"This time Oscar visited Kyoto during cherry blossom time when all of the art activities are centered about the showy blossoms. Our filmer does take the time to do those not easy to get closeups of the children and grownups as they go about their daily chores. We visit the theatre to see the cherry blossom dance, a fitting symbol of Golden Week in Kyoto" PSA Journal, Nov. 1960, 42.
"The Golden West, as this amateur movie was titled by its maker. whose identifty is lost, tours America's Riviera," as the film rather grandiosely labels the Los Angeles region.... It focuses on public places and seldom the filmmaker's family members, who are onscreen largely to illustrate local customs...." (Scott Simmon) During a ride on a blimp, the filmmaker shoots aerial footage of Los Angeles and area, including some of the local film studios. Other sequences include a visit with B-movie actor George O'Brien, on set at RKO, and a Shriners Parade at the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum, where floodlights illuminate floats representing various Hollywood studios.
The filmmaker is not credited. In archivist Lynne Kirste's commentary for the excerpt in Treasures 5, he is described as an unidentified amateur filmmaker from Pennsylvania.
"...describes a Winter excursion to a popular resort." (Ottawa Journal)
"The First Sunday Winter Excursion to Victoria Beach [Manitoba] of February 25th, 1940. The Community Club. Steam train. Dog sled. Snowshoeing. The ice piled up near Patricia Point. Skiing near Moonlight Inn. Curling on rink behind Inn. Victoria Beach station." (LAC description)
"Local sights and events in the White Rock area, such as parades, celebrations at the International Peace Arch, fashion show, recreational activities, etc." British Columbia Archives.
"Green Hell depicts the adventures of two explorers in the jungle regions of the Amazon. We visit the towns to which there is no road, the only access being by the mighty river. We see the wild animals of the region and meet the people native to the area" PSA Journal, Aug. 1967, 37.
"For years a master movie maker amid the narrow confines of musical comedy and ice show filming, Oscar H. Horovitz has now turned his camera on the less exact yet more exacting problems of the human record picture. Guatemala gives promise of equal accomplishment in this broader field of filming endeavor. The country is colorful and quixotic, its people both gay and grave. Mr. Horovitz records them with straightforward yet stimulating camera skill. Evocative title wordings, tastefully double exposed on a background of native fabric, enhance the pictorial continuity. Marimba music, much of it recorded in Guatemala, rounds out this pleasing presentation. " Movie Makers, Dec. 1948, 493.
"Ralph E. Gray's 1939 entry, Guatemala, the Glorious, is another of those studies of Central American lands for which this fine filmer is noted. No less an ethnologist than a movie maker, Mr. Gray has an insatiable curiosity which always runs to the unusual and striking folkways of the countries he records in Kodachrome. He has found these folkways in Guatemala, as he has found them before in Mexico, and he knows the trick of making them interesting, by a most intelligent interplay of distant, medium and close views. He has footage of the mysterious ceremony at Chichicastenango which has not been obtained before, as he filmed the interior of the church for the first time. Mr. Gray's editing and titling bear evidences of haste, without which his entry would have won higher rating, but, in spite of these, it maintains his high standard of fascinating subject matter expertly presented." Movie Makers, Dec. 1939, 634.
"Opening with a superb trick title in Kodachrome, Guatemalan Rainbow, by the late Ripley W. Bugbee and Robert W. Crowther, carries the audience on an ocean voyage from New York City to the mountain villages of Guatemala, where Mayan mysteries are still celebrated and where the world is a riot of indescribable color. No sequences of the leisure and pleasure of shipboard life have excelled those in this picture. Dexterously, the ritual of afternoon tea was captured with the same finish as if the scenes had been directed in a studio. Active sports and lazy afternoons are recalled in the picture with idyllic beauty. After several minutes of rather less interesting and distinguished footage, the production reaches another high in the presentation of the descendants of the Mayans, whose markets, customs and religious observances are dramatically and expertly chronicled. The whole is accompanied by a satisfactory musical setting." Movie Makers, Dec. 1938, 619.
"To the production of Hail, British Columbia!, Leo J. Heffernan brought the filming talent and the fertile imagination that have marked his previous pictures. But, in this film, he has surpassed himself. He has produced a travelog, a scenic film or a record of British Columbia that covers all the diverse high lights of that province, but which still has unity. He has made a movie that is technically superior to the best theatrical travelogs, and certainly more entertaining. Mr. Heffernan has two great gifts — the capacity to improvise sequences during his travels and the ability to invent amusing and apparently natural episodes that fit the theme of his picture. This latter gift is a dual one, for it includes the ability to direct actors — people whom Mr. Heffernan meets here and there and persuades to "take a part" in his movie. The continuity of Hail, British Columbia! is ingenious and suavely followed. A girl gets off a Canadian train at a way station, where she finds a "Mountie." To him, she puts the problem, "What should I see in British Columbia?" The Mountie is somewhat taken aback, but he gradually recalls things to tell a tourist, and the picture unfolds his story. Heffernan like, there is a surprise twist at the end, which we shall not spoil by telling. Discussion of Hail, British Columbia! would be incomplete without at least a mention of the magnificent logging sequence, the clever camera work in presenting a story of a bicycle ride, the beautiful scenic shots and Canada's blondes! This picture has everything!" Movie Makers, Dec. 1941, 541.
Total Pages: 44
Amateur Cinema