User Reviews

TravelTalks visits Chichicastenango, a Mayan city in central Guatemala. As always, one must ignore the white-superiority narration from FitzPatrick although this one does seem to suffer more from his annoying dribble. The Ride of the Valkyries is ill-fitting and comes out of nowhere. My most important suggestion is to mute the sound. The pictures are actually kind of interesting.

James A. Fitpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras to Guatemala under the supervision of Wilfrid Cline. This being an early entry into the Traveltalks series, Fitpatrick shouts his facts at the audience, talking about maize and how the Mayans invented gourds.

The copy of this movie that plays occasionally on Turner Classic Movies is in poor condition, with the colors a bit blotchy and the print bleached out.

Sacred City of the Mayan Indians (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

TravelTalks entry takes us to Chichicastenango, Guatemala where we get to learn the ways of the Mayan civilization. James A. FitzPatrick narrates and teaches us about their early history and life today. We learn that many of their architectural buildings are no longer around because they were never able to properly build an arch. We also learn that they don't do things to please tourists and that their marketplaces are rather laid back as they really don't go out of their way to sell their items. We learn about them making their own clothes, having real dye and the importance of corn. If you've seen one film in this series then you pretty much know what to expect. Once again the real highlight is the Technicolor that brings the short to life and of course we're given some nice information on the place. One would think that FitzPatrick keeps talking about the great "white man" way too much and appears to be taking stuff away from the Indians.