Reviews of film ephemera, including such things as educational films, industrial films, military and propaganda films, tv commercials, movie trailers, shorts, experimental films, and movies made for non-mainstream audiences.
Atlantic Crossing: Life on an Ocean Liner. In this 60s film, 3 young boys are put on an ocean liner bound for Italy for no other purpose, it seems, than to make an educational film. One of them narrates the film, and he gets the pleasure of having a grand tour of everything passengers normally don’t get to see, such as the bridge, the crew mess, the kitchens, and the boiler room. When not getting this tour, the boys engage in various recreational activities on board the ship, such as playing ping-pong, watching trap shooters, walking through the ballroom while people are dancing, and participating in a hat party (though they don’t tell us whose was the grandest of all). They eventually make it to Italy and are greeted warmly by their Italian grandparents. This is pretty much a slice of upper-class life in the 60s.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ***.
Better Reading
Better Reading . Teenager Harold Wilson has a problem—he can’t read for (expletive deleted). So he has to spend all his free time studying ...
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Base Brawl (film #5 on Cartoon Sing-Along DVD (PC Treasures, 2006)). At the zoo animals’ baseball game, the elephant team is pulverizing a...
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Fools of Fate (film #12 on The Origins of Cinema, Volume 4: The Arrival of D. W. Griffith (Video Yesteryear, 1995)). Fools is right. Our h...
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American Falls from Above, American Side (film #9 on Edison Film Archive ). [Category: Early Film & TV] This is most likely the first ho...