Water Trix

A Smith called Pete offers a few... well, a lot of words, as cinematographer Charlie Trego gets on a helicopter to shoot a short movie about water skiing from the air.

There's Preston Petersen, who seems to have been a celebrity skier of the period. There are a couple of great stunts, including one where a woman stands on Petersen's head while he's skiing, and another in which a woman leaps from a boat into his arms. It's quite a sight.

Although some of the shots are clearly from the air, others seem to have been shot from a boat. It's a nice sports short, and if you enjoy Smith's motormouthed snarkiest - as I do - you'll enjoy this short subject.

This documentary short film is a cut above the normal from two perspectives. "Water Trix" involves a top camera man shooting moving action film from a helicopter. And, that action is water skiing on open water, with wave action and all. The principal skier is a world renowned waterski performer, Preston Petersen, and the photographer is Charles Trego. The documentary is one of the MGM shorts under the Pete Smith Specialty banner, with Smith narrating.

The film opens with the helicopter hanging very low beside a small sailboat in a calm. The chopper whips up enough wind to partially fill the sail enough to move the boat out of the channel. Once in open water, it picks up the wind which fills its sail. From there, the helicopter starts shooting water skiers. After a couple of individuals show a little dexterity on the skis, the chopper spots Petersen. It stays with him as he performs real daring stunts and nearly impossible tricks with a couple of women participants.

This is quite different from the marine park skiing routines in California or Florida. They have choreographed group routines with skiers in formations and building pyramids, and skiers going over ski jumps. Petersen is a one-man show with more hair-raising stunts. And, some very complex maneuvers with a female participant or two. It's very good stuff for a nine-minute short. It comes as a bonus item on a DVD I bought..

Enjoyable and fast moving Peter Smith specialty from MGM about water skiing photographed from a helicopter.

The stunts would be dangerous even on land but are twice as bold on water as expert water skiers demonstrate their balance, agility and strength. The man is particularly impressive as he does all kinds of stunts while being towed by a boat at a fast clip and then balances a trim female on his shoulders and even on his head! When another female joins the act, three of them share the man's ski board.

The narration is humorous and nicely done. Very enjoyable short from the Pete Smith series.

Water Trix (1949)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated short from Pete Smith has cinematographer (and director) Charles T. Trego shooting water skiing champ Preston Peterson as he performs various dangerous stunts. This short didn't keep me overly entertained even though there's no doubt that the stunts being done are impressive. Even though the stunts are obviously very dangerous I thought the most interesting aspect here was the actual cinematography, which was very impressive. I looked up Trego's credits on the IMDb and noticed that he didn't have too much work as a director and even fewer jobs as a cinematographer, which surprised me. As for Peterson, I had never heard of him but seeing his work here makes it easy to understand why he was a champion.