User Reviews

Traveltalks visits Cambridge, Oxford, and Eton. Narration lists off some of the graduates. It's nice to see the towns and the buildings but it's not that compelling. Quite frankly, the lone horse in the foreground in the opening is more compelling.

An MGM TRAVELTALK Short Subject.

Our quick tour of SCHOLASTIC ENGLAND begins at Cambridge, continues on to Oxford & concludes at Eton. At all three institutions we see majestic buildings and hear a little about their histories. We conclude with scenes of a student cricket match & punting on the Thames.

This is one of a large series of succinct travelogues turned out by MGM, beginning in the 1930's. They featured Technicolor views of beautiful & unusual sights around the globe, as well as vivid, concise commentary. These films were produced & narrated by James A. FitzPatrick.

James A. Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras to Blighty under the supervision of Virgil Miller, so Fitzpatrick can recite a long list of names and urge us to consider their accomplishments, without mentioning any of them. It is intended as a problem, no doubt, left to the diligent student or whoever Fitzpatrick got to actually compile the list.

Mostly we get to look at architecture and the occasional patch of flowers. The copy of this travelogue that plays occasionally on Turner Classic Movies has its color values well preserved, although I suspect this was sourced from a 16mm TV print rather than the 35mm nitrate negative.

Scholastic England (1948)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another entry in MGM's long running TravelTalks series with James A. FitzPatrick. This time out we travel to England where we get to see Cambridge, Oxford and Eton. Along the way we learn a little bit about their history and end the film on a brief cricket match. I'm really not sure what the cricket match has to do with anything unless it's just filler to round out the movie but this is another pleasant entry in the series. We get several great visuals as always and the Technicolor really bring them to life. The one downside is that we don't get too much history on the actual schools. We also get to visit Grant Bridge and Christ Church.

This 1948 release used footage of Eton College filmed in the summer of 1945. The following is from a letter home written by my father. It is dated 15 July 1945. He was 13 years old at the time...

"On Thursday afternoon some welcome light refreshment turned up, heavily disguised as James B (sic). Fitzpatrick's travel Talks limited, (British Expedition). As I gazed with very little enthusiasm upon my Maths Extra Work, a number of cars drew up in Westons yard. Skipping lightly to the window I saw a complete filming apparatus being unloaded from a van, so collecting various friends I went off to see what all this was in aid of. We were instantly commandeered by a stout gentleman with an American accent which could be cut with a knife, and sent back for our Top Hats (Apparently the Great American Public would consider a film a fraud if it showed us wearing anythng but Top Hats). The American started with the idea that most of us should walk across what he called "the Lawn", (College Grass) and it took the Captain of the School a good five minutes to impress upon him that it was Holy Ground (capital H, capital G.) However, for an hour the nine of us walked round Westons yard & School yard, while a short stubby man with a Pipe which was certain death at a range of 3 yards to windward solemnly filmed us."