Golden Glamour

Golden Glamour (1955)

** (out of 4)

Dwight Weist narrates this 15-minute documentary short from RKo that tells us the history of gold. The documentary starts off showing us various gold pieces that are sold in stores today and then we flashback to when gold was first discovered, ways it was melted and eventually put into various shapes. We see how cigarette lighters, earrings and various other objects are formed and then put on the market. This short is proof that you can have an interesting subject but in the end the material just doesn't work. This film comes off extremely cheap looking and the narrator never really could pull me into the story being told. I'm really not sure what the point of this as you'd think it would just try to tell the history of gold yet at times we get off on side stories that really don't add up to much. Even at only 15-minutes this thing feels way too long. In the end this is mildly entertaining but considering the subject it could have been a lot more.

This RKO short concerns itself with gold, starting off with golden combs from Egypt and working forward in time. Some time is spent on a play enacting the 'discovery' of the process of gold-fill in Sheffield, although naturally occurring amalgams of gold and silver have been known from ancient times, and are called 'electrum.'

It's accurate in its discussion of how gold fill is produced, even if the short winds up being an industrial film, rather than one intended for educating in an entertaining way. This was a not uncommon problem in RKO shorts in this period. However, to the modern eye, the weirdest thing about this movie is that it is about the most colorful of metals, and was produced in black and white!

This RKO short tells the story of gold and its uses. It is in black and white which doesn't have the glittering shine of gold. Every once in awhile, the gold still shines, but it's not the same. This concentrates on the use of gold in composite mixes. It's alright as a subject matter, but it misses the opportunity to tell the more compelling story of using gold in the future newfangle electronics. The technology isn't there yet. This short isn't there yet. It's talking all about jewelry and other consumer products. It's interesting to see the old manufacturing. It's an old episode of 'How it's Made'.