The Land of Auld Lang Syne

TravelTalks heads to Edinburgh, Scotland. This is a rather pedestrian episode. It's nice to visit Scotland. It would be more acceptable to stay close to home during the war. It may even be very compelling to see the home front during the war. Once the war is over, the audience is itching to travel the globe. They're not looking to walk around Scotland. James Fitzpatrick seems lost in thought while he contemplates various historical Scottish men. His narration just drones on and on about one man after the next. This episode has the feel of a stuffy college level literary class with a tweed jacket.

Land of Auld Lang Syne, The (1950)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This TravelTalks entry takes us to Edinburgh, Scotland where 500,000 people currently call home. We learn that religion, science and the arts are the most important thing here and we get to see various historic sites including Edinburgh Castle. The majority of this short comes off more like a history lesson of poet Robert Burns who is best remembered for "Auld Lang Syne", which we get to hear a part of at the end of the movie. The majority of stuff here includes showing us where several of his poems were written, fields he would walk through and of course his burial spot. Fans of the series are going to find plenty to enjoy here but I think it's those curious about Burns who are going to be most thrilled. This movie takes us to some pretty neat sites if you're a fan of his so I'd guess his fans would be the ones to recommend this to the most. Once again, the Technicolor was a major plus even though the TCM print is pretty faded.

James Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras to Scotland under the direction of Virgil Miller and S. D. Onions. After calling Edinburgh a 'Wonder City', we get a more general look around the country, with discussions of Andrew Carnegie, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Burns. For some reason, Fitzpatrick's tone is less stentorian and more plodding.

While the images would appear to be quite lovely, a hallmark of the long-running TRAVELTALKS series of travelogue, the copy that plays on Turner Classic Movies is is rather fuzzy, as if blown up from a 16mm print; there is some compensation in the color values, yielding an oil-painting quality to the short.