Colorful Holland

James A. Fitzpatrick sends the Technicolor cameras under cinematographer Keith Covey to shoot pictures of small towns in Holland. We get to consider cheese and fish and some Millais-like images of a father and a son haying.

Fitzpatrick is impressed by everything, of course, and tells the audience so. Alas, the copy of this Traveltalks that plays on Turner Classic Movies is a little blurry, and the colors seem to be a lot duller than the images would call for.

Colorful Holland (1950)

*** (out of 4)

Another pleasant entry in MGM's TravelTalks series has James A. FitzPatrick traveling to Holland where we learn about cheese but more on that in a minute. The second portion of this short shines the spotlight on a couple small villages where young sons are expected to help their fathers in the field and we also get to see a wedding outfit that was popular back in the day and continues to be so. This second half is mildly entertaining but the real highlight comes in the first half as we learn about Holland's cheese craze. It was rather fun seeing how they handle the product (rolling it into balls) and how it eventually gets sold. One of the strangest moments shows a couple men carrying the product and we're told that these men are looked at very highly in terms of their position of cheese carriers yet we're then told that they don't get much money. The entire love story to cheese is something that I must admit I've never seen before on this alone makes the film worth viewing. As usual, the Technicolor is a major asset as it helps bring the scenes to life and this is especially true of the fields and a quick look at some water. It should be noted that FitzPatrick and MGM must have filmed quite a few stuff in Holland because the following year they released LAND OF THE ZUIDER ZEE.

Traveltalks visits small villages in Holland. It's the canals. It's the people. It's cheese. I like this one as a time capsule. It's the costumes and the customs. Oddly, it's missing the flowers. One expects flowers when the title says Colorful Holland.