Wandering Here and There (1944) User Reviews

The Bivouac of the Dead

[krorie · 7/10 · 12 January 2007]

Maybe "Wandering Here and There" should have been entitled "Wandering Aimlessly Here and There," for there is no rhyme or reason for the journey except to fill Americans with patriotic zeal for the crusade in Europe against the Nazis and the war in the Pacific to annihilate the Japanese warlords during the final months of that conflagration. Still, the camera work is breathtaking and narrator James A. FitzPatrick's voice as enthralling as ever, even with its nasal twang. The chosen spots are still interesting though time has wrought many changes since 1944.

One of America's most noted natural wonders, Crater Lake in Oregon, one of America's most famous man-made sites, the world's largest open-pit copper mine in Utah, the boyhood home of one of America's most gifted authors, Mark Twain, in Hannibal, Missouri, on the mighty Mississippi, log rolling in the state of Washington, and the grand finale featuring a tour of Arlington National Cemetery highlighting the Grave of the Unknown Soldier with the apropos closing poem, "The Bivouac of the Dead," written by Theodore O'Hara in memory of the Kentucky troops killed in the Mexican War read with gusto by Fitzpatrick make up the contents of the film. Glorious Technicolor always made the Traveltalk series a step above what most moviegoers were used to seeing at the time.

Though the World War II nimbus is now absent when watching the Traveltalk, the beauty and wonder of the five scenic vistas hold the viewer's interest and at times still tug a little on the heartstrings.

Tailings From A Copper Mine

[boblipton · 5/10 · 24 October 2020]

The miscellaneous nature of the clips from this entry in the Fitzpatrick Traveltalks series, and the lack of credit to a single cameraman makes me think that this is made from the odds and ends of other entries in the long-running travelogue series.

Given views of places are far-flung as Crater Lake, the largest copper mine in Utah, and Hannibal Missouri, my conclusion is that these are pieces that wound up on the cutting room floor, but interesting enough to put into this hodge-podge, perhaps from CAPITAL CITY: WASHINGTON D.C. or HISTORIC MARYLAND, or GLIMPSES OF WASHINGTON STATE.

THe copy of this short subject that plays on Turner Classic Movies is in pretty good shape.

wandering around

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 24 October 2020]

Traveltalks is wandering around in America. It is both natural wonders and man-made wonders. Each cut is about ten seconds. There is a couple of minutes on Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain. This is way too scattered. There is no consistent theme in this short other than that these are places in America. It starts off with a nature vs man-made visual comparison. It could have continued on that path but it keeps wandering around. Doing that long enough will get you lost.

TravelTalks

[Michael_Elliott · 22 May 2011]

Wandering Here and There (1944)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This TravelTalks entry in pretty much unlike any other one that I've seen as instead of taking a look at one single place, this short jumps around to various locations. While WWII was going on, James Fitzpatrick wasn't allowed to travel freely around the globe so he stayed in America shooting footage. This limitation might be the reason for this film as it really does feel as if the footage here was shot for perhaps its own film but not enough footage was gathered so they just threw everything into one film. We track around the United States looking at various things including Craker Lake, a copper pit in Utah, Mark Twain's birthplace as well as a site dedicated to Huck Finn, a rolling log tournament as well as the Arlington National Cemetery. None of these places are given too much time and there's really no reason as to when their footage is shown. There's certainly not any type of story trying to be told with this entry so it really doesn't have the same feel as your typical TravelTalks entry. With that said, as you'd expect the nice looking Technicolor is on hand and the opening shots in Oregon look incredibly good.

If this brief travel piece came out Today, it would be considered too . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 24 October 2020]

. . . Presidential for mixed audiences, focusing as it does upon the "losers and suckers" of America's wars (to quote our current, 4-F, bone spur afflicted Oval Office Occupant). The last third or so of WANDERING HERE AND THERE is devoted to Arlington National Cemetery, the source of many complaints about wreathe-laying in the rain or usurped golf outings in the sun on the part of the child-like Game-Show-Host-in-Chief. Since this blathering bozo styles himself as the Second Coming of Abe Lincoln, one would think that he would have a special affinity for Arlington, a well-known haunt of the Ford Theater shooting victim. However, the anonymity of Unknown Soldiers must creep out someone actively exploring the best way to chisel Honest Abe's visage off Mount Rushmore to make room for his own mug. Certainly, the closing poem read by the narrator of WANDERING HERE AND THERE is way beyond the attention span of a Kremlin puppet who can tolerate only daily intelligence briefings of 25 words or less.

Intercontinental journey

[nickenchuggets · 8/10 · 1 September 2023]

It's pretty rare to see an entry of the Traveltalks series that ventures outside a particular area or city being focused on. This one goes between many locations around the entire United States and shows us some of their most interesting attractions. We start at Crater Lake, a huge body of water in Oregon. We then travel to Utah where we investigate the Utah copper open cut mine, located at Bingham Canyon. It's an enormous quarry responsible for providing most of the world's copper. Next on the list is Hannibal, Missouri, perhaps best known as the home of Mark Twain, who was once a boat pilot on the Mississippi River. In a park on a hill overlooking the river stands a statue of Twain, whose internationally acclaimed literature has commanded the respect of millions wherever avid readers are found. Meanwhile in Washington State, a contest is underway in a river. People attempt the very difficult task of trying to stand on a wet log and not fall off. One woman is so proficient at it she's able to do a cartwheel and still maintain balance. All the way on the other side of America sits the Potomac River, and located nearby is Arlington National Cemetery, arguably america's most hallowed ground. There's the famous Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, perpetually guarded by servicemen who rotate shifts, and it serves as a memorial to all american servicemen who did not return from World War 1. Also in the cemetery is Arlington House, an impressive marble structure once in the possession of the Southern general Robert E Lee and his wife, Mary Custis (a descendant of Martha Washington). Finally, we see the mast of the USS Maine, the battleship whose destruction is usually considered one of the contributing factors to the war america fought with Spain in the late 1800s. This was a nice deviation from the typical presentations Fitzpatrick is the narrator for. We never really get to see the territory of an entire country get traversed in this series (with the exception of the one that talks about the Andes Mountains). The reason why this was made is probably because WW2 was going on and Fitzpatrick now had a narrow set of options for what places he could record.