Around the World in California (1947) User Reviews

A look at the variety of settings offered by California...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 26 October 2008]

A typical James A. FitzPatrick "TravelTalk" illustrates how much variety there is in California, which is why it can be used for so many settings by Hollywood's filmmakers.

We glimpse sand dunes stretching across the desert and now traversed by a modern highway; vineyards as a result of irrigation that produces a large portion of the world's grapes; date trees that provide sheltering palms; the City Hall area of Beverly Hills; Spanish and English architecture; ranches in open country, especially one owned by Leo Carrillo, Spanish character actor; and finally a look at Chinatown and its many tourist shops, as well as a Mexican street near the border where we see a man working on vases at a potter's wheel.

The brief tour is over before you know it but it does give an indication of the variety of the terrain in California.

Traveling Around Home

[boblipton · 5/10 · 19 June 2019]

James Fitzpatrick's Traveltalks takes us from the studio's home base in California to colorful and exotic..... well, California.

Of course, this series, as well as similar travelogues had, for forty years, taken the audience to foreign lands. However, during the Second World War, when foreign travel was difficult unless you were with the army -- in which case, you didn't get to choose what land you would visit -- a lot of these travelogues concerned themselves with states of the Union. California had been welcoming tourists since the late 1860s, when people would get off the train in San Francisco, ask "What's there to see?" and be directed to the Emperor Norton By the 1940s, the wealth that the movie, oil and aircraft industries had brought to the state meant that a lot of people came to California. So why not see what the state had to offer?

Toward the close of this party-line propaganda piece . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 3 January 2020]

. . . emanating from the Pachyderm's House of the Groaning Fat Cat One Per Centers, the objective of the Corrupt Corporate Communist\Capitalist Wealth Hoarders becomes clear with the self-proclaimed "Voice of the Globe's" grudging admission that Los Angeles MAY need to allow a couple thousand Spanish-speaking people to reside within its city limits "for old times sake." He suggests that these 20 hundred villagers could be confined to a "Mexican Quarter" in which they would sell trinkets to well-heeled if wan tourists! Just think: IF the money moguls backing AROUND THE WORLD IN CALIFORNIA had achieved their ethnic cleansing objective hinted at here, L.A.'s population Today would be AT LEAST five million less than it is! Not content with merely promoting a pale face nationalist agenda, the bloviating bozo behind this series also takes a crack at hastening the looming aquifer depletion catastrophe then stalking the America Southwest by boosting the "benefits" of unsustainable irrigation atrocities. Confusing the adjective "scientific" with "beneficial," the naïve narrator sounds a lot like the dinner guest button-holing "Dustin Hoffman" during THE GRADUATE as he extols the virtues of filling the World's oceans with wee little bits of "plastics."

Fitzpatrick Travel Talk

[CitizenCaine · 9 October 2011]

James A. Fitzpatrick was a documentary producer who filmed brief travelogue type scenarios highlighting different cities/cultures/regions of the world, etc. Over some four decades from the silent era through the mid 1950's, Fitzpatrick made a few hundred of these films which were screened during the heyday of Hollywood when newsreels and cartoons were also shown. One of the hallmarks of Fitzpatrick's films was the beautiful Technicolor. This MGM film features California, circa 1947. Fitzpatrick showcases the sand dunes near the Arizona border, irrigation, vineyards, date trees, Hans Ort's cycle tours in Beverly Hills, the variety of architecture, a surprise visit with western actor Leo Carrillo at his ranch, and the oldest church, Chinatown, and the Mexican vendors of Olvera Street in Los Angeles. ** of 4 stars.

Two TravelTalk shorts

[Michael_Elliott · 26 April 2008]

Mediterranean Ports of Call (1941)

** (out of 4)

Around the World in California (1947)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Two short's from MGM's TravelTalk series with both being shown in Technicolor. The first film tells the early bloody history of Algiers, the city of Monte Carlo and other historic sites including the infamous Suicide Rock. The second short shows us California and how various locations there are just like many other famous cities across the world. From the deserts to the forests to Hollywood, the short shows off why you can find just about anything in the state. As I've said countless times before when reviewing these TravelTalk films, they are certainly a product of their time as they've certainly been bypassed by better documents of these places but both of these shorts remain mildly entertaining on a history level. The California episode is clearly the best as it nicely breaks down the state and how it is like so many other places. The first film is decent but we really don't get to learn too much about any of the places it covers.