User Reviews

They've been making movies about Niagara Falls almost as long as they've been making motion pictures. In 1896, Edison sent cameras up to the Falls and the result was half a dozen short actualities, showing the American Falls, the Canadian Falls, both Falls, the Falls shot from a moving camera, andso forth.... they'd've kept going, but the picture of the Falls going from the back of the Falls to the front was probably interrupted by the Spanish Inquisition.

THis was shot during the War, when James A. FItzpatrick's Technicolor cameras pretty much stuck to the US. He lards on the usual long-winded almanac readings. The copy that plays on Turner Classic Movies is in great shape.

I wish I could rate these James FitzPatrick Travelogs higher than I do, but frankly they're really as dull as can be. These shorts that he produced have all the luster of the sort of documentaries we had to watch in the school auditorium when I was a kid. Dry, humorless, dull.

The only redeeming thing here are the Falls themselves. They look splendid, whether shown in a panoramic way or whether just used as background for sights in the park and elsewhere.

Indeed they are a great natural wonder and it's understandable that the parks in 1943 were receiving two million visitors per year.

We're shown hotel restaurants that give patrons at outdoor tables a view of both sides of the falls. We get a brief look at Ft. George, the Queenstown Heights Memorial to a famous general and the fabled Maid of the Mist that gives tourists a spectacular cruise along the gentler waters of the river.

Spectacular falls, dull documentary.

Mighty Niagara (1943)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Niagara Falls is the setting for this entry in MGM's TravelTalk series with James FitzPatrick. Here we learn how New York and Ontario share the famous site and how hotels have been put up on both sides so that people can come and stay. We also hear how newlyweds are the most common guests and usually take a trip on the boat Maids of the Mist. This is yet another decent entry in the series, which really benefits from some beautiful shots of the falls. The stuff dealing with the War of 1812 was pretty interesting as well. Countless other and better documentaries have been done on the falls but it's nice seeing how it looked so many years ago.