Scenic Grandeur (1941) User Reviews

Accent on beautiful Alaskan scenery...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 29 June 2010]

This one of the better Technicolor entries in the James A. FitzPatrick Travel Talk series, with the accent on the natural beauties of Alaska.

While it starts out on what appears to be a tropical paradise in Jamaica, it soon turns its focus on the winter beauty of Alaska and spends most of its nine minutes contemplating outdoor scenery in that icy wonderland.

The other aspect of this short that makes it worth watching is the soundtrack, composed of some nicely orchestrated music. Otherwise, there's nothing to especially recommend about viewing it except that the print shown on TCM was of better than usual quality.

there was ice

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 15 January 2022]

It's the war years and TravelTalks is staying within the U. S. of A. They travel to the northwest and delivers exactly scenic grandeur. It can't deliver the exotic but the view is still pretty good. The glaciers have all receded today and some are probably gone by now. So it's good to have them still on film. I can do without the eerie music. Give me something more majestic although the eerie music may be saying that these are ghost ice from the past, never to be seen again.

Lots Of Snow

[boblipton · 5/10 · 15 January 2022]

The Second World War was raging in the rest of the world -- indeed, the US declared war a week before this Fitzpatrick Traveltalk was released -- and so James A. FItzpatrick wasn't sending the Technicolor cameras on any globe-circling journeys. North to Alaska and the Cascades was far enough, thank you very much!

Fitzpatrick's spiel, usually showing off his owning a thesaurus, seems a bit more heartfelt about the works of G*d than the works of man. I wonder if he reworked it between Pearl Harbor and the travelogue's release.

TravelTalks

[Michael_Elliott · 23 January 2012]

Scenic Grandeur (1941)

*** (out of 4)

One of the best entries in MGM's TravelTalks series takes us to see Mount Saint Helens, Spirit Lake in Washington and then we get a boat trip to see Columbia Glasier. James A. FitzPatrick once again narrates but he really doesn't have too much to say. We do get a couple very quick stories but for the most part we just get to see some of the most beautiful images we've ever seen from the series. The stuff dealing with Mount Saint Helens are always beautiful to see but seeing them in the past like we do here is something quite special. The same is true for Columbia Glasier. Everyone knows the current state there without me saying anything but the Technicolor really pulls out of the stops and delivers some breath-taking images. There's no doubt that the images are the key here and those alone make this one of the best in the series. The most interesting thing is that FitzPatrick starts the short by telling people to put the world's trouble behind them. When I went to the IMDb I noticed that this short has a release date of December 13, 1941, obviously just days after Pearl Harbor so I'm curious as to when this line was added.