"In Two Weeks, W. W. Champion has contrived that rare and refreshing thing — a personal record picture implicit with general human interest. Telling the story of a fortnight's pack trip with friends through Yosemite, the film gets off to a flying start with a delightfully detailed sequence of camp preparations. With complete naturalness, we are made acquainted with each of the vacation party. When, in good time, they set off down the trail, we feel quite sure that these people will prove of more interest than the locales that they will visit. Mr. Champion does not disappoint us, as he continues with an adroitly spun pattern of personalities and places. Crisp, steady and effectively angled, the photography of the film, in both monochrome and color, is of able assistance to the imaginative treatment." Movie Makers, Dec. 1936, 542.
"Under the Maple Leaf, by Hamilton H. Jones, ACL, is a partially refilmed and entirely reedited version of last year's award winner, Canadian Capers. A splendid picture a year ago, its new and additional sequences now bring to the film a photographic beauty plainly of the very first rank. A sequence of the morning mist rising from a lake deserves particular mention. Mr. Jones's considerable skill with his camera has increased in stature and may not yet have reached its full flowering. For this accomplishment his work has been given a place of honor in these selections. In the reluctant estimation of the judges, however, the editing and cutting of Under the Maple Leaf so far lagged behind its generally matchless beauty as to rob the film of its fullest emotional power. This factor only prevented Mr. Jones from repeating this year his full triumph of a year ago." Movie Makers, Dec. 1933, 523-524.
"'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.
"Sometime during the summer of 1950, Fred Evans, L. A.'s genial maestro of 8mm movies, arranged to pick up a new Nash sedan in Grand Rapids, Mich. What better excuse need there be for packing up his two Southern California sons and taking them East to meet the land of their forefathers? Which is exactly what he did in Vacation Highlights of 1950. The lead title is commonplace, perhaps almost banteringly so; but the film footage which follows it is not. Niagara Falls, his native Vermont, Concord, Lexington, New York, Philadelphia and Washington are on the Evans itinerary of American history. There is a rewarding stop at the St. Louis zoo — for its incomparable Sunday shows — and soon the Evans are home again. But not without one final twist to the tale. "Hey, look-out here, Pop!" urges the oldest offspring as he returns from scouting the premises. The family cat, with inimitable feline pride and savoir faire has had kittens." Movie Makers, Dec. 1951, 410.
"Vigeland on Life is a poetic study of the work of Gustav Vigeland, famous Norwegian sculptor. The narrator reads passages from the poetry of Kahlil Bigran, selecting excerpts from "The Prophet" while on the screen the camera gives us several dozen glimpses of Vigeland's statuary" PSA Journal, Sept. 1965, 50.
Travelogue exploring the history, sights, and people of the Virgin Islands.
"A day in the life of a man who is in much of a hurry to get somewhere. As he travels along his hurried way we are right in there enjoying his anxious moments as he transfers from one public conveyance to another. We are of course much relieved when we learn that he has arrived in good time" PSA Journal, Nov. 1959, 48.
"Western Holiday offered one of those thrills in the sequence of sunrise on Mount Robson. Here Kodachrome caught, with what seemed magic, the first rosy glow on the cold, blue snow, which the continuity of photographic motion permitted to increase, to blossom and, finally, to blaze into a chromatic crown of jewels. To see this on the screen is to enjoy a rare experience. Hamilton H. Jones, in the highly intelligent cutting of his train sequences, gave the student of continuity another of these thrills. Those who are charmed by double turntable accompaniment will recognize the perfection with which an almost impossibly difficult feat of lip synchronization with record scoring has been handled. These are some of the higher spots in a film of unusually high general average. Mr. Jones is a Kodachrome movie maker of proved ability, who has made editing a special art. The film chosen for the first Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Award will be used by Mr. Jones in his work as a lecturer on the vacation advantages of the Dominion of Canada, although it was made as his own enterprise, entirely at his own expense and not for compensation from a client. It is a part of his professional equipment. Briefly reviewed, Western Holiday carries the audience, via Canadian National Railways, from Victoria, Canada's most westerly metropolis, across the Rocky Mountains back to the Eastern Seaboard. Beginning with city views in Victoria and Vancouver, with strikingly colorful parades of the famous Canadian Mounted Police, we visit tourist centers and make trail trips from them. The camera goes into the interior of a glacier, it finds mountain goats and sheep, it clambers over the Continental Divide on horseback. All through the trip, it studies the progress of trains, weaving in and out of tunnels and over bridges. In his personal presentations of this film, Mr. Jones manipulates effects, such as whistles, bells, train noises and other oddments, with something approaching wizardry. In the face of competition of the highest order, Western Holiday is its own justification of preferment." Movie Makers, Dec. 1937, 602.
"Sidney Moritz likes to record the few vestiges that remain in this rapidly changing country of the days that were. After earlier voyages on an Ohio River "sternwheeler," he made two cruises on the Mattie, an old schooner that now hugs the New England coast and carries vacationers. In Windjammer there is cinematic beauty, with delightful scenes of masts and sails. There is also a detailed and very human record of the way in which the holiday makers — who also help with the ship's chores — enjoy a recreation both salty and salubrious. One is sure that they and the ship's crew — including grim old Captain Grant — had a grand time. Mr. Moritz must have had one, also, if his gay footage reflects his mood." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 497.
Total Pages: 14
Amateur Cinema