West Point on the Hudson (1942) User Reviews

before war

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 6 November 2021]

This TravelTalks episode goes to the famed military academy. The war is approaching and it's fitting for TravelTalks to do their bit. It's rare to see this place on film. I'm guessing that they don't let Hollywood do much filming there. That's really the main reason to see this. It's July 1941 with a new class of cadets. Pearl Harbor would be attacked in five months and this episode would be released a month after that. That accounts for its odd lightness of being. People are laughing. There are even romances. The world is about to change.

TravelTalks

[Michael_Elliott · 31 October 2009]

West Point on the Hudson (1942)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Another entry in MGM's TravelTalks series, this one taking a look at West Point. We get to learn the history behind the military site, which began as an important factor in the Revolutionary War as both sides knew the importance of its location on the Hudson River. We also learn about various famous people who have lived there including Robert Lee. At the time this short was shot, a new group of recruits were entering the location so we get to see what they have in store on their first day. This is a pretty good entry in the series as its important to remember that this was shot shortly before the U.S. would enter the second World War. While watching all the young men you can't help but wonder how many might have given their life during the war. We do get to learn quite a bit about the place and some of the visuals are quite beautiful in all the Technicolor glory.

The story of West Point should not be attempted without . . .

[cricket30 · 9/10 · 2 June 2014]

. . . sufficient thought being given to telling the sad tale of its most famous cadet, Sergeant Major Edgar Allan Poe. Having already obtained the U.S. Army's highest rank for an enlisted man (in the artillery, no less) and having been a member of the ROTC honor guard for the Marquis De La Fayette's farewell tour of America years earlier, young Edgar seemed on the fast track to becoming a Confederate general when he enlisted at WEST POINT ON THE HUDSON. However, narrator\producer\director James A. FitzPatrick fails to breathe a word of this fascinating story of the cadet who became America's most famous writer by lampooning the West Point faculty in a series of salacious poems. Commandant R.L. Eichelberger, the Point's headmaster in 1942, also participates in refraining from the Poe story. The "law of the soldier" referred to here (that is, being "prompt, willing, with unquestioning obedience" and the formal institution of "The Flirtation Walk"--off-limits to plebes--all stem from Poe's sojourn at the Point. While he was supposed to be on sentry duty or in chapel, he was writing DISobedient ditties about West Point's officers, collecting 75 cents per head from his fellow cadets to publish them, and grooming his nine-year-old first cousin Virginia for matrimony (they married when she was 13). Without Poe's examples to rebel against, West Point might have turned out an Army as lackadaisical as the Danish one. Thanks to Edgar Allan Poe, West Point became what it was by 1942 and what it is today.

The Long, Grey Line

[boblipton · 5/10 · 6 November 2021]

James A. Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras under the supervision of William Steiner, to shoot pictures of the US Military Academy at West Point. Fitzpatrick is rather muted in his recitation of facts. He get a brief view of the current superintendent,Robert Eichelberger, and southerners are appeased by mentioning that Robert E. Lee filled that office in the 1850s.

The copy of this Traveltalk is a little off, with the colors tending towards blue, and some shots appearing a bit bleached.