Maybe "Wandering Here and There" should have been entitled "Wandering Aimlessly Here and There," for there is no rhyme or reason for the journey except to fill Americans with patriotic zeal for the crusade in Europe against the Nazis and the war in the Pacific to annihilate the Japanese warlords during the final months of that conflagration. Still, the camera work is breathtaking and narrator James A. FitzPatrick's voice as enthralling as ever, even with its nasal twang. The chosen spots are still interesting though time has wrought many changes since 1944.
One of America's most noted natural wonders, Crater Lake in Oregon, one of America's most famous man-made sites, the world's largest open-pit copper mine in Utah, the boyhood home of one of America's most gifted authors, Mark Twain, in Hannibal, Missouri, on the mighty Mississippi, log rolling in the state of Washington, and the grand finale featuring a tour of Arlington National Cemetery highlighting the Grave of the Unknown Soldier with the apropos closing poem, "The Bivouac of the Dead," written by Theodore O'Hara in memory of the Kentucky troops killed in the Mexican War read with gusto by Fitzpatrick make up the contents of the film. Glorious Technicolor always made the Traveltalk series a step above what most moviegoers were used to seeing at the time.
Though the World War II nimbus is now absent when watching the Traveltalk, the beauty and wonder of the five scenic vistas hold the viewer's interest and at times still tug a little on the heartstrings.
One of America's most noted natural wonders, Crater Lake in Oregon, one of America's most famous man-made sites, the world's largest open-pit copper mine in Utah, the boyhood home of one of America's most gifted authors, Mark Twain, in Hannibal, Missouri, on the mighty Mississippi, log rolling in the state of Washington, and the grand finale featuring a tour of Arlington National Cemetery highlighting the Grave of the Unknown Soldier with the apropos closing poem, "The Bivouac of the Dead," written by Theodore O'Hara in memory of the Kentucky troops killed in the Mexican War read with gusto by Fitzpatrick make up the contents of the film. Glorious Technicolor always made the Traveltalk series a step above what most moviegoers were used to seeing at the time.
Though the World War II nimbus is now absent when watching the Traveltalk, the beauty and wonder of the five scenic vistas hold the viewer's interest and at times still tug a little on the heartstrings.