"Animated figures have seldom been presented with such meticulous technique and in such clever situations as are executed by Clifford Bach in Breakfast in Bed. A perfectionist to the last twitch of an eyebrow, Mr. Bach has achieved exceptional realism in the movements of his small figures by painstaking frame by frame exposure and expressive camera viewpoints. His story follows the efforts of a cocky little cockatoo, Windy, to prepare breakfast for his master, Professor Whiffle. Windy's ingenuity overcomes all obstacles in a series of neatly motivated and genuinely amusing "gags." Mr. Bach's persistence and eye for design indicate a bright future in the field of animated movies." Movie Makers, Dec. 1947, 536.
"The very great faculty of Robert P. Kehoe for seeing natural beauty and giving it an individual and entirely original expression in film enables him, in Brookside, to reach a new height in cinematography, because he has added to that faculty an attention to the business of continuity. Like Tennyson's Brook, Mr. Kehoe"s film starts to go somewhere, keeps going and gets there, while we who watch the going see, by the brookside, some of the loveliest — but tripodless — footage of water, flowers and woodland that any landscapist could want to come by. The final sequence of Mr. Kehoe's picture has a tragic tenderness that is almost too poignant, since he has filmed the funeral progress down the darting brook of a lustrous butterfly that ventured too close to the water and was sucked into it. With wings outspread, the little body goes past us into '"yesterday's ten thousand years" as the film ends." Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 565.
"considering the obvious difficulty of getting anywhere near the subject to be photographed, is an amazing piece of work, as regards photography, choice of shots, continuity, cutting, and editing. It is no exaggeration to say that a professional could have done no better. The whole grim business of the fight is depicted in a vivid and realistic manner, and but for the fact that the Censor and general public are averse to witnessing spectacles of this type of picture, if enlarged to standard size, could be shown in the cinemas" (Hill 1931: 7).
"The late and unlamented war kept amateur movie makers — along with the rest of peripatetic America — pretty close to their backyards. Robert S. Walker is one who has made this restriction pay dividends. The result is Butterflies, a charming study of these winged wanderers of blossomland. Those filmers who have ventured into the field of extreme closeup work will understand and applaud the patient skill with which Mr. Walker got wellnigh perfect results in recording each new specimen. Rhymed quatrains serve, with the scenes, to create a film of light and airy entertainment." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 496.
"Warren S. Doremus has evinced fresh imagination in The Call of the Lonely Wood, a dramatic story of a venture into the unknown by a young man who has only a sketchy map to guide him. He fails of his goal on the first attempt, but he sets out once more after recovery from exposure and exhaustion. The hurdles he overcomes and the excitement of his discovery of each of the three triangles that serve as clews are convincingly pictured and supplemented by a well written narrative that is dramatically presented. Interesting dissolve effects support the mysterious quality of the film's theme, and suspense is maintained by excellent cutting and editing. A well rounded musical score was arranged by Arthur Brown, and Robert Carabell played the main role with competence." Movie Makers, Dec. 1944, 494-495.
"A young girl and an Australian terrier named Frisco are the ingredients of Calling Frisco, a sound on film story in which the speech is mostly from the dog's point of view. The film flows smoothly through typical scenes of a day's activities of eating and going to market and playing, ending in a dramatic climax in which Frisco protects his young mistress by warning off an intruder. Imaginative viewpoints and pleasant interior lighting are employed throughout. The dog's simple tricks are well pictured without being obtrusive, while the scene in which a bouncing ball lands in a goldfish tank, with its accompanying sound track, has the creative fantasy of Disney. Cyril Stevens has made a jolly film. " Movie Makers, Dec. 1948, 493.
"R. B. Clardy's 8mm picture 'Cattle Country' in 200 feet showed a consistency of photograpy, a fine understanding of composition and a smoothness of continuity that might have done justice to an experienced professional. Especially worthy of comment were his titles. Because of his outstanding work Clardy was given the gold medal for Scenario Pictures as well as the gold medal for Photography." American Cinematographer, Dec. 1933, 321.
"In the tradition of Carl Akeley and the late Martin Johnson is the humorously titled but essentially serious film, Charlie, the Zulu Game Guard, by Esther and Vincent Vermooten. Stalking rhinos, both black and white, in the Hluhluwe Reserve of British South Africa, Dr. and Mrs. Vermooten, accompanied by the game guard Charlie, managed to capture on film a series of incomparable studies of the beasts in their native habitat. The circumstances must have been difficult, the pursuit undoubtedly dangerous, but Dr. Vermooten used a tripod throughout and succeeded, despite obvious trials of climate and heat, in getting perfect color rendition. This fact, added to the well planned continuity of the film, makes it an outstanding accomplishment of its kind." Movie Makers, Dec. 1940, 602.
A documentary film demonstrating how learning and education in the classroom can be supported by an engagement with the local community and natural history.
"Christmas Nuts, presented with a sound on film recording on a separate 16mm. film, produced by Paul Braun and Howard Goodman, is not only an interior color picture of exceptional beauty and impeccable technical quality but is also one of the best puppet films thus far created. With a camera technique paralleling that of the latest theatrical, animated talkie cartoons, the story of a wolf "hijacking" Santa Claus and the consequent near calamity for the two squirrels is unfolded in a completely cinematic fashion. The camera moves freely from medium shot to closeup, the mechanics of the sets are not obstrusive and the puppets move with agility and grace. The sets, which were designed and constructed with great care, are very handsome and exquisitely finished so that no imperfections are revealed in the enlarged picture of them on the screen. The sets, in combination with the colored lights used in part to illuminate them, embody the producers' theory of "created color." That is, no attempt is made to simulate nature, but rather to produce pleasing, vivid color combinations, as in the illustrations of a child's story book. A cleverly compiled dialog, song and music accompaniment has been synchronized with the picture, although recorded, at present, on a separate film." Movie Makers, Dec. 1935, 534.
Total Pages: 19
Amateur Cinema