"'Red Clouds Rides Again,' the 8mm picture by Dr. Loscher which was given first prize, was based on a poem that dealt with the pioneers crossing the desert. Its main action had to do with a wagon train being attacked by Indians. The manner in which Dr. Loscher handled this sequence would have done credit to a studio production. With only one wagon, three horses and six people at his command, he made it look like a production employing more in the way of properties and talent. His angles, his composition and his cutting are things for every amateur to observe. His story could have easily become hackneyed by poor cutting and editing, but he kept it moving at a fine tempo." American Cinematographer, Jan. 1936, 24.
A theatrical-dance version of Snow White performed at the Blue Hill Country Club in coastal Maine.
"To film the story made famous by Walt Disney is a major assignment. Snow White, a pretty young miss, did her part exceedingly well. This is very important- she is with us for fifty-two minutes, and we are happy for our visit with her. The Seven Dwarfs are a collection of small fry and here the film had some of the problems of amateur actors. The picture is done to the sound track of Disney's Snow White. A story for young and old and, if we will look beyond some of the little things that could be better, a delightful bit of entertainment for all of us" PSA Journal, Nov. 1960, 40.
"In a few days of doldrums before being called for training in the Army Signal Corps, David S. Bradley, presiding genius of Bradley Productions, scenarized, cast, costumed, filmed and directed a screen version of Sredni Vashtar, a short story by Saki. running 800 feet of 16mm. monochrome, the picture is the eighth in the series to be produced by this unusual amateur unit of Winnetka, Ill. having been directly preceded by Peer Gynt and Oliver Twist. It will be Mr. Bradley's last production until after the war. Working with him on Sredni Vashtar was John Jameson, assistant director, with the small cast played by Mrs. Herbert Hyde, Lucielle Powell, Lois Northrop and Reny Kidd, all Bradley Production veterans", Movie Makers, Apr. 1943,158.
"Working still in the same lyric mood which inspired In The Beginning and Consider The Lilies (place winners of earlier years), Fred C. Ells has turned this year to the Twenty Third Psalm for the theme of Still Waters. In it, to use his own words, he has tried "to bring to mind some of the beauties of the natural world, and to make the spectator conscious in some small way of the mysterious, wonderfully planned creation in which we live. The picture is pure lyric from start to finish, with no more continuity than a love song." Mr. Ells has, on occasion, been thrillingly successful in fulfilling this high charge, bringing to the screen some of the most stirring beauty it would seem possible to recreate. The cumulative effect of the relatively short study, however, is weakened by imperfect technique in the preparation of the Biblical title wordings." Movie Makers, Dec. 1938, 620.
"Sweetheart Roland comes to us from Grimm's Fairy Tales and depicts a grandmother reading the story to a young child of perhaps three years while the latter imagines just what the tale would have been like in real life. This gives the producer sufficient latitude to act out the story with his characters much as the youngster might imagine it. Synched dialog of the actors with the narrator's voice is a clever innovation seldom seen on the amateur screen" PSA Journal, Sept. 1966, 34.
"An honorable mention in the 35 millimeter division went to Thomas Fisher, of 410 Semple Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., for his grim and Barrymorish study of Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' Mr. Fisher played two parts, displayed no little skill in make-up and worked out an interesting, if gory, film." Photoplay, Jun. 1928, 137.
"In a setting of props prepared for the purpose and with the aid of makeup, Albert Bahcall has filmed the Tell-Tale Heart, adapted from the story by Edgar Allen Poe. The "old man" with a strong heart also has a protruding eye that annoys the manservant to a point beyond restraint. There is an effective use of color, moving feet and hands, and closeup of faces to sharpen the impact of the story" PSA Journal, Nov. 1957, 53.
"The TellTale Heart is a 1928 American silent film directed by Charles F. Klein, based on the short story by E.A. Poe. This experimental, avant-garde film used many new techniques and influenced a series of cinematic Poe renditions in both the United States and France, including The Fall of the House of Usher by M. Webber, made in the same year. The two films have many aesthetic similarities, although the narrative in The TellTale Heart is significantly less abstract. The music underscoring the work creates a parallel drama to the events unfolding on the screen. After the title sequence, some of the text from the original short story is projected to foreshadow the gruesome events to follow. A still of the Old Man's eye is layered on the top of this scrolling text, accompanied by the first statement of the “Vulture Eye Chord”, which continues to come back as a leitmotif throughout the score. Also prominent is the leitmotif for our narrator, which takes the shape of a disturbingly quick and easily unhinged "Death Waltz". Upon strangling the Old Man for his vulture eye, the waltz quickly dissolves into a quick 5/8 section, dignifying the beating of a heart, which gradually slows. After two detectives come to investigate the scene, the narrator having initially been successful in covering up his deceit, the underscoring reveals to us that he's been tortured by his deeds as the two leitmotifs emerge from an otherwise calm texture. After hearing the beating of the Old Man's heart beneath the floorboards, the narrator admits to his sin and reveals the body at the end of the film" Center for Fiction, NY.
"C. Manley DeBevoise continues, in That All the Earth May Know, the development of his special field of the exposition of Bible stories in film. Here is the tale of the tortured Saul, the worried Samuel and the God sent David — musician and warrior. Since the film is made by a Sunday School class, it is prefaced by a statement from the class's teacher that a "success story" of long ago will be presented. The actor who portrays Samuel achieves real dignity and importance: others are sufficiently convincing with very hard assignments. Costumes and sets are contrived excellently, and a Long Island, N. Y., locale does not seem to be out of place in the film. Mr. DeBevoise solved one problem by purely cinematic methods. He showed the combat of the Jews and the Philistines, but the Sunday School class did not run to an army. With six or seven couples in actual hand to hand fighting, these become an apparent host by multiple exposure. Mr. DeBevoise improves each year in direction, cinematography and in the greater sincerity of his actors' work." Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 566.
Total Pages: 5
Amateur Cinema