User Reviews

James A. Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras to jolly old England under the supervision of Hone Glendinning and Virgil Miller and then reads out his usual blather. Gosh darn it. I'd like to hear some one else try to read these lines in an arch tone. Perhaps a challenge could be set, and Jimmy Durante compete with Pete Smith and perhaps S. Z. Sakall.

To give the movie -- particularly the cameramen -- due approval, the pictures are handsome, and the copy of this movie that plays on Turner classic Movies is in pretty good shape.

Traveltalks travels to Britain. Runnymede is where King John supposedly signed the Magna Carta. Then it's Windsor Castle and horse racing at the Ascot Racecourse. It's a lot of Royal connections, traditional Christian England, and finally Stonehenge. This is a perfectly fine TravelTalks entry with lots of big buildings and bigger buildings. Other than the horse race, the people is not the big draw in this one. It seems to concentrate more on religion and its big buildings.

Land of Tradition (1950)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Nice later day entry in the James A. FitzPatrick TravelTalks series takes us to various locations. We start off taking a look at Windsor Castle and hearing some of its brief history including the Royal Apartments dating back to Henry III and the remodeling that was done in 1824. From here we take a look at the Ascot race track, which was built in 1711 and learn that all classes of people enjoy it. The location of the Magna Carta signing is also viewed as well are cathedrals in Wells, Salisbury and Lincoln. If you're a fan of the series then there's no doubt that you'll be entertained by this entry. As is usually the case, the Technicolor is certainly the star as it brings these locations to life and this is especially true with the shots of Windsor. Another major plus here is that there are some pretty nice stories told throughout the 8-minute running time and of course FitzPatrick does a nice job with the narration.