BY JETTISONING ANY and all vestiges of humor, this is one PETE SMITH SPECIALITY which has deadly serious objectives as well as a very important story to tell. You will not find even one on-screen physical sight gag, nor any of that verbal jujitsu that is practiced in just about all of the series entries by "a Smith named Pete!"
QUITE TO THE contrary, in this edition, we have a little picture that today's PBS Series NOVA or NATURE would be proud to number among their own product. The picture's sincerity and excellent use of its limited one reel of screen time. If there is a fault in it as viewed today, it would be that so much of the technology exhibited is quite outdated; which is obvious, inasmuch as the movie predated World War II (being released in 1939).
THE SHORT SUBJECT was directed by a young Fred Zinnemann; whose future successes would include HIGH NOON, FROM GERE TO ETERNITY, THE SUNDOWNERS and so many more. It was no doubt his idea to dramatize THE WEATHER WIZARDS with the story revolving around the plight of a Northern California family of fruit farmers to save their crop from ruination via a sudden cold snap and sudden frost.
QUITE TO THE contrary, in this edition, we have a little picture that today's PBS Series NOVA or NATURE would be proud to number among their own product. The picture's sincerity and excellent use of its limited one reel of screen time. If there is a fault in it as viewed today, it would be that so much of the technology exhibited is quite outdated; which is obvious, inasmuch as the movie predated World War II (being released in 1939).
THE SHORT SUBJECT was directed by a young Fred Zinnemann; whose future successes would include HIGH NOON, FROM GERE TO ETERNITY, THE SUNDOWNERS and so many more. It was no doubt his idea to dramatize THE WEATHER WIZARDS with the story revolving around the plight of a Northern California family of fruit farmers to save their crop from ruination via a sudden cold snap and sudden frost.