"Donald H. Kelly has cast a comic strip character in Superman Goes West, integrating travel sequences and comedy with great success. While the magnificent cinematographic record of a Western trip is the most engaging factor of the film, the entertainment value of the Superman motif cannot be minimized. The fictional hero is shown to be the consuming interest of a small boy passenger on the trip. The lad proceeds to read Superman comics under varying conditions, despite a changing background of allegedly awe inspiring scenery. One dream sequence with a Superman flavor is a triumph of trick cinematography." Movie Makers, Dec. 1943, 478.
"Edward F. Cross covered an extensive territory of national parks and vacation spots in the Southwest and Western sectors of the United States and has brought back an attractively filmed record of his tour. Unique rock formations have been pictured from well chosen vantage points to make the most of light and shadow. This Land of Ours is climaxed by particularly colorful units in a rodeo's grand parade and a dexterous camera handling of Indian dances. A full narrative indicates careful research to supplement the scenes on the screen." Movie Makers, Dec. 1947, 539.
"Color film of the Turner children go a 'family' vacation. The children dressed as Ma, Pa, and child push a push cart to the Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah." Church History Library.
"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.
Stan Midgley travels by bicycle through Utah in this "chucklelogue."
"The Utah Trail is what its producers call a "Cine Musical." In it, Al Morton and his wife have attempted to illustrate in movies a ballad which charmed them and to pay tribute pictorially to a region which they loved. They have been largely successful. The film's continuity is fluid and well integrated; the camera work is uniformly excellent and the double exposed color titles add greatly to the picture's feeling of competence and craftsmanship. Perhaps the Mortons' finest achievement in this production is the care and intelligence with which they have cut their footage to fit the ballad of their choice. The Utah Trail is a charming and colorful tribute to a well loved land." Movie Makers, Dec. 1942, 508.
Educational short film showing farming in California, and several mines and ghost towns in Nevada.
"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.
"Edited footage of western scenery on a road trip to Yellowstone Park. Includes scenes of camping and numerous landscapes, Mount Rushmore and the various grounds of Yellowstone with their hot springs and geysers." Chicago Film Archives
Total Pages: 6
Amateur Cinema