr. Lawler has used Kilmer's Trees, Malay's The Wide World and Shelley's Love's Philosophy. The moods of the movie footage are excellent. The verse suffers a little, however, because it is released on the screen (or in narrative readings) a couplet at a time, at varying intervals, thus breaking into the overall rhythm. On the whole, however, Trilogy is a good approach to an attractive and difficult ideal." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 471.
"In Tumbling Waters Leo J. Heffernan has turned his experienced and competent camera on that perennial favorite of travel filmers, Niagara Falls. The result is a sparkling piece of lighthearted showmanship, climaxed by a truly gripping and probably unique sequence filmed amid the swirling mists of the Cave of the Winds. The overall effect of Tumbling Waters, however, was marred for these reviewers by recurring levities of treatment deemed out of key with the essential majesty of the subject." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 471-472.
"Using black and white film, Carl D. Frazier has produced a tightly knit and well paced farce of a married couple and a burglar. Excellent lighting of wholly interior settings shows study of the monochrome medium and, properly exploited, how it can result in sparkling results. The acting is adequate for the simple plot, but it is the camera work and editing that make the film above average." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 472.
"Efforts of the American Cancer Society both to disseminate accurate information on the disease and to dispel erroneous conceptions form the theme of this unit production by the Amateur Movie Society of Bergen County, in Hackensack, N. J. Based jointly on a case history of neglect and a situation illustrating some baseless fears of cancer, the film shows the many forms of service rendered by the A.C.S. through its local chapters. Handsomely mounted and capably photographed, the picture is a tribute to the technical skill of its director, William Messner, and the cameramen who assisted him. The commentary and music on the sound track ably support the visual message. A tendency towards confusion in the scripting prevents the picture from fulfilling completely the thesis implied in its title." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 472.
"'The Voice of the Key' is a magnificently staged photoplay, beginning with the very professional series of opening titles and featuring remarkable interior photography, considering the limited equipment at the disposal of the filmer. Charles Carbonaro, using photo-floods entirely, has achieved some truly professional illumination in his interior settings, and his camera technique displays an artist's genuine feel for forceful and dramatic story telling with a camera. The story concerns a murder of an unfaithful wife's lover by her husband, and the steps the husband takes to conceal his part in the crime, only to be tripped up by his door key as the incriminating evidence. Carbonaro used a Cine Special Camera and Eastman Super X panchromatic film. The script, which he wrote himself, was adapted from a story published in 'This Week', Sunday supplement magazine of national distribution." American Cinematographer, Apr. 1950, 133.
"Great ambition and a wide knowledge of both amateur and Hollywood camera techniques mark Charles J. Carbonaro's The Voice of the Key. The film is a whodunit, involving many of the human reactions — from love and hate to cynicism, impatience and sudden passion — all of which have to be registered by the actors at Mr. Carbonaro's command. It's a large order, and the film does not quite fill it dramatically. But the good things about The Voice of the Key are very good indeed." Movie Makers, Dec. 1950, 468.
"'Vacation Highlights,' as the title implies, is a record of a vacation trip, but instead of the usual array of catch-as-can shots which make up so many vacation record films, Terry Manos has given this excellently photographed narrative substance by employing inserts of a letter to his wife and daughter, describing his trip, and a number of tie-in shots of the two to knit the whole into a pleasant continuity. The picture is remarkable, not so much from its narrative standpoint as for its consistency in exposure. There is not a measurable difference in exposure in any scene throughout the picture. The picture depicts the start of the trip by automobile, which takes the travelers across the U.S. border into Canada and thence through the province of Quebec. On the return trip they visit such interesting sights as a wood pulp mill and the famed Ausabel Chasm, in upper New York. The camera treatment of the pulpwood sequence and of the Chasm scenes definitely mark this filmer as a photographer of promise. Manos used a 16mm. Bolex camera and Kodachrome daylight type film." American Cinematographer, Apr. 1950, 134.
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema