Picturesque Patzcuaro

James Fitzpatrick's Traveltalks series is a staple of TCM, who often play these short films at the end of feature presentations in order to fill a time slot. While James would venture to many faraway lands in pursuit of interesting and lively footage for his Technicolor camera, this installment isn't really anything out of the ordinary. For whatever reason, Fitzpatrick made more Traveltalks taking place in Mexico than I think any other country he documented. He filmed and talked about both urban and rural areas of the country, and their respective customs and scenery. Here, he's discussing Lake Patzcuaro, which is 230 miles west of the mexican capital. Native Americans (known as Tarascans) live nearby, with Fitzpatrick saying they still live the same way they did centuries before Europeans arrived in the New World, which is more or less what I expected to hear. However, the Tarascans hunt for fish using canoes equipped with odd looking nets, which are quite big and shaped like the wings of a butterfly. It's quite nice to see them gliding over the water in formations. We also learn that the children here are well behaved, and are seldom heard unless they are spoken to first. Fitzpatrick also visits a local church in order to show how Spanish customs have been adopted by some of the populace, even if many of them prefer to live a quiet life free from european intervention. Like most other Traveltalks, Fitzpatrick's voice tends to drone over you after a while, but this one has some of the nicest scenery I've seen so far. I feel like there aren't enough of these shorts where he covers locations that involve large bodies of water, so overall, this was a good change of pace. It's also interesting to see mexico at a time when World War 2 was underway, but those living there couldn't care less as the country was neutral.

James A. Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras down to Lake Patzcuaro under the supervision of Wilfred Cline. During the Second World War, travel was curtailed. Most of the entries in the travelogue series extolled the virtues of one state or another. This is one of a baker's dozen that ventured into Mexico.

There are the usual lovely images, somewhat hampered by print that plays on Turner Classic Movies; the colors remain vibrant, but the film elements have shrunk at slightly different rates, giving the pictures a fuzzy look. Still, Fitzpatrick quotes fewer irrelevant almanac facts that usual.

Picturesque Patzcuaro (1942)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Nice entry in MGM's TravelTalks series has James A. Fitzpatrick traveling to Lake Patzcuaro, which is about two-hundred and thirty miles west of Mexico City. Once there we're introduced to the Tarascan Indians who live there and we learn that the tribe originally took shelter there to get away from the white man. In the village we see the people fish, hunt and make lacquer-ware crafts, which are sold to make some extra money. We also learn how they make their fishing nets and that their children agree that silence is golden. If you've seen any of the TravelTalks films then you know that the Technicolor is one of the main draws and that remains true here because there are some beautiful images that jump off the screen. With the beautiful nature on display I was shocked but my main interest here were the lacquer crafts because seeing how much detail went into them was quite impressive. As normal, Fitzpatrick does a very good job at giving us a brief introduction to the history of the place and of course the visuals are always nice.

"About 230 miles west of Mexico City lies Lake Patzcuaro, one of the highest and the most picturesque bodies of water in all of Mexico." It is the home to the indigenous peoples of the Tarascans.

This is another travel short from James A. FitzPatrick. It's better than most due to the subject matter. There is a lot of life. I love the people. I love the fishing boats and the colors in the lacquer-ware made by the locals. If nothing else, it's a great document of an older lifestyle.