Spotlight on the World We Live In

Spotlight on the World We Live In (1951)

** (out of 4)

This here is a rather strange short subject from MGM. It's clear that the short subjects were being dropped by most studios in the 1950s so this one here comes off rather strange because of its subject as well as the fact that it runs 15-minutes, which is a lot longer than most "documentary" shorts. We get a wide range of stories including the first one titled "Samaritans of the Alps", which is about thirty monks who use dogs to help them find people missing in the snow. The "Sports Page" takes a look at tuna fishing as we see a fisherman catching a tuna that is nearly triple his size. Other subjects include some rabbits that do tricks as well as a section devoted to women about how lace is made. I'm really not sure what the history behind this series was and I'm even more unclear on why the studio decided to show these subjects in such a way. I can't say that the film was boring because a few of the stories are rather interesting but those that are boring should have been cut and this might have helped the film. The 15-minute running time certainly wasn't needed and if anything they should have broken this down into two films. The most interesting footage is the dog rescue team as we get to see them find what we're told is a real person. The tuna sequence was also nice but Pete Smith did this type of thing in the previous decade for the studio.