The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

162 The Educational Screen Film Reviews TRAVEL AND SCENIC Old New York (1 reel) (Vitagraph) (Kineto) — To one who knows New York City, this reel will be a delight — picturing as it does, the characteristic scenes in the New York of forty or fifty years ago, in contrast with the familiar city of today. For those who regard the city as interesting merely because it is our greatest, it tells the story of amazing growth within a few decades, transforming a town into the towering metropolis of today. One is tempted to list in detail the various contrasts which the reel aflfords, in bringing to view early and modern landmarks. Bowling Green is shown a quarter century ago — and now. The old Dutch mill which stood at the corner of Cortland and Broadway in 1723 is a strange contrast to the skyscrapers which border the present street; Park Row fifty years ago bears little resemblance to the present site of the World Building; the Fifth Avenue of a generation ago is a leisurely looking thoroughfare, and the old horsecars — recent enough to be remembered by many of the older generation of New Yorkers — appear strangely primitive beside our modern street and elevated cars. One of the most surprising views of the reel is that which shows the reservoir on 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, from which once came the city's water supply, on the site now occupied by Bryant Park and the New York Public Library. The city's amazing uptown growth is indicated by the contrast between the old "Shanty town" in the neighborhood of 100th Street, and the present district of imposing apartments. But with all these evidences of change, one sight remains as it always was — the glow of the sunset over the Hudson. The early views are, obviously, made from still photographs, but they are done exceedingly well, and one's attention is never distracted by poor quality in photography which so often marks such efforts at reproduction. An entertaining and thoroughly instructive reel. The Crystal Ascension (2 reels) (Pathe)— A Kiser Artfilm, devoted to a succession of views of Mt. Hood and its glaciers — the "Crystal Sentinel of the Oregon Cascades." It is the story of a day with a mountain climbing party who set out to explore the snowfields. Much of the footage is devoted to the climb, and the difficulties encountered, but there are also many excellent views of the mountain itself and its glacier — the face, the surface of the ice, the moraines and some of the strange ice formations. A ranger's cabin is visited on the way, and the party returns at evening to the lodge. Truly, genuine Alpine scenery is to be found much nearer home than Switzerland, and plenty of the thrills of mountain climbing wait at our very doors. The reel gives an excellent idea of a mountain glacier and the structure of glacier ice. When the Earth Rocks (1 reel) (Cosmopolitan Expedition) — Filmed in Guatemala, where earthquakes are frequent. Their disastrous results are distressingly evident in the ruins of the city which furnishes some seemingly actual scenes of a quake — swaying buildings, inhabitants in flight, heaps of debris where had stood stately public buildings, with only an occasional wall and panel spared to stand upright amid the ruin. A serious problem in such a catastrophe is the provisioning of the city. Scenes show food being brought in by ox team, and tents for the refugees are set up by the American Red Cross. Later views show some of the work of removing the debris and dumping it from cars. Hampered by some poor photography, a rather monotonous sequence, and the "staged" effect of some of the scenes, it is nevertheless a convincing enough picture of the devastation which follows such an upheaval. .Land of the Zuider Zee (1 reel) (Castle Films)— Photographed for the most part o:i the island of Markham, where old Dutch characteristics are perhaps best preserved, the reel contains some charming scenes of Holland's canals — an artistic as well as useful feature of the country — and the neat little houses on the canal banks, the peculiar canal boats, the people in their quaint native costumes, and particularly the typical Dutch water carrier, dipping buckets full an<i hanging them on tlio yoke over her shoulders. Markham houses are built below the street level, and the people still follow the customs of their forefathers, removing their wooden shoes before entering the house. Fishing boats— a veritable forest of mastsare eloquent of the chief occupation of the pen