History Brought to Life

This short film plays occasionally on TCM, and it's one of the twelve short films produced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) between 1948 and 1951 whose purpose was to promote the film industry in general. Each film discusses one particular role in film production, and this short focuses on the studio research department and their role in helping to create authentic looking and historically accurate films, especially period films.

Like the other short films of this series that I've seen, it really doesn't have anything to say that wasn't already obvious to any reasonably intelligent movie fan. Most of the film is host and narrator Cecil B. DeMille talking over film clips. He discusses how "history can be brought to life" on screen... yeah... we know that. And he discusses how the studio research department performs a lot of research to ensure that the costumes, props, sets, historical data, etc. used for a film are as accurate as possible. That's somewhat well known, and it's also not entirely accurate as we all also know that filmmakers are quite willing to dispense with accuracy in favor of entertainment value.

The worst thing about this short film is the quality of the print shown on TCM. The picture and sound quality are both atrocious, which is hard to understand since the film was made in 1951 AND it was produced by AMPAS. You'd think they'd take better care of their own stuff.

Frankly, I can't think of any reason to recommend this watching this short.

Perhaps the low rating is due to the atrocious print shown on TCM of this ten minute short produced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, who took no credit for his services.

The murky print barely has time to dwell on any of the film footage it uses from various films. The screen actually turns white during a segment from Laurence Olivier's HAMLET, the blotchiest of all the film clips used. Equally murky footage from famous films like MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and other historical epics makes the short almost unwatchable.

DeMille's commentary is obvious, not enlightening, and the whole short subject looks like it hasn't been restored since it was made more than half a century ago. It's hard to believe the Academy hasn't bothered to restore it by now or that a better print wasn't available to TCM.

Not worth commenting on, really.