"May Day Conflict is a well executed and skillfully edited family story film of the conflict created by the opening of the trout season and a flower festival both falling on May first. The central character is a good loser (the husband, of course!), as he accompanies his wife to the flower show after elaborate preparations for his fishing trip. Herbert F. Sturdy has deftly woven into the story pattern light, humorous incidents to provide amusing comedy relief from his fine floral closeup studies. Expert camera handling and smooth transitions lend a semi-professional finish to the picture." Movie Makers, Dec. 1948, 493-494.
The film depicts Mayan rites in 1930's Guatemala along with intertitles describing the destruction of Mayan temples by conquerers and the performance of traditional ceremonies at the steps of churches.
"In producing Mexican Fiestas, the Hiram Percy Maxim Award winner of 1938, Ralph E. Gray has written a triumphant climax to his sympathetic and beautiful studies of Mexican life. Last year, in the Ten Best winner, Primitive Patzcuaro, he trained his camera quietly but observingly on the small scope of a single village. This year, in the dynamic sweep and action of Mexican Fiestas, Mr. Gray has ranged the length and breadth of Mexico to record with amazing vitality the thrilling ceremonies of a people at play. Here is an authentic documentation of religious and quasi religious holiday customs, both pagan and Christian. Here the simple mind of the Indian peasant interprets history and theology in his own colorful and often childlike idiom. Here, in the words of the film's own preface, "brave fireworks still exorcise the Devil; bright costumes do honor to the Diety, and exciting dances revive in antic splendor the ancient folklore of Aztec, Moor and Spanish Christian. To this striking and turbulent subject matter, Mr. Gray has brought a photographic skill which but rarely returned him anything less than perfection. The film's episodes, well edited and shrewdly titled, march smoothly onward to an amazing climax of pageantry and beauty. Important as a document of ethnologic value, entertaining as a drama of people at play, Mexican Fiestas is a worthy winner of the Maxim Award for 1938." Movie Makers, Dec. 1938, 596-597.
"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.
"What would have been an excellent film under any circumstances becomes outstanding as a group production. Produced by the Minneapolis Cine Club, it was originally conceived by William S. Block, carried out under the supervision of G. L. Larson, with Earle E. Ibberson in charge of production, while club president Elmer W. Albinson did the final cutting and editing. All members contributed directly to the project, either in filming or by helping to complete the picture. In the film we accompany two teen-agers, a 4-H boy and girl, on a grand tour of the fair, visiting exhibits, marvelling at the livestock show,standing pop-eyed before the midway spectacles, puzzling over the complexities of modern art, gasping at the fireworks display against the night sky. A running gag furnishes comedy relief, while the wholesome charm of our young guides is revealed in a sympathetic and appealing fashion. The members' filming is consistently competent, and deft editing has made Minnesota State Fair a well integrated and thoroughly enjoyable entertainment." Movie Makers, Dec. 1948, 476, 491.
"Under the classification of Home Movie, Van Dee Sickler of Los Angeles was awarded the $50.00 prize for his picture 'Mishcief,' a 16 mm subject in 200 feet. The continuity is evolved around his wife, a Scotch terrier, a cat and a bird. The continuity, titles and photography of this picture were very good." American Cinematographer, Dec. 1934, 376.
"A domestic black comedy, MISTER E expresses some of the edgier mischief and discontent that women of mid-century America could rarely express openly. This short film narrates the revenge acted out by a young wife, left at home while her husband is at a card game; by staging a rendezvous with a mannequin, this woman provokes an eruption of jealousy and violence before bringing about the desired marital tenderness." Chicago Film Archives
"'Moods of Nature' by Paul Brunford, recently won a prize in the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers' contest in England. Not only does Brunford show a fine sense of rhythm, but a keen eye for composition and a splendid sense of cutting and dramatic values in nature. This picture merely deals with a storm arising and then subsiding. Brunford uses both water and earth to show this. The smashing waves, bending trees and waving wheatfields combine to create his drama. His photography however, is something for which he is to be especially congratulated." American Cinematographer, Jan. 1936, 24.
"Charles A. Ferrie, jr., an urban movie maker, has gone back to the land for the beauty and charm of Mother Earth. Here, in carefully filtered and unfailingly well composed shots, he has caught the moist freshness of newly turned soil, the delicate loveliness of waving grain, the quiet dignity of men going about the homely tasks of the farm. His method of subject matter treatment has been to study these things from the outside, as a sensitive spectator, rather than to involve them (and the spectator) in a story told against such backgrounds. Mr. Ferrie's photography is consistently good and often striking, while his sequencing adds much of interest and inspiration to an essentially pastoral subject." Movie Makers, Dec. 1938, 620.
Total Pages: 28
Amateur Cinema