Rural Mexico (1935) User Reviews

Now The Traveltalk Orchestra Is Under the Direction of Rosario Bourdon

[boblipton · 5/10 · 19 July 2019]

The Traveltalk Orchestra plays Mexican-sounding standards while James Fitzpatrick shouts his usual facts and banal opinions. It's a typical entry in the long-running series, even if the tango they play is typically an Argentine musical form.

Well, that simply indicates the naivete of the era. Travelogues like the Fitzpatrick series brought to their audiences a glimpse of a world they might never see or think about otherwise. The earliest movies, less than a minute in length, often had the film makers travel far afield, like to London, to show a lion in a zoo's cage, or to a distant city's downtown, rendering them at once familiar and exotic. As movies lengthened and became edited, the travelogue grew with them, both as a standard 'selected short subject' and a feature, with works like MANHATTA (1921), GRASS, A NATION'S BATTLE FOR LIFE (1925), and BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (1927).

I do wish that Fitzpatrick's narration were more interesting, but Wilfred Cline's pictures are good.

local Mexico

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 14 May 2022]

TravelTalks goes to... They are in Mazatlán visiting locals. It's a little off the beaten path but they still manage to do all the tourist things. It's interesting to see local life in a smaller town. They haven't uncovered all the pyramids yet. Even as only a visual, it's a good time capsule with some local flavors.

A quick survey of the trash barrels in any major American city Today . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 10 November 2019]

. . . shows that the bulk of empty glass and plastic bottles lately contained America's most popular hard liquor: tequila. Certainly, then, anyone watching RURAL MEXICO is in for a shock when the narrator intones that tequila "is one of the world's most abominable drinks" and that the Mexican government has dispatched its Federales to eradicate it!! These dire goings on are backed in the RURAL MEXICO musical score by a histrionic rendition of "The Ride of the Valkyries" (the theme song of Prussian composer "Dick Wagner"). It's kind of tough to picture where this pontificating blow-hard got HIS OWN kicks while tooling down Route 66. Perhaps he extended his pinkie finger as he swilled down absinthe from a tiny tea cup. Or maybe he slung a giant jug of gin behind his back while chugging down its contents. Is it possible that he took after those snobbish dudes in old-time movies, and was constantly telling his chauffeur to pass back the "sherry" and "port" (spiked, of course, with rum)? However, when you come down to the brassiere tax, the one thing you can say with certainty is that the self-proclaimed "Pest of the Planet" might often sound like a parrot, but he was no Parrot Head!

TravelTalks

[Michael_Elliott · 6 June 2010]

Rural Mexico (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

TravelTalks entry takes us to a few small towns in Mexico including Mazatlan where we learn about the various fishing villages, their giant turtles and some coconut trees and how they deliver food and drink to the people (as well as nice shade). In Toluca we go on market day where the Mexican Indians sell their food as well as their famous pottery. Finally we see some pyramids that are still standing and hear how some places have a lack of water. James A. FitzPatrick does his usual nice narration and overall this is yet another pleasant entry in the series. Some of the best moments happen early on in the fishing village as we see one young man climb up a tree, which was fun to watch. Running just under 8-minutes the film does a nice job at teaching us about some forgotten places and that alone makes this worth viewing if you're a fan of the series.