Old Natchez on the Mississippi (1939) User Reviews

Preserving the spirit of the Old South...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 28 September 2008]

Since this Technicolor short was produced by MGM in 1939, one can only assume it was meant to coincide with the premiere of GONE WITH THE WIND, celebrating the spirit of the Old South.

It's a nine-minute short devoted to scenes of the people of Old Natchez on the Mississippi wearing the colorful costumes of the antebellum South with ceremonies observing the traditions of a bygone past.

Children, as well as adults, are shown participating in games and dances, costumed in the colorful get-ups of the Civil War days. The women are especially attractive in their hoop-skirts performing graceful dances.

It concludes with a look at the black population, onlookers as the whites celebrate the past with dances. A few of the black children are shown doing dances of their own and the short is over.

Summing up: One of the livelier James A. FitzPatrick shorts.

White Women Parading in Crinolines & Black Men in Rags Playing Craps

[boblipton · 4/10 · 23 June 2013]

That's the view of Natchez offered by this mealy-mouthed Traveltalk, issued to coincide, at least roughly, with the release of GONE WITH THE WIND. It is carefully and beautifully photographed, as are all of them, even though some of the color seems to have faded from the print shown on TCM.

This series was always intended to serve as a glowing recommendation for whatever place the particular Traveltalk covered; Mr. Fitzpatrick also ran a travel agency. Nor would an episode that was less than adulatory about the romance of the Old South have played anyplace south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Nonetheless the paired images of White women with parasols sauntering to visit houses built before the Slaveholder's Rebellion paired with images of Black men and women by rough cabins set my 21st Century teeth on edge.

To some it may seem that was the point of this one. However, I've never seen any sign of irony in other Traveltalks.

This is just not going to be for everybody...

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 18 January 2014]

Traveltalks was a fun series of short travelogues by James Fitzpatrick. They allowed audiences in the old days to see color footage of various places around the world most of them would never get to see in person. This particular one covers Natchez, Mississippi and does so in rather controversial ways. Basically instead of promoting anything positive about the Natchez of today (1939, that is), it's all about recapturing a bygone era for the South. For very obvious reasons that era won't hold so much romantic value for many so I can see some hating this short based on that alone. The part of the short involving black citizens of Natchez is particularly touchy.

Fitzpatrick's statement early on about how the modern town of Natchez is like any other small town and that this part doesn't hold as much interest as the Antebellum recreations outside of the town itself made me kind of sad. I grew up in a small town so I can understand that the goings-on of any small town would be kind of dull for a travelogue. Still, the comment felt like kind of a put-down that I imagine didn't go unnoticed by the people of Natchez back then. But for most of the last century the only interest Hollywood had in the South was in the Civil War period. As with any Traveltalks I've seen, I would recommend it. It's not the best and it didn't do anything to make me want to go to Natchez, but it's certainly interesting as a time capsule.

TravelTalks

[Michael_Elliott · 3 August 2009]

Old Natchez on the Mississippi (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Seeing as how this TravelTalks series was produced by MGM and considering it was released in 1939, you can't help but think this was a tie-in with their GONE WITH THE WIND. We see the people of Natchez and how they are today compared to "the good old days before the Civil War". We then see the various white folks dancing and having fun with their lavished houses and dresses. When then see, as FitzPatrick tries to claim, black folks hanging out in their shacks and doing their own style of dancing. Some people might find such images negative so some will want to stay away but in the end this is another decent entry in the series. MGM did much better with their short THE OLD SOUTH but this one here works well enough. The best stuff deals with the lavish colors of the dresses used during The Wedding March.

Doesn't play well in 2021

[jswilson-99752 · 1/10 · 7 June 2021]

This "Documentary" short attempts to paint a sweet, nostalgic picture of the old South. It does so by repeating old White lies. Footage of an old Black woman smoking a pipe is accompanied by the narration, "Aunt Jennie, now in her late '80s, tells us that despite sentimental stories to the contrary, no merrier people ever lived than the colored folks of the pre-war South."

This was probably acceptable in 1939. In 2021, it's cringe-inducing.

Racist and promotes the lie of the happy slave

[brendlergoodman · 8 June 2021]

I unwittingly watched this 1939 travel short on old Natchez, Mississippi on TCM several nights ago and was shocked that in this day and age it was still being shown on television. The film features Natchez's spring pilgrimage tours and seeks to glorify antebellum life on the plantation. During one such tour are shown white folk and children representing the supposedly genteel master class dressed in their antebellum finery and engaged in choreographed dancing on the front lawn of the master's house. Meanwhile, the black slave characters in this tableau and one actual aged slave are seen wearing rags in front of the slave quarters, merrily involved in their own type of dancing, while one actually extols the happy lives of Natchez's slaves. The only legitimate reason for showing this film short would be in the context of a discussion on racism in this country and how filmmaking helped whitewash the horrors of slavery.