"Opening with a superb trick title in Kodachrome, Guatemalan Rainbow, by the late Ripley W. Bugbee and Robert W. Crowther, carries the audience on an ocean voyage from New York City to the mountain villages of Guatemala, where Mayan mysteries are still celebrated and where the world is a riot of indescribable color. No sequences of the leisure and pleasure of shipboard life have excelled those in this picture. Dexterously, the ritual of afternoon tea was captured with the same finish as if the scenes had been directed in a studio. Active sports and lazy afternoons are recalled in the picture with idyllic beauty. After several minutes of rather less interesting and distinguished footage, the production reaches another high in the presentation of the descendants of the Mayans, whose markets, customs and religious observances are dramatically and expertly chronicled. The whole is accompanied by a satisfactory musical setting." Movie Makers, Dec. 1938, 619.
"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.
"For years a master movie maker amid the narrow confines of musical comedy and ice show filming, Oscar H. Horovitz has now turned his camera on the less exact yet more exacting problems of the human record picture. Guatemala gives promise of equal accomplishment in this broader field of filming endeavor. The country is colorful and quixotic, its people both gay and grave. Mr. Horovitz records them with straightforward yet stimulating camera skill. Evocative title wordings, tastefully double exposed on a background of native fabric, enhance the pictorial continuity. Marimba music, much of it recorded in Guatemala, rounds out this pleasing presentation. " Movie Makers, Dec. 1948, 493.
Un hombre vaga por las calles de un pueblo buscando tabaco en botes de basura o en el camino. Al entrar a un bar, un hombre nota que está buscando algo, por lo que lanza tabaco al suelo y cuando el primero se agacha a recogerlo, el otro lo tira al suelo mientras todos en el bar se ríen de él. Al regresar al cuarto en el que vive, otro hombre se encuentra ahí descansando. Los hombres tienen una breve conversación sobre cuándo se irá el otro, mientras que este da una excusa y le pide algo de tabaco al primer hombre. El primero se niega y le dice que el tabaco es muy difícil de conseguir, provocando la ira del segundo, quien decide asesinarlo apuñalándolo por la espalda. Después de enterrar su cuerpo, vuelve al cuarto donde se siente culpable y después de llorar por un rato, decide suicidarse.
A man wanders the streets of a town looking for tobacco in trash cans or the road, he enters a bar and a man notices that he is looking for something, he throws some tobacco on the floor and when the first man tries to reach it, he shoves him to the floor while the rest of the men in the bar laugh at him. When he goes back to the room he lives in, there is another man there resting. They have a small conversation about when the man lying down will leave, he gives an excuse and then asks the other for some tobacco. The first man refuses and tells him it is too hard to get, provoking the anger of the second one who then he chooses to kill him by stabbing him in the back. After burying his body he goes back and feels guilty, after crying for some time, he chooses to kill himself.
"A humorous film about group exercises and volleyball at the Turnverein gymnasium, Portland, Oregon. Produced by "Miller Picture Corruption Ink" under the auspices of the Amateur Cinema League, probably as a Christmas present for Miller's friends. Appearing: Members of the Portland Turnverein." Oregon Historical Society.
"A story of an orange grower's everyday life, of his unending battle with pests." American Cinematographer, Nov. 1940, 498.
"A delightful film of the home is A Greene Christmas, produced by Mildred Greene. Here is a record of a domestic Christmas that may well serve as an exemplar to other movie makers who are tempted to wander far afield. No startling new stunts in technique or effects of continuity are displayed, yet the film is so homelike, pleasant and sincere that it commands recognition as an achievement. Naturally, however, all departments which contribute to the completion of the film are more than adequately handled. The interior lighting, which resulted in perfectly exposed color shots in the familiar home settings, is noteworthy. Special recognition should be accorded the successful, well exposed shots of the subjects out of doors at night in one sequence. All the actors, members of her immediate family and friends, including the producer, were naturally and pleasantly shown, but the palm for outstanding characterization must go to Miss Greene's mother, who played the part of herself in a most delightful and unaffected way. The preparation of the color titles for this film deserves special mention because of their perfect exposure, fine backgrounds and outstanding arrangement of metal script letters. (Miss Greene tells about making A Greene Christmas in Stretching Christmas, in this number of Movie Makers.)" Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 609.
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema