"In July 1956, the five-member Barstow family of Wethersfield, Connecticut, won a free trip to newly-opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in a nationwide contest. This 30-minute amateur documentary film tells the fabulous story of their fun-filled, dream-come-true, family travel adventure, filmed on the scene at Walt Disney's 'Magic Kingdom' by Robbins Barstow." Archive.org
"The immaculate camera work, incisive editing and attractive titling of Frank E. Gunnell have flowered into a new and superior beauty in Down Mexico Way. Here, in two full reels which seem like less, are all the standard Mexican Meccas — the capital city, the pyramids of Teotihuacan, Cuernavaca and the rest — each suavely sequenced and beautifully filmed. Added to these is a wealth of human interest, in smoothly planned records of such odd Mexican folklore as the self threaded needle cut from a maguey cactus, or the red dye concealed in the silvery cochineal wood louse. Mr. Gunnell's most superb triumphs, however, are in his moody and magnificent studies of Xochimilco and Taxco, Mexican communities which have beckoned to countless movie makers, but which only a few have answered with genuine eloquence and distinction." Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 563-564.
"Down Mexico Way, by Lester F. Shaal. is a pleasing combination of travel, education and simple, stirring beauty. Beginning at the Providence (R. I.) railway station (the producer's home city), the film takes us swiftly by train to Mexico, D. F., the country's capital. After a tour of that metropolis, one visits in turn such popular tourist meccas as Xochimilco, San Juan Teotihuacan, Cuernavaca, Toluca, Taxco and others. An attractive map of Mexico, in color, introduces these several journeys and makes clear the geographical relations of the different towns. Mr. Shaal's camera work is tripod steady throughout, his compositions are pleasing and his musical scoring is an effective supplement. Of outstanding beauty are his sequences on golden, sunny Taxco and of the ancient, so often cloud shrouded, twin volcanos." Movie Makers, Dec. 1944, 495-496.
"'Eclipse over Peru,' a Cinecoles picture made by Charles Coles when he went with the Hayden Planetarium expedition to Peru for the total eclipse last year, is a gorgeous bit of colored travelogue" American Cinematographer, April, 1938, 173.
"Film record of a journey to Egypt and a four day holiday in Cairo. The film begins at Croydon Airport, recording the activities of the ground crew and the arrival and departure of two Imperial Airways planes, the Heracles and the Hengist. The film records a stopover in Crete on the journey to Cairo where the plane is moored close to a yacht. The final section of the film records street scenes in Cairo and an excursion to the Great Pyramid and Sphinx, returning to the city by Marg and Old Heliopolis." East Anglian Film Archive.
"Ruth Stuart's Travel picture 'Egypt and Back With Imperial Airways,' was not only a fine example of consistent photography, but also showed a keen knowledge of editing and cutting that let the pictue breeze along in an entertaining fashion." American Cinematographer, Dec. 1933, 321.
"Documentary. The holidays of two young children, Heidi and Erika, in the area of the Danube. Shots of the landscape, bathing, playing with animals, visits to the abbey at Melk and a castle" (EAFA Database).
"W. R. C. Corson, close friend of the late Hiram Percy Maxim, FACL, Founder of the Amateur Cinema League, and for several years an invalid, demonstrates his loyalty to the cause of personal filming and his determination to achieve in that field by a revision of travel footage made in a more active period. As its name might indicate. Elysium is a remembrance of happier days, containing sequences chosen for their beauty or evocation of delightful times, and haphazardly geographical. Scenes filmed from the air are interspersed with records of faraway places as Mr. and Mrs. Corson are seen wandering here and there. Here is the gallant and intrepid accomplishment of a pioneer movie maker who is still "in the game."" Movie Makers, Dec. 1944. 496.
"Stretching for more than a thousand miles along Australia's northeastern coast stands the Great Barrier Reef, a vast agglomeration of tide-swept coral islands and islets. For mariners who have threaded their way through these perilous formations, they hold little of enchantment. But to Alfred T. Bartlett (who confines his camera to the Whitsunday group) they are such stuff as dreams are made on — and he has portrayed them thus in The Enchanted Isles. Mr. Bartlett's canvas is a rich one, comprising all of the classic elements of romance: the sun-drenched strand, the nodding palms, the lovely girls and, always and ever-present, the clean blue of the sky and the yet-deeper blue of the circumambient waters. He has painted these elements both in large, lush compositions and with observing attention to the minutiae of vibrant life around him. Even his colors (via the magic of the pola screen) are richly sensuous in their depth of saturation. An unabashedly romantic narrative ("Have you ever dreamed a secret dream?" is the opening line) rounds out this affectionate and interpretive travel study." Movie Makers, Dec. 1953, 333-334.
"Warren Doremus might have made in his Escape just one more film about Niagara Falls. But he did not. Instead, with unerring instinct, he has blended music (Wagner's Liebestod) with emotional imagery to produce a very nearly perfect small work of art. His secret seems to be great brevity and even greater selectivity. In a film as short as this, flaws show up more strongly than in longer works. Escape has its flaws, particularly in a series of opening scenes presumably supposed to set the mood before the film proper begins. To these reviewers these shots do not seem quite suited to the main theme, and lack of musical accompaniment makes them a bit pointless. But Escape survives as a fresh and moving treatment of a very old subject." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 453-454.
"'Europa Touring,' winner in the scenic class, was a 'honey' in any man's language. It was the film handiwork of Ellis M. Yarnell and C. Y. Kimball of Redondo Beach, Cal.; and was the story of a tour of Northern Europe, where the summer grass, as in northern countries, really is green — which last remark of course tells you the subject was in color. The two men have been making amateur motion pictures for seven years. Yarnell is a member of the Delta Kappa Alpha, Cinema Fraternity, U.S.C., and Kimball of the Amateur Cinema League." American Cinematographer, Jan. 1938, 28.
Total Pages: 44
Amateur Cinema